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I wrote the following account yesterday but decided to sleep on it before posting. I feel I must now clarify, given the responses since the release of the official statement. OK, so to first explain how this has come about. I am the co-founder of the Black & Gold Group, but also current sitting Secretary of the Supporters' Club. The SC, B&G and NLV have all been interwoven for many years, simply because we are all Vale fans with the same ultimate aims. We all offer differing viewpoints on things but remain active together to provide a widespread view on situations. B&G have remained active, albeit in the background, for many years, mainly as observers and researchers. With my SC hat on, we have been increasingly frustrated with everything at the club, same as everyone else. We therefore requested a committee meeting a couple of months or so ago with the inclusion of Matt Hancock, who has offered himself up to the SC as the conduit between us and the club. The relationship between SC and club has drifted apart as we feel that the club have not wanted to engage with us, and it seems that they have hijacked events that the SC have traditionally held, on behalf of the fans. We all feel that the club are trying to control everything. This meeting was intense. I'm not slow at coming forward with my views, and neither is Paul Dixon, and Matt got absolute pelters. To his credit, he took it all very well. Never argued, never complained, never flounced off or made excuses. He took it all in. Following that meeting, Mark Porter, Paul Dixon, and I have remained in constant contact with Matt, intensely pointing out the level of unrest amongst the fanbase. He could quite easily cease communications with me because I have hardly been complimentary at times, but I have tried to reflect the level of anger, frustration, disappointment, and downright disengagement from the club. Matt has actively sought to understand all of that. We then held another meeting with Matt to delve a little deeper into the supporter discontent. This then led to Matt setting up a meeting with Carol for him relay the mounting concerns to her, with her full attention. It was then mutually agreed that a meeting should be held between us to face this head on. During this period, other fans have also been voicing their concerns in their own ways to the club, so we therefore asked them to join in a collaborative effort. Matt then gave us a list of dates that Carol would be available, and the meeting was set. At no point were we given a time limit, a limit on numbers of members that could attend, or any actual pre-requisites at all. All that was asked towards the date looming was a list of names of those attending. The meeting was initially going to be between us and just Matt Hancock and Carol. A couple of us then debated the merits of also requesting the attendance of Paddy. We decided against it, but then as the meeting approached, we were told that Carol would like him to attend. We ran it by our groups, and it was agreed that he should attend. So, on Monday evening, we held a meeting between 7pm until just gone 10pm. The burning topic, of course, was David Flitcroft. My view remains that I cannot see his position anything other than untenable. A sentiment held by all of us on our side of the table. Let's not dress that up any other way. The overwhelming evidence of fans in the ground, fans in the pubs, fans on social media, forums such as this and radio phone-ins, is that very few have remaining faith in our Director of Football. You must understand that, had we sat down and screamed that Flitcroft is a w***** and he needs to f*** off, a 3-hour meeting would not have lasted 3 minutes. And we would also be doing a dis-service to the other points that needed addressing. We went into the meeting well researched, with a formal agenda from which to raise our points. After lots and lots of debate around the obvious, we then discussed the other topics; those being the communications coming out of the club, the problems with ticketing, the matchday supporter facilities and overall 'experience' and the potential for better fan engagement with the club going forward. The club seemed surprised at some of the issues raised. They did admit failings in communication, they also saw a different viewpoint on the other topics that they had not considered. Above all else, they appeared genuinely shocked and saddened at what we were telling them, in terms of the overall disconnect between fans and club. Now, we all know that admitting failure, and expressing shock and sadness at things is all well and good, but they need to let their actions do the talking. We hope that they now understand that loud and clear. It's over to them to deliver results. So please let me make it abundantly clear. We recognise that fans are not happy. This season, we have seen fans fighting amongst themselves in the stands. We have seen much anger directed at Flitcroft, at our players for abject performances. We have seen growing complaints against the disparity of ground improvements. We have an utterly unworkable relationship between the Supporters' Club and the club. We have seen an alarming lack of respect shown to us fans by the club, not least by way of Carol's letter, David Flitcroft's Podcast, and the ignorance displayed towards our concerns at the last fans' forum. We are taking those issues to the club because they all need to be fixed. Do not think for one moment that we are easily pacified. But we must be logical. We cannot just rock up with a list of demands. There will have to be compromise and understanding from both sides. The first step in that healing process is to meet and hit the problems head on. Monday's meeting was exactly that. We don't have any answers, or results to report back on, from one solitary, intense meeting. But it is the start of some much needed honest and frank dialogue. How this pans out is yet to be decided. We've been in much worse states. We have battled to remove two rogue owners in the last 13 or so years. These owners are not rogue. But it's fair to say they have misaligned their focus. Please support us in regaining that. And please understand our respect for the Shanahan family, despite all our current differences. We've hopefully now opened doors and we look forward to the club holding much more open dialogue with the wider fanbase.

