Leaderboard

Depends upon your definition of "worse off than their parents"? I happened to have got married in the early 1970s and I grant you that we did manage to scrape together a deposit for a small bungalow in Biddulph. However, after the mortgage we didn't have any money left over for furniture, so had to rely on gifts and hand-me-downs from family & friends--we even had a second-hand gas fridge at that stage of our lives! Not sure what age you are, but in those days there was no such thing as a credit card (it hadn't been invented then) and you therefore had to either save up enough for a bigger purchase or get it 'on the tick' (hire-purchase). I can assure you these were not exactly days spent glowing in the heights of luxury! The height of luxury for us in those days was maybe twice a year we could manage to fund a visit to a Berni Inn for a 'special' meal out. Pubs were even a 'luxury' in those days and if we wanted (and could afford) a drink, it was a bottle of beer from the 'offy' (off-licence) to drink at home--or if you were a bit more extravagant--beer at home delivered by Davenports--look up their adverts if you want a laugh. We couldn't even afford a television set until almost 3 years after we got married and a car was a far-off luxury for most people in those days. Shoes got repaired at the local cobblers as we couldn't afford to buy too many pairs new and you tended to have only your workday clothes and one set of 'Sunday best' clothes for special occasions. So don't be taken in by all the left-wing claptrap about being a poorer generation and please don't try to tell me that you are now "worse off" than previous generations. I'm sure many of the older posters on here will recognise the picture I paint and unless you lived through those rather basic times you can't have any perception of what "being worse off" really means. Having said all that, I suspect in many ways we were much more self-sufficient and content with our lot than the youth of today appear to be. So if that's your definition of being "better off" then I plead guilty, but in purely commercial and financial terms it was, I have to tell you, a much more basic and impoverished world than it is today!!

I doubt you will get any more blocks I am afraid because of segregation. I can see those blocks in Level 2 are not for sale but they were when I bought mine, I am in 125 for this. If you are looking to buy in the home ends don't buy in 110 and 111. There's a few idiots in there (there's always some anywhere!) and they stand there to be next to the away fans. There will probably be a fair number of none City season ticket holders and young families at this game. City's family stand is the stand opposite you. Stand to your right is where the KIppax fans were switched to, whilst the stand to your left is the traditional main stand (now called the Colin Bell Stand or West stand). All areas of the ground are friendly with possible exception of 110/111. Our singing section will be centred on 113. Drums and megaphone have been used in the past. It's controversial. You'll easy drown us out.

Bycars Bill has it right. People are sick to death of hearing that 14.5 million people are in poverty in the country. Their definition of poverty is complete nonsense. Most people starting out would have been classed as being in poverty when they first got married. Moving the bar up as a percentage of median household income is absolute nonsense. I feel I may have been harsh on some public servants there. Not all that voted for Labour had their vote bought.

As I see it, bob, Labour has two options - they either continue along the Corbyn path and make themselves unelectable or they move more to the centre and begin to appeal to middle England again. Socialism or social democracy. There is little point in having fixed ideas if you never get elected to implement them.

It would help if they burst the Westminster bubble, devalued the momentum lead balloon and stopped believing their circle of social media followers who tell them they are good drivers after they have crashed the bus in a ditch. Get off your collective asses and talk to the people you were founded to represent. You may think you have the best policies for the new utopia but if you can't get elected it's frikin useless.

A draw was a fair result yesterday, they have a couple of tricky players who couldn't finish, we have a very good goalkeeper. Everything feels and looks better at the Vale these days, long may it continue.

I can empathise with that, Bill. Growing up in the North East with a father who had several periods of unemployment I never thought we were poor because my parents always fed us and never spent more than they could afford. I was 18 before I spent a night away from home and 17 before we had a telly. To some extent, the concept of poverty now is different because of expectations. There are loads of things now which folk expect to have which simply weren't around when we were youngsters - mobile phones, satellite telly, cars (neither of my parents could drive), etc.

