The 1893–94 season was Burslem Port Vale's second consecutive season of football in the English Football League. Winning their opening seven league games, Vale seemed destined for First Division football, however, they won just six of their final 22 games and ended up in mid-table. Their remarkable start to the season has not been equalled by any Vale team to date, and counting the previous season's final game, which was a victory, their streak of eight league wins is still a club record. Vale had remedied their scoring trouble, with five players all besting the previous season's top scorer tally of five goals.

William Edwin Beats was an England international footballer. A centre-forward, he scored 150 goals in 403 league games in a 16-year career from 1891 to 1907.