The 1955–56 season was Port Vale's 44th season of football in the Football League, and their second successive season (thirty-first overall) in the Second Division. Gaining ten points on their previous season's total, the club progressed well, achieving their best finish since 1933–34. Finishing one place above rivals Stoke City, it was the first time they outperformed Stoke since 1930–31. Part of the promotion-chasing pack at the season's end, they tailed off with four points from six games as Leeds United finished strongly to end up second. Vale's season was built on the defensive strength of the legendary 1953–54 season, along with record-signing England international Eddie Baily.

The pre-season saw Stan Turner and Ken Griffiths undergo operations, keeping them out of action for the start of the campaign.

The season began with just one loss in the opening eleven games, including victories at Upton Park and Craven Cottage, and a 1–0 home win over rivals Stoke City in front of a crowd of 37,261. Nevertheless injuries began to affect the first eleven, leaving room for reserves like Derek Mountford, Stan Smith, and Tom Conway to make an impression. The 'Steele Curtain' defence was still in operation, picking up five clean sheets in these eleven games. Journalist Bernard Jones compared 'the Vale Plan' to the Brazilian method of defence, defending the penalty area at all costs as that was from where 95% of all goals were scored. However manager Freddie Steele responded by claiming there was no such plan, and that the main objective was simply 'to beat the opposition'. On 22 October, Sheffield Wednesday went away from Vale Park with a 1–0 win, this was followed with a 4–1 defeat at Filbert Street. Steele began to initiate a modern pre-match ritual of having the players warm up in their tracksuits fifteen minutes before kick-off, though on 12 November this did them no favours at Ewood Park, as Blackburn Rovers romped to a 7–1 victory. Steele made eight changes following the defeat, which made little difference as Vale extended their run without a win to nine games. This left them in fifteenth place by mid-December, with a host of players out with injuries.

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