I dont have much to add that Bede and Mellor haven't already said however I would like to say something about my own experience of Monday and the few days since. I am as guilty as anybody of bashing out my opinion on the Internet without any regard for the people I am talking about. Many people give the impression that they would love to have the opportunity to "put the owners right" on a few things. It was not pleasant seeing first hand just how much the situation is affecting Carol. I think we all forget sometimes that the people we lambast are just that, people. We often think its OK to scream all sorts of things into the Internet but it really isn't. I have had a very strange week, where I have seen people take a statement and add their own conotations to it and talk about them like they are fact. I have seen the absolute worst of people on all SM platforms, screaming all sorts of made up theories into the ether. I understand the clamour for detail and there was alot of debate behind the scenes over what, if anything we should say further. We have been under alot of pressure to get this right. One part of the official joint statement that seemed to attract alot of critism was the part about urging fans to put aside frustration to help give the players and management a boost. I will hold my hands up and say that I wrote that part and not the club. It was never meant to insinuate that fans hadn't been supportive and was only intended as it was written. It was simply asking people to but it on the back burner to deal with later whilst we try to slavage league one status. I felt that there was pertinence in acknowledging we are in a relegation battle and also in acknowledging there is fan frustration. I got that wrong, so please don't bash the club for my misjudgement. Some of the critism we faced was too much. As I have said, I have been massively guilty of this myself and after this week, I must be better in future because I now know first hand that things we say on the Internet do effect people personally. Meeting Carol under these circumstances has reassured me that the whole family are absolutely the right people to look after the best interests of the club. I have not changed my mind about David Flitcroft, I am still of the opinion that he cannot come back from this. I wanted to just calrify and apologise for my part in the statement and also to appeal to people to think a bit more before they sit at a keyboard. I can't see how we stay up but one thing I will say from Monday is that Carol and Paddy have an absolute belief in Darren Moore, so until the fat lady sings, I'll be crossing my fingers that we are still a league one side next season. I would say, let's get behind them on Saturday and see if we can't get 3 points to put us back in the race... but perhaps not.

Lovely gesture from Funso! Rang Crosby up after the game & said that goal was for him. You could see them pair had a really close relationship. I think nothing from the club is disgusting to be honest. He wasn’t quite ready but he had a good crack at it & what a genuine bloke who had this club in his heart. Wish him nothing but the best in whatever his next chapter brings

Hello,, Firstly, thank you for being a part of the OVF community. It's a community where I would like people to get along, disagree without resorting to personal abuse and where the focus should be primarily on Port Vale. I have a confession to make - for a long time I have steered clear of the Politics section as I found some of the views on there wound me up. This was a mistake as I really wasn't aware of what was going on in there. As a result, when I recently went back in I was shocked. This section seems a totally different world to the rest of OVF - it's full of personal abuse, conspiracy theories and (often) racist views. All of these things are against our forum rules. We also have a small team of admin staff who volunteer their time free of charge. It's not fair on them to spent time moderating such arguments. I have come to the conclusion that politics is too provocative a subject and doesn't have any place in what is ultimately a forum to discuss football. So, with apologies to those who want to genuinely engage in political discussion, I am closing the Politics section with immediate effect. Please note - political messages posted in other sections will be deleted. This is my personal decision as OVF founder. There are other places online to discuss politics. From now on, OVF is a politics free zone. Thanks, Rob

I've seen a few people asking to bin Nathan Smith off after he has had his first bad run of games in his near decade-long career with us. Please, someone tell me why we should get rid of our most consistent player of the last 8-10 years or so after a month or two of poor performances, during games in which everyone else on the pitch played equally as poorly or worse than him? Some very short memories among Vale fans it seems. He is being played out of position and getting caught out by wingers in a role that doesn't suit him, I like Lowe's organisation of the backline, but his aerial ability for the centre of a three is to be desired. Smith is not the tallest, but at least he can be dominant in the air over the majority of forwards in this league.