I doubt it. People tend to grow up and stop voting for Labour as they realise how the world actually works. Look at most Labour voters over the age of 45, dress like children most of them ("traditional working class Labour" over this age no longer exist). As for Corbyn lies, there isn't much need for lies because the truth is pretty damning for that fellow. Absolute scum. He must be on the psychopathic end of the mental spectrum. Thankfully people around here and across the north saw through his filth. As Ruth Smeeth stated, Labour are the racist party. His supporters are either 1. anarchists. 2. Public servants looking out for themselves after the promise of inflation busting payrises. 3. Naive students, 80% of which have never seen the inside of a back street boozer. 4. Middle class 30 somethings living in the gentrified metropolitan bubble full of enough guilt over their own prosperity to vote Labour (although they should vote Lib Dem). The "working class base" has been patronized to death through years of absolute drivel. The Labour Party are so out of touch with reality that it's not even funny. It's not healthy to have such a weak opposition as any government needs to be held accountable.

It doesn't matter what wing she sits under, it's a none political donation to a charity.... if that's what she wants to do that's great.

I’ve booed a fair few. Martin Paterson was the most notable one and I really hope no one will come on here and say not doing so would have made a difference, or that I hurt his feelings.

Defensively Man City can be got at but attack they are on another planet to most PL sides... I hope we can at least score as that would be a good moment... maybe JA in his post match drink with Pep can see if he can get a loanee in! Their U21's look decent in the EFL trophy games! Issue with Man City unlike even most decent PL sides is the sheer depth so even if they make 11 changes you lose Jesus but get Aguero instead, lose KDF but get Mahrez or lose Sterling and get Bernardo Silva. Either way what an occasion for the boys to go up against genuinely world class players.

We're all going, but resigned to having to sit in with the home fans, Not that we are part timers, we follow Vale through thick and thin. Just we live abroad. So only manage a couple of games a season, Luckily the in-laws live within walking distance of the Etihad. Three generations of TW's will be rocking up one way or another. And rocking up Home vs Crewe, Glory seekers.

Yes, but Arsenal were not much cop.

De Bruyne tore Arsenal to shreds today. That 3rd effort , which was brilliantly saved, would have been a contender for goal of the season, had it gone in.

I've already posted my views on the way I think Labour should go but there is no doubt whatsoever that had Johnson received the level of abuse and vitriol that Corbyn received he wouldn't be in Downing Street now. But the millionaire tax evading owners don't want to risk losing their man who will cut their taxes further and make them even richer. Come on. Johnson was part of the Vote Leave campaign that broke electoral law. He misled the Queen and broke the law by shutting Parliament. He's got a list of racial and social slurs to his name as long as your arm. He is a pathological liar. He's immoral, dishonest and a complete buffoon. How many children has he got? How many interviews did he avoid? Is there no border in the Irish Sea? Where are the 70 million Turks? If Corbyn had done even 2-3 of those things he'd have been crucified by the right wing press and never off the front page. That's not defending Corbyn. I've made my views known on him before but it wasn't a level playing field.

"waffles on, makes moot points,offers opinions as fact and ends up saying nothing much of sibstance." Much like your very own post my friend!!

Speaking as someone who was actually at the game yesterday rather than imagining it in my head, I would politely suggest that you are talking out of your bottom. I would love to have Brentford's money. I'd love to spend £25 million in the transfer window. I'd love to have their brand spanking new ground. I'd love to have an owner worth near a billion quid. But we haven't so stop talking nonsense. I bet you want a unicorn for Christmas as well.

Joe - dont rise to him - Use the ignore button and life gets a whole lot better. Do you really want to spend time arguing with a drunken troll at this time of year ? He is one of the Glass is 7/8ths empty" brigade . If we loose 5-0 to Man City he will look at it that we are staring relegation in the face rather than we have just made enough money to see us through NEXT season. I only see his drivel when someone quotes him (and other trolls) and every time they sound like my youngest 5 year old grandson.

Agreed and spot on.Actions always speak louder than words.

Didn’t watch the game but then give an opinion on said game you didn’t watch?

We're 10th, into the third round of two cups, and have missed our most important player (one of the best at this level) for the past few games. This comes after nearly getting relegated twice. To assert that fans are 'deluded' if they think we're doing well is a bit sillly; we objectively are. We're in a very slight dip at the present time which is going to happen but to argue that fans being pleased with 10th place and two cup runs is a sign of delusion is fairly baffling, my man. To then make some form of comparison to the style of play a Championship team utilises, and use that as a stick to beat our side with, also leaves me slightly confused. What's your argument? We've had a dip and don't play as nice football as Brentford so therefore fans who are pleased with our performance so far are deluded?

