Port Vale chairman Bill Bratt has collected his MBE from the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

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Bratt has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to help ensure the League Two club's survival since taking the reins more than six years ago, leading a supporters' consortium to rescue Vale from the threat of bankruptcy.

He said: "When I got the letter I thought it was a wind-up at first. I was a bit embarrassed.

"You do things because you care and I have been a Port Vale supporter all my life so you don't expect something like this."

Speaking about the state of the game at lower league level, Bratt added: "The football tree is green at the top but at the roots it's dying and one of these days it is going to fall over. If the distribution of money was altered even by 10%, then clubs like Accrington wouldn't be in trouble.

"The communities that clubs like ours are in depend on these clubs for entertainment, keeping kids off the streets and all the other things clubs do but nobody realises. The benefits of having a club in your area are great, it stimulates the economy and encourages investment."