Absolutely massive credit to Bede, Mellor, Mark, Tony, Jean, NLV lads, and anyone I missed off. They braved it and talked Carol into viewing things very differently. Got a load of undeserved stick from people who didn’t have a clue. Once again, these lads and ladies sacrifice time and effort for PVFC. Raising a glass to them.

I’ll get my tin hat on for this one. It’s time she kopped the majority of blame here. She bought the club debt free. And as Vale fans we were overjoyed after the last crook. However the last 18 months have been shambolic. As fans I hear, yeah the academy are doing good. We will get millions for him and him. We have sold this lad to Man City for hundreds of thousands. Etc. Etc. Bearing in mind as supporters we don’t see that money. So isn’t it right to question why we are almost 10 million in debt when she bought it debt free? The bread and butter. The football. It’s garbage. With garbage footballers. Shes also had 4 managers now in her short tenure. And I dare say the latest one won’t last long. Shes divided a fanbase with her cringeworthy backing of a man who was intent on ruining Port Vale. David Flitcroft. And only sacked him after a group of fans had to give her head a wobble. The laughs and jokes and arrogance as Flitcroft announced that relegation wasn’t in his vocabulary. Followed by the cringe distraction of “El Presidente”. Probably for her and his ego. The Valiant Suite talk about how people she met 5 minutes ago told her our players are phenomenal and we won’t go down. She was very quick to go on radio and tv across the country when it went good. Then sunk back into her shell, apart from the most pathetic open letter I’ve ever read, when she more or less slagged off her fanbase. Those that loved her. In support for one crook. Sorry Carol. The time has come to break your silence. The last 18 months has been an absolute disaster. And the repercussions will carry on because that debt isn’t good, the players are garbage, the manager is looking like a dear in the headlights, and the fans are well and truly demoralized with the whole debacle. The buck stops at the top. Before any idiot says “Who do you want to buy us”, I’m not saying she should sell. My point is that her decisions, as owner of this football club, have got us into this financial mess and on the pitch it’s an absolute disgrace. The worst Vale team I’ve seen in 40 plus years. And if it was Smurthwaite at the helm, going through all of this, you’d all be raging. She needs to be accountable for her actions.

I've not really said anything so far but keep seeing the recurrence of people "having their belly tickled" "smoke blown up their arse" "not asking the hard questions that fans want asking". Bede, Dicko, Tony and myself were there as part of B&G. If you think we are the type of people that would have our bellies tickled and not ask the hard questions, then I'm not sure how to change your mind, epecially people like Spunkers who have seen us on multiple protests, meetings, etc... Collectively we have got rid of two lots of disgraceful owners, yet went into the meeting to offer an olive branch to the club to try and resolve current tensions. This is because the Shanahan's, in my opinion, truly have the best wishes of the club at heart and it is not them that is the problem. We want to work with them to try and sort this current discontent and anger out. Of course the main topic was the director of football. But do you think you can really go in and tell Carol to get rid and walk out? The meeting would be over in an instant. The club now realise how deep rooted this is and they have to try and alleviate the tension. How they do that is up to them. We know what we want to happen, but Carol owns the club and we can't hold her by gun point, but we can try and make her realise the massive feeling of discontent. What the club do now is their decision. We have started the conversation. They know how the fans feel, trust us. Now while the club decide the next steps, the only thing we can do is get behind the team wholeheartedly on Saturday, like we have all season and try and retain our League 1 status.