Couldn't agree more about those replays....they did my head in especially as the radio commentary was still going on.....

Scott Brown brilliant, our midfield went missing for spells in the second half, either side could have won. The most frustrating thing was iFollow showing replays while the game was still going so iFollowers missed some follow up play. Can't grumble, a point away, we played well enough to win.

They're appointing Coughlan who has Rovers flying high in League 1 but is leaving for personal/off-field reason. A tough festive period just become a lot tougher.

So will you be moving back to the UK now and escaping the EU??

I never expected us to make this much progress, so quickly. When a football club is being so severely misrun it doesn't take much to make things appear on the up, but they have genuinely made a huge amount of progress in 6 months. V2001 did this club a lot of damage, over a significant period of time. Smurthwaite came staggering in and really messed things up to an incredible degree. Reminder, the players nutritional plan was, genuinely, left over pies. The depths that pathetic little worm sank to are nothing short of pitiful. It'll all come out one day. So the point is C&K bought a business that had spent the last 19 odd years being institutionally damaged from within. That had been systemically gutted since 2013. Revenue hived off. Departments eviscerated. No Physio staff last season as I recall. Players on disgusting left over cheap pies. Player recruitment bypassing the manager and coming straight down from the owner who admitted to Micky Adams when trying to give him a new contract on substantially reduced terms (<ovf censored> puddled), "Help me, I don't know how to run a football club." First season in, barely 18 weeks into it, and we're totting up cup run money for play off ambitions in the January transfer window, businesses and investors have flocked back to VP. Boxes sold out, partnerships reestablished, relationships repaired. Kevin went out of his way to contact and pay off a trade debt to a club creditor he had no requirement to, it was owed by the oldco, by Scumthwaite. Still paid it. Local stakeholders and businesses back onside. Autonet and Donno in partnership, money and extras coming in that never would have under Scumthwaite because of his toxicity. Great relationship with the Police and local media who the previous tyrannical bully burnt bridges with (Matthew Ellis) and autocratically banned from VP (Mike Baggaley.) RW is doing a gig at VP in June. Our reputation in football has been lifted out of the gutter. Micky Adams said football is a village. Everyone knows everyone. Scumthwaite was the village idiot. People wouldn't deal with him. Even Ridsdale wouldn't. The Chief football writer at The Times, Henry Winter, openly mugs him off as the buffoon he is. Players will come in knowing they'll be looked after. 2 hours after Jake Taylor had his rims nicked when he parked his car in Manchester, Carol had personally gotten him back on the road in a club supplied courtesy car. Carol clearly has a great relationship with JA and the squad, evident on social media every week. Imagine Normong walking into the dressing room after a win. Carol gets enthusiastically hugged. They'd laugh him out. This positive atmosphere at the club doesn't go unnoticed to those in the game. The secret to how they've done so much so quickly is the fact that Carol is genuinely just dead sound. Her charity stuff has been ongoing for years. They didn't pay a tad over £4m just for Vale. That ransom fee was essentially an investment in Burslem too. Since the decline of the manufacturing industry Burslem has slowly died, worse off than the other 5 towns off the top of my head, there's some stats somewhere on PVO. High street dying, shops closing. Local employment, financial, health, education, etc stats are, compared to the national average, horrendous. The local area has suffered and all the while the football club has been more or less continually waterboarded by arseholes like Bratt and Scumthwaite for the last two decades. No more. The resurgence of Vale over the next 5-10 years as the damage is undone will statistically see an upturn in prosperity in Burslem and Tunstall. It's all linked. I'm not saying I'm expecting us comfortably back and holding our own in the Championship within the next 10 years, I'm saying the club and Burslem will get healthier and healthier year on year as the Normong cancer cells are eradicated, the trade picks up again and the ramifications will gradually be felt in the local area over time. I've met them. I know what they're about, how genuine they are. I'm confident they'll be the best owners we've ever had. No coincidence that a significant reason why is they are the complete opposite of Norman Smurthwaite in every way. 37% of kids in Burslem are categorised as family income below the breadline, second in SoT to only Bentilee at 44%. Imagine that scrooge walrus faced bástard using the kitchens at Vale to provide free meals for those kids in the school holidays like Carol does. He'd laugh at the thought.