Earle won a regular first team place in August 1984, and hit 19 goals in 56 games in 1984–85, including a hat-trick against Hereford United at Vale Park on 2 February; Earle and Alistair Brown's partnership got the club a combined total of 40 goals. An ever-present in the 1985–86 Fourth Division promotion squad, he scored 17 goals in 58 games; he and strike partner Andy Jones bagged a total of 35 goals for the club. Earle made 142 consecutive appearances between September 1984 and January 1987, the run coming to an end due to a groin strain. The strain led to a hernia operation in the autumn of 1987, but he returned to first team action in January 1988. He scored seven goals in 35 games in 1986–87 and scored four goals in 11 games in 1987–88. That season he played in the FA Cup upset when Vale knocked out Tottenham Hotspur. A regular in the 1988–89 season, Rudge claimed that Earle and Ray Walker was one of the best-ever midfield partnerships at the Vale. He scored both goals past Bristol Rovers in the two-legged 1989 play-off final that took Vale through to the Second Division. After the match Earle wept in the tunnel, such was his emotions to have taken his local team to victory in the play-off final. Over the course of the 1988–89 campaign he scored 19 goals in 57 appearances.