Happy to prove you wrong Paul. Black & Gold have continued to exist since its inception back in about 2008/9, in the background, to gauge fans' feelings and I suppose judge the performance of the club. We have an excellent source of research to delve deeper into things. Mark Porter is the chair of the SC and, until recently, the meetings were held on the final Thursday of each month. However, we have just changed that to bi-monthly to allow us to have more regular committee meetings to allow us to operate better. Sadly, our website got hacked and damaged so we are struggling for an official means of communications whilst our new one is currently being built. (I'm the SC secretary by the way) Tell you why we represent you? We listen at meetings and we listen to fans in the stands, in the pubs, on social media and on forums such as this. We represent you by collectively discussing what we can do within our powers as supporter groups. That has led to lots of very frank dialogue with the club over the past couple of months, resulting in this meeting to hit it all face on with the people at the top. Yes, this meeting was face to face. No, we have not been pacified and nobody, not a single person, has changed their views on David Flitcroft or the disconnect between fans and club. I'm absolutely astounded at the bizarre criticisms that we've 'had our bellies tickled' and other such nonsense. As a result of our initial meeting, the club now fully understand the deep-rooted issues the fans have. It is the first step in a long road ahead. There will, of course, be further communication back to the fans, no doubt from both sides, but we also have to be pragmatic and sensible. We will do nothing knee-jerk. The fans have had faith in those groups to act for the betterment of the club in the past. We ask for the same again.

What an unbelievable bit of media that is from the club. The bloke normally announces the biggest transfers in World football. Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar etc. He has 30 million followers. Brilliant exposure for the club. The bloke is a huge name in World football. The fact he has tweeted about us 3 x this past week is quite astonishing. It really does feel like some of the hard work is beginning to pay off in terms of changing people's perceptions of Port Vale as a football club. It was always going to take somebody taking a punt on us to get the ball rolling, & I think we got that shot when Spurs gave us Alfie. We clearly did a great job with him, as well as Ollie, & it has started the ball rolling. We are in a great position to be able to pretty much guarantee these players first team football at League 1 level & we now have the evidence to back those claims up. The tide is turning & we are clearly making progressive steps. I think there's lots of things behind the scenes that are playing a part. The loan lads all live in a house together, they have the foodie footballer going in & walking them through how to cook their own nutritious meals, look after themselves & help with recovery. We've now got the T-Zone, the ice baths, the family area where their parents & friends can enjoy the match. They are really well looked after. I also think our run in the Youth Cup last year will have really helped. I went to the Liverpool game where we somehow got beat 1-0. We played them off the park for large parts of that game. No doubt they will have been impressed with what they witnessed & word travels fast in footballing circles. If you'd have told me before the season that we'd have 3 current England under 20 players joining us on loan this season, in addition to a lad that's played in Liverpool's 1st team & Champions League football, I'd have laughed it off. Massive credit to the club for starting to turn the tide & change opinions to help improve us. I'm really excited for the future. I think if we can stabilise & keep making small improvements & progress in the next couple of years, we'll be in a really good position to have a go at sniffing around the higher echelons of League 1.

Very sceptical of this I'm afraid. Mark Porter - more faces than a town hall clock, goes on Praise and Grumble and slags people at the club off - I bet he won't have said half of that here, more concerned with making himself the centre of attention and getting inside info. I'd have much preferred another open fans forum, or God forbid Flitcroft sat down with the media and answered some frank questions. Instead we've had an in-house podcast, and now Carol grabbing a select group of fans who she can give a slight inside view into the workings of the club in exchange for their loyalty and spreading the good word on her behalf. Sorry, it means little unless Flitcroft comes out and explains what he's actually doing and takes some responsibility, instead of another attempt by Carol to get people to love him.

The most disturbing thing about today for me was the apathy amongst the fans, it is obvious that the fans have packed up and can you really blame them ? This team is not phenomenal Carol, it's just not very good at football and it's plain to see that next season with this set of players it's going to be another struggle and that's where the apathy sets in, once it gets a hold it's very hard to shake off, it can take years to gain support and just months to lose, the damage done with the recruitment policy since January 23 is going to take years to rectify and the paying public deserve an explanation That's why hundreds were streaming off the ground before the final whistle just resigned to yet another home defeat. The fights gone out of the supporters and it's certainly gone out of the team, like I said............. Apathy

I'll renew mine. Football is my release. Vale are my club. I've no interest in removing Carol from the club and she isn't monetarily profiting from the club, so withholding funds will only hurt the club and the team further. I held money from Smurthwaite and MOLD, but this is a completely different battle imo.

Can we all just stop slating loft see his name come up so much give the lad a break hes our player whether you like it or not just get behind him while hes wearing our badge

Loft was excellent today. I hope the guy who was bad mouthing him at the Supporters Club meeting was there to see it.

