Port Vale 2-3 Orient: Port Vale’s abject run of form continued courtesy of yet another late goal on Saturday afternoon.
Manager John Askey made changes after the poor performance at Stevenage in midweek but the decision to play Devante Rodney as a central striker didn’t pay off as the forward looked off the pace upfront.
However, that wasn’t the case for defender Leon Legge and he gave Vale hope early on when he headed the Valiants into the lead on eight minutes. Sadly, that lead was to last just a matter of minutes as Danny Johnson took advantage of slack defending to head the O’s level.
There was a further blow for the Vale as David Amoo was forced off injured and a poor first-half display got worse on the half-hour mark as Keystone Cops defending saw Vale defenders hit the ball against each other and almost score an own-goal. Orient forward Connor Wilkinson put them out of their misery by blasting the loose ball home.
It could have got worse for Vale as Danny Johnson missed a good chance to make it three as Vale entered the break well and truly on the ropes.
Surprisingly there were no changes at half-time but the Valiants put on a much improved performance. The hapless Rodney missed a header and a close-range chance before Cristian Montano, who had impressed since replacing Amoo, cut in and curled a delightful equaliser past the Orient keeper.
It looked like that goal could spur Vale on to victory as they pressed and created chances for Tom Conlon and Montano but instead Vale slipped up to a sucker punch with six minutes left. More slack defending at the far post allowed Brophy to beat Scott Brown from an acute angle.
It was a bitterly disappointing afternoon for John Askey and Port Vale. Too many players went missing with the honourable exception of sub Montano. A side that is defending poorly and not creating enough chances at the other end looks a recipe for disaster. The losing streak goes on and these will be anxious times for manager John Askey.
Full-time: Port Vale 2-3 Orient
Port Vale: Brown – Clark, Legge, Smith, Fitzpatrick (Pope) – Joyce (Cullen), Oyeleke, Conlon – Amoo (Montano), Rodney, Worrall
Subs: Visser, Brisley, Mills
First half was terrible second half better but no one seems to be able to put the ball in the net another £10 wasted on I follow
I think the players and management need to sort this out. Changing manager may improve things for a while but in 12-15 months time we have another bad run we then sack another manager. We all like a scapegoat but generally long term it does not achieve anything. Gareth Ainsworth got relegated in either his first or second season and almost got them relegated again in Division Two but the board kept faith and now they are in the Championship. Very few clubs who sack their manager every few years get anywhere unless you have big money to finance a management and player overall.
I think John Askey deserves more time, after all we are not cut adrift at the bottom. Yes he has issues all over the pitch but he needs to sort them out. Yes his recruitment is under scrutiny because of his results but surely we have more about us than just doing what everyone else as done. We have had 4 managers in just over 3 years prior to Askey ( ok the owner was responsible for that) but just sacking a manager is one which gains lots of attention and satisfies the masses but you are still left with the problems. None of the problems on the pitch are insurmountable. In fact if we could sign a decent goalscorer I reckon some of them would go away.