Five thoughts after Port Vale’s win over Cheltenham Town

Rob Fielding shares his thoughts after Port Vale’s encouraging home win against Cheltenham Town including thoughts on Tom Pope and Scott Burgess…

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Which Port Vale side will turn up next?

If like me you were best by problems with the iFollow live stream then at least be consoled by the fact it happened during the disjointed first-half performance rather than the more impressive second-half display. For me, Port Vale look such a better side when they are pushing up and pressing opposition defences. It’s been a strangely inconsistent start to the season by the Valiants. If only they could bottle the performances against Oldham and Wigan and ditch those against Carlisle and Morecambe! After this game of two halves, Vale fans could be forgiven for thinking – which side will turn up at Southend?

Burgess back to his best?

There were plenty of encouraging Port Vale performances but I was particularly pleased to see Scott Burgess causing the Cheltenham defence all sorts of problems in the second period. His play to set up Tom Pope’s effort which hit the post was Burgess at his best. He’s had a slow start to the season but on that second-half display he certainly deserves a run in the side.

Pope stakes his claim

Tom Pope recently told the media that he’s more than a mere target man. The thing is Tom, we Vale fans know. He’s not just a presence in the air but his link up play and covering is excellent too. The main problem with Pope as the sole striker would be his lack of pace. However, he did his chances of a first start of the season no harm with a second-half display that bristled with aggression and intelligent play and which could have been capped with a goal but for the post…

Scott Brown breaks Andy Williams’ first-half dreams

As Andy Williams, the crooner, used to sing… “Moon River… heart breaker.” You’d forgive Cheltenham veteran Andy Williams humming “Scott Brown… heart breaker” after the former Cheltenham stopped pulled off save after save to deny the striker. The only consolation for Williams was that he did manage to find the net in the second-half. Fortunately for the Valiants it proved to be not enough but on another day Cheltenham could have out of sight by the break. Thank goodness for super Scott Brown!

Who needs strikers anyhow?

After all the debate over the central striking position and where the goals would come from, in the last two games Vale have won without a single goal from the main striker. At Oldham it was Nathan Smith and Mitch Clark while in this game it was the ever impressive Leon Legge and winger David Worrall. Perhaps we need to stop worrying about how many goals the strikers will get if the goals keep coming from other positions?