A joint statement that didn't really say anything at all. All talk and no action or solutions. Why not release a transcript of the meeting? Why not organise an open fans forum? It's all well and good saying the club was 'open and honest' and then not providing anything to back it up. Carol's open letter told me everything I need to know about what they think of fans and their opinions. Why wasn't Flitcroft there if his role was the significant part of the meeting? Must be scared of being called out without scripted questions and club edited podcasts. I'm sick of hearing 'biggest game of the season','must win', 'back the lads' and 'we will improve' and then the fans doing their best to get behind the team and then ultimately getting beaten comfortably every single game. I actually think the fans have been quite patient with how things are being handled by the club. We are abysmal on the pitch and all of this was avoidable, the past 18 months have been a car crash. They've been living under a rock and hiding for months.

Carol is a woman with good intentions, and to this point has been a net positive for PVFC. Communication is welcomed. However, this simply confirms my fears. A one-sided defense of a man not doing a very good job, whilst quelling and patronising dissent from the masses - an implication that we're too thick to see the 'real' Flickers.: Concerns that have been reinforced by this: Carol is far too close to Flickers - she isn't seeing what's happening as she's very good mates with him, and reliant on him for football decision-making There is a resentment from hierarchy to fanbase - criticism is being suppressed in a way that suggests we're not quite clever enough to see all the brilliant work 'Flickers' is doing. Silencing of fan views is not good. We'll criticise what we want, and a lot of fans (though not all) are thinking the same. Acknowledgement that January and the appointment of Crosby were really bad, to at least validate our concerns, is much better than saying 'you're just a bit too dim to understand this;' An equation of justified criticism with abuse - dangerous precedent to shut down any justifiable criticism. One-sided perspective - they're now focusing on thinking that Flickers is good, without actually analysing if he is. Working backwards logically. I think the fundamental issue I have is that justified, reasoned criticism playing a part in Carol Shanahan becoming chairwoman of Port Vale - I remember her saying to me and other members of B&G that we must always hold her to account. I have never, and will never, be personally abusive to her or Flitcroft. I will, however, as a fan of PVFC who wants what is best for PVFC, offer criticism if I feel it's warranted.

Hmmm... You're complaining that the club has a media team that plans questions for interviews in advance? You're complaining that they've come up with a idea of using some of interview answers as good PR to encourage other loanees to select the club? You're complaining about a video clip that you really don't have to watch if you don't want to? Bizarre. It's the official club channel. If you want unfiltered, spontaneous, not toeing the party line Vale content there's podcasts, newsletters and vlogs you can get that sort of content. But it's not the club's job to do it - it's surely their job to produce professional content that portrays the club in a good light. It seems downright odd to criticise the media team for doing a professional job.

Coming back for a good mate and vale fan's funeral next Thursday then to the match on Friday and home to Wales on Saturday ...just win it for Patrick,RIP mucka ⚽VTID UTV

I wonder if carol realises the only way she will ever achieve 10k plus home fans is providing a team that we are all proud of, a team that we are excited to come and watch on Saturday afternoons. Ive never seen such a pathetic excuse of a football team in my life. We let pett go and replaced him with jason lowe..... pett is no world beater but id take him every day of the week over lowe. Dan jones today you'd struggle to find a worse performance than that in any sunday league side across the country this weekend. Pathetic just pathetic. Our strikers have about 5 goals between them all season....... it is the most criminal neglect ive ever seen at vale in my whole life supporting the club. It simply is unacceptable. I could of recruited a better team than this lot. And they supposedly put this together through endless research and non stop hard work????

For the first time in umpteen seasons, sadly I'm seriously considering NOT renewing mine and the wife's season tickets. Not because of the fact that we may be in L2 yet again, but because I find it totally demoralising we're parting with our hard earned brass, so that a stark failure of a DoF can squander it yet again, in exactly the same fashion that his last two years track record has demonstrated, I know this isn't positively supporting the club and harms the club, but really I,like many others, can't afford to waste money for the reward of feeling utterly depressed and miserable, after watching defeat after defeat The hype, national coverage and massive over positivity which was fanfared post promotion, had me and many others hooked, as we were sold a ridiculous notion that Port Vale were on an upward trajectory, backed by the prospect of a professional, business set up and the pledge of making new memories . Well that aged well, didn't it? We now certainly have new memories, but not ones that we'll treasure. So I guess there's a part of me that feels a little embarrassed at been taken for a fool for buying in to all that, but I'm also angry at the clubs failure to address the situation that has been allowed to fester while seemingly, being in total denial of it, as demonstrated as an example, by that bizarre open letter, which was always going to back fire. Anyway,that's it.

