Port Vale 2-2 Colchester reaction: wow, that was bad!
Port Vale fans exempt Luke Hannant and David Worrall from criticism but say rest of the team were dreadful…
Match summary
An insipid Vale performance saw the side rescued by two goals from midfielder David Worrall as they scraped a 2-2 draw. It means the Valiants are still yet to in in 2018.
Players and management
“I thought we started the game in the first ten minutes quite well, conceded a bad goal and then conceded an even worse goal right on half time. There is no game going to be easy from now to the end of the season. We certainly deserved something from the game but the two goals we gave away are really bad. If you look at the second goal, there are five mistakes in it, so we gave ourselves a mountain to climb. But instead of being negative as I have been on a couple of occasions, I will take the positives in the fact the players kept going and deserved to get something from the game…”
Vale manager Neil Aspin
“It was two points dropped. We looked comfortable – we sat in a little bit but this is division two and we weren’t able to deal with that last couple of minutes…”
Colchester manager John McGreal
Views from the OVF forum
“Another ‘get out of jail free’ card today. Last gasp equaliser and results turned in our favour as the afternoon went on. Under Brown we would have rolled over and lost that 2-0 so at least under Aspin we’ve got some fight in us. Bizarre starting 11 but at least, again, he admitted he got it wrong and changed things up…”
Dave Hartshill
“The whole 90 minutes was awful, not just the first 45. Yes, we showed some spirit and kept going but there is zero quality in the XI and their keeper won’t need to wash his kit before next weekend…We are crying out for 2-3 good league two players not young lads or non league hopers…”
The Sage
“There isn’t a residual base level of quality in the side at this level to grind out wins from one week to the next. To win a game we have to put in a cup tie style performance where every single player is on it. That isn’t sustainable on a regular basis…”
Santa
“Wow that was bad. How did some of these jokers ever become professional footballers?”
Valist
“The writing was on the fall with the team selection. 4 changes, including 2 new players, one who hadn’t played a first team games for months and a new formation, which lasted about 15 minutes. Bold move by Aspin which could be argued as being reckless. The first half was woeful. You could count the number of passes on one hand. It was just a big boot up the field in both halves…”
Inny
“Well, how could we describe that performance today? A number of adjectives could suit but these are the first words to spring to my mind… Atrocious, awful, lousy, shocking, dreadful, lacklustre, passionless. There were relatively few players who could hold their heads up coming off the pitch today. Let’s not be be fooled, this is still a squad of players that could take Vale into non-league football…”
NLVMalc
“We weren’t at the races at all today, with few exceptions, those being Worrall and Hannant in my view. In respect of the latter, he will be a big player for us next season if not the latter end of this season…”
PhilMPV
“Clearly the system didn’t work first half, we just could not get it down and bring the wing backs into the game. We improved some when we went four at the back and equalised. Second half was pretty much all us, they were happy to sit back and try to soak up the pressure, but the equaliser was well deserved for our efforts. Again today showed how much we are crying out for left sided players because the majority was coming down our right hand side that was of any note in a creative sense. I think there’s some over reaction on here and social media…”
PV1973
“We look like an amateur side – We cant keep a clean sheet no matter how Aspin tries to address the issue – he has nothing to work with more so from the players that have left have not been replaced… Aspin plugs one hole then another appears of our own making…”
elav trop 1876
“Fuming. Woeful performance, bailed out by a dodgy goal like vs Yeovil. This squad is woeful. Hannant is good, Worrall a magician, the rest are terrible…”
Hagrid
“The first half was as bad as anything I’ve seen at Vale under anyone. Awful formation, poor team selection and a lack of organisation. Add that to the performances of the last few games I can’t see how anybody couldn’t be a bit concerned. Even one of our star players for a month ago, Whitfield, has suddenly gone completely off the boil…”
TylerB
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