Port Vale 2-2 Forest Green Rovers match report – late drama earns Valiants a point

Port Vale 2-2 Forest Green Rovers match report – the Valiants were poor for 75 minutes of this game, but a late comeback saw them earn a point.

Darrell Clarke brought Dennis Politic into his starting eleven in an attacking move while defender Lewis Cass was named on the bench.

It was a scrappy opening to the game with Ellis Harrison having the first attempt on goal with a diving header before the visitors had a period of pressure. It led to a goal on 13 minutes when an error by McCarron gave Forest Green a free-kick on the edge of the box. The set-play was then headed in by Peart-Harris to open the scoring.

The Valiants almost responded immediately when a powerful header from a defender had to be saved by McGhee but this was a sloppy display by the Vale. The lack of a dedicated holding midfielder was apparent as a number of errors allowed the visitors to break on numerous occasions.

Vale did have chances – notably a break by Wilson that led to a recovering block – but Vale went 2-0 down when a dubious free-kick (the player diving after a Forrester challenge) led to a second headed goal – this time by Cargill on 36 minutes.

The Vale pushed at the end of the half but this was a disjointed display with too many players off the pace. The Vale also got a taste of their own medicine with “game management” by the visitors resulting in a string of dubious injuries and time-wasting. One of which saw Connor Wickham yellow carded for blocking a free-kick. It could have been worse for the forward if the referee had punished an earlier petulant kick out at Nathan Smith.

However, time wasting tactics apart, Forest Green deserved the lead as the better side and a poor first-half performance left Vale with a mountain to climb in the second period.

Half-time: Port Vale 0-2 Forest Green Rovers

It was a patchy start to the second period with Vale continued to look disjointed and missing the steadying influence of a holding midfielder.

There were snapshots for Wilson and Politic, while Forest Green could have made the game safe had a shot by Peart-Harris been more accurate.

However, Vale turned the game around with their substitutes. Clarke gambled by bringing on five players in total – with three of them, Odubeko, Butterworth and Worrall all playing a major part in a dramatic late comeback.

First, Butterworth sparked Vale into life with a surging run and shot which was saved. On 78 minutes after a string of corners, Odubeko was on hand to finish well from close range for his second goal in Vale colours.

It was all Vale from that point and remarkably after such a long time without a spot-kick, Vale got their third in two games when a Forest Green player handled the ball to stop Ellis Harrison’s shot. It was Harrison who, having ignored some extraordinary timewasting from McGhee, slotted the ball home from the spot and make it 2-2 with two minutes of normal time to go.

Both sides then had chances to win it in added-on time. Firstly, Connor Wickham mis-kicked with the goal at his mercy while Ellis Harrison’s close-range effort produced a fabulous save from McGhee as it finished 2-2.

The drama of the late finish can’t hide the poor performance for the majority of the game by the Valiants. It wasn’t helped by endless time wasting by the opponents (but Vale also use the same tactics so cannot really complain). However, there were too many sub-par performances with Politic and McCarron both notably off the pace. On the plus side, subs Worrall, Butterworth and Odubeko all helped change the game and frankly most Vale fans would have taken four points from back-to-back games against Derby and Forest Green.

Full-time: Port Vale 2-2 Forest Green Rovers