Our form since September (at which point we didn't win again until December) has us 138th in the form table of the entire EFL + top 3 non-league divisions. 18 points. There's only 5 clubs and 8 points between us and being at the very bottom of 6 x 24 team divisions. Would you like to know the best bit, gents? While we're rubbing shoulders with Dover Athletic (15 points) and Bishops Stortford (10 points) they're still one up on us as both have scored more <ovf censored> goals. We're 142/144 for goals scored since September in the EFL and below. Strikers signed in the January window to correct this horrific record = none. How does she say with a straight face that he's doing a good job?

Let me tell you where I am. I’ve no interests int sort of protest and quite frankly I’m pretty certain nobody else is either. Certainly not the old brigade who told you Smurthwaite was a bad egg years before you opened your eyes. What I do think is that it’s fair that fans, can raise their concerns on a forum, on social media and ask why we have allowed ourselves to be in such a position. On a personal level I’ve been going since 1983. I’ve seen good times and bad times. But even in bad times we could mix it up and put a tackle in. When we lost to Cheltenham back in October, on the way out I looked at my old man who’s 65 and said why do we bother coming? The football is that dreadful that I asked him how many times are we getting out of our seat and roaring the lads on or even celebrating a goal or a tackle or a corner or pressure or a fist bump. Very little. This absolutely dreadful footballing philosophy of a bunch of nice guys and kids is so <ovf censored> boring. I want a connection again. A manager in the dugout who isn’t a yes man full of rhetoric. I don’t go to watch Vale because we have nice training facilities and showers. I don’t go Vale for us to put kids from the academy in for the sake of it to tell other clubs “look at what we do”. I don’t go the Vale to sit in the Prawn sandwich brigade whilst they can’t be arsed to fix a set of toilets for the faithful. I go because I love the club. But. And here’s the but……. There comes a time where logic has to take over rather than sheer stupidity. Stupidity on my part in parting with 50 quid every matchday and knowing I’m gonna watch a club that has neglected the football environment, after doing so <ovf censored> well in getting out of league 2. And that is all on David Flitcroft. And I ain’t the only one. We go for the football. The average fan doesn’t really care that some academy kid has been sold for 150k or whatever when they can’t even a piss in the paddock! The average fan only cares about 3-5 on a Saturday or 7.45-9.45 on a Tuesday. And so I made the decision that I’ll just watch the shower of <ovf censored> on ifollow. In the comfort of my own home. And if Carol and David can’t be arsed to fix toilets, sell players, release players and apart from the odd one or two bring in an absolute load of guff on the pitch, then I ain’t parting with my money. 8000 became 7000 became under 5000 very very quick. That’s some drop. BUT once you question it, you get a ridiculous open letter telling us how great Flitcroft is. And she lies in it as well!! She even goes as far to say he brought a cup run to the club. <ovf censored> me sidewards……. Fleetwood, Crewe, Sutton and Mansfield and then tippy tapped our way around Middlesbrough in the most pathetic quarter final effort I’ve ever seen from any club. Flitcroft has done this and that with the academy. We weren’t doing it before he came. WRONG. We were selling players from the academy for good money before he came! And as for him not applying for the managers job annd not wanting to come back into football. Utter bull. And she’s been found out in a previous interview. So yeah. Like it or lump it pal but she’s losing the average fan. And lose the fans and you’ll lose the club. She’s insistent on a “future”. That’s all well and good. But when there’s no “present” on the pitch there’s certainly not going to be a successful “future” going forward.

On 1st January we were 15th in the league with 29 points from 23 games. Exeter were 4th bottom with 23 points. We signed 5 players none of whom started today and none of whom are league one standard. Exeter signed 4 players and 2 of them scored 3 of their goals today. If anyone thinks our position is down to anything other than completely sh*** recruitment then they must be mad. Each transfer window we have rebuilt with polystyrene instead of bricks. And we seem to have spent a ludicrous amount of money in doing so. Moore makes mistakes but he has inherited a squad that is lacking in balance, bottle and balls. That's all.

