Port Vale 0-1 Peterborough Utd report – winless run stretches to seven as shotshy Valiants are beaten at home
Port Vale’s winless run continues as they went down to an early Peterborough goal on a disappointing evening at Vale Park.
Both sides had half-chances in the opening period before the visitors took the lead on 20 minutes. Poor defending saw a miscommunication between Massey and Ripley and Mason-Clark’s weak header trickled into the net.
Vale countered when Massey’s effort on 28 minutes was blocked after good work from Clark and Loft. There was a refereeing error moments later when Garrity was clear through and was clearly taken out by the Posh keeper. Garrity was injured by the contact but the official booked him for a dive. It was a frankly embarrassing decision and the referee was poor throughout. However, the performance of the referee shouldn’t take away from what was a poor Vale performance overall.
The incident at least seemed to spur Vale into life for a while as they created a number of efforts in the Posh box but failed to find the finishing touch. Vale then saw a stinging shot from Ojo which was well saved.
However, they then nearly threw it away as a rare mistake from Nathan Smith let the visitors in but Ripley pulled off a fantastic double save to rescue the day. There was a further blow for the Valiants as Balmer was forced off and at the break, Vale were trailing by a goal to nil.
The second-half was littered with injury stoppages and Vale nearly gifted Posh a second goal when Ripley kicked directly to a striker but the keeper made up for his mistake with a save. Sub James Plant then weaved into the box but his shot was cleared off the line.
However, it was the “worst of both worlds” performance by the Valiants – toothless upfront but looking error-prone at the back and arguably Peterborough could have added to their score had they taken any of their chances.
Vale huffed and puffed without an end product while the visitors defended resiliently and continued to look dangerous on the break. It is clear where Vale’s problems lie as it is now seven games without a win and five games without a goal for Andy Crosby’s side.
Port Vale: Ripley – Lowe, Smith, Balmer (Debrah) – Massey (Devine), Ojo, Arblaster (Sang), Clark (Plant) – Chislett (Thomas), Loft (Ikpeazu), Garrity
Subs: Leutwiler,
Bookings: Garrity
Goals: What do you think?
Attendance: 5,299 (376 visitors)