Having personally dealt with Matt all throughout this 'process', I'd appeal for us all to let the dust settle and show the man a bit of respect. He has been true to every word that he has said to me and others and I believe that the club will change for the better in the coming weeks and months. Rest assured, I won't <ovf censored> rest unless it does. We're <ovf censored> on the pitch. We're angry in the stands. We've all been treated poorly and left behind. But these aren't bad people, they have just had bad judgement and bad advice. We're trying to change that, and they are listening. Let's give them a chance to repair that.

Synectics is a fraud investigation company , but yet Flitcroft flew under the radar. Ironic .

This. I genuinely forget we were playing a few weeks ago. Remembered about 30 mins into the game. Just forgot, as it has become such a soul destroying chore in every sense of the word to watch. And that's from someone who as well as going to daft lengths of effort during the B&G days, I years before had spent time on my knees in the railway (badly) painting the steps so we could get a safety certificate off the council when in admin. The same stand and the same knees I fell to when that Swindon pen went over the bar and we were going to Wembley, I literally just fell to the floor with my fists and eyes clenched having a proper mental. I'm struggling to give a <ovf censored> now. The gutless, cowardly decline on the pitch in recent times has completely evaporated the enthusiasm and soul out of me for Vale. Existentially things were horrendous under V2001 and NS and the football was <ovf censored> horrific under Glover, Brown etc but I was 100% committed because of visceral anger at what was being done to the club. Now I just simply can't be arsed because all there is to do is watch CS enthralled by Flitcroft's patter as the ball gets played back to Ripley for the 73rd time and we send out a kid still in year 11 to warm up to replace our one fit forward. I'm sick of either reading or concluding myself every week about how none of this group of donkeys ever demonstrate any emotion. Penalty shouts, nothing. Teammate hacked down, nothing. Lopata pushed face first into the advertising boards yesterday, nothing. And I mean face first, I don't know how he didn't end up with a fracture or concussion. None of them ever remotely demonstrate that they care. 6 years in and the Railway's somehow gotten even worse, while money is thrown at mach 3 at the prawn sandwich crowd and four million different sets of changing rooms. Oh and a new office overlooking the training pitch, sound. I didn't want any strikers in the squad anyway. 3 horrific windows in a row has left us having won 3 games in 5 months. Literally 5 months, yesterday was the 22nd week. Imagine saying that during the V2001 and NS eras, imagine what the reaction would have been? 3 wins in 5 months. It's utterly mental. Instead of acknowledging why the fans are annoyed the salt in the wound is she then completely ignores those reasons despite releasing an 1800 word tome, the less said about which the better. Responsible for everything, accountable for nothing.

Right decision and will benefit Port Vale in the long run if not the short run to the end of this season. My view on Carol is that I try to judge people on intentions over execution. Her intentions are absolutely to do the best she can for Port Vale. That gets her a significant amount of leeway in my eyes. The execution hasn’t been perfect and it’s clear as a person she is very loyal and tends to hold on to people for too long when it’s clear they should go. Its not the worst fault in the world, I can name many MANY worse by just looking at previous owners.

It’s more obvious by the week that up until his problems, Darrell Clarke was the glue that held this club together.

Maybe time to stop mocking carol about her various business awards?

Just want to say that we fans got right behind our team today, regardless of other issues... well done us,cheers

I will reiterate. Fleetwood signed two strikers this window after their manager was sacked days before and after their bankrolling owner went to prison for 13 years in the summer. Us not getting anyone in is a shambolic failure and deserves DF being moved on solely on that disasterclass alone. Burton signed 4 forwards for <ovf censored> sake! Including Joe Hugill from Man Utd. How puzzling, they managed to loan a player from a top 6 club without the indispensable Flitcroft being involved. Modern science can not explain that mystery.

If you think the Shanahans are in it to make money you are absolutely deluded. Why should we sign a striker like Cole Stockton who hasn’t scored a league goal this season? And football is fun because I get to have a good laugh at the **** some folk post on here. And that is opinion so feel free to argue

We go into our next game, number 38 of the season, and our strikers stats in the league are this…… James Wilson. 3 goals. Uche Ikpeazu. 1 goal. Bailey Dipepa. 1 goal. Ryan Loft. 0 goals. 37 games in. Let that sink in Carol. Let that sink in when you came out publicly and said that David Flitcroft was involved in everything football related. Let that sink in the next time you slag off the fans in your open letter. Let that sink in the next time some WAG tells you we have phenomenal players. Let that sink in the next time narcissist Dave tells you he’s doing a great job. And ultimately……… Let that sink in when fans look at you with distain and disgust in letting OUR football club be ruined by David Flitcroft, whilst you detach yourself further from the fanbase. Forget your 6 monthly, annual, performance based reviews etc. This is no ordinary business. SACK. HIM. NOW.

At the end of the day, any money available should have been ploughed into the team. Yes, some things had to be done to the stadium to make it safe, but anything else is just window dressing. The coaching room, the ice baths, the endless list of backroom staff are all great to have if you're doing well. As long as you're paying a player the going rate, he'll get changed in a portakabin. I understand to some extent to want to improve the commercial side of the business, but spending money on the unnecessary flowery stuff is just a bad plan. Spend every spare penny you have on the first team, which creates success, increased attendances, bigger away followings and everything else that comes with it. Once you achieve success on the pitch, you can do all the vanity projects you want. We've tried to act like a Championship/Premier league club before actually achieving anything. The most important thing in a football club is football. Full stop. Not community work, not nice buildings, not Mother's day lunches. Football. Concentrate on it, spend on it and then you can do as many charity/vanity projects as you like.

Wouldn't blame the Shanahans if they <ovf censored> off and left us to it. If my mum/ wife/ daughter was Carol I'd be begging her to walk out of the club and never come back.

I'll be renewing mine purely because it gives me a free pass from the Mrs every other week and a 12 hour session with no questions asked 🍻 Basically, if I was single I wouldn't be renewing 🤣 up the Vale ⚫️⚪️⚫️⚪️

Gutless. Cowards. Pathetic. And I’m not just on about the shameful players on that pitch. If we win together and lose together then the whole club should hang their heads tonight. In my 44 years on this planet, I’ve never seen a worse 45 minutes on a football pitch. Disgusted. We deserve to go down. Carol needs to hang her head in shame with her decisions throughout the last 18 months. Those players, who go crying to her because some podcast is slating them, need to get some thick skin because as a collective they are absolutely pathetic. Bez on his podcast is right. Bottlejobs. The lot of them. That 2nd half was disgusting. Darren Moore. What the <ovf censored> have you said at half time?!!!!! I’ve had the mans back but that is criminal to defend a 2-0 lead. League 2 next season. 9 million in debt. Dogshit players. Signed a lad from the USA 2nd division for the remainder of the season who can’t get in the squad with 4 games to go! Seriously. If this was under Smurthwaite we would be raging! The buck stops at the top. The decisions that have been made have been nothing short of a disgrace. Owner. Manager. Coaching Staff. Players. Today. As representatives of Port Vale Football Club, you’re an absolute disgrace.

I clapped. I told them to get their heads up and go again Saturday. I did it because as fans we have nothing else left we can do. These players are the only ones who can get us out of this. We've got two massive games on Saturday and Tuesday. We need to stay behind them until the end now. Giving them a round of <ovf censored> and booing them will do nowt. Showing them we're backing them just might. Give the players/the club/the recruitment team etc... both barrels if we do go down. Anyone who knows me will tell you that if I don't think they're putting it in, I'll let them know. But right now the only option as fans is giving every bit of support we can (even if it looks like the players aren't). At least we've done our bit then.

It's been an absolutely car crash of a season and relegation is an absolute guarantee at this point. And the office upstairs have failed the club miserably. However. For the first time in years we've got some decent young players coming through the ranks and it's just refreshing to see the likes of Bailey, Walters and plant playing. No one is claiming he's a world beater but for the love of God give the 17 year a old a break instead of writing him off because he's in a bad team. He's just scored two goals for the national team under 17s. What have you done with your life ? "Fans" like you are exactly the problem with modern day football. Saying he's leek town level is a joke and disgrace and yet if he was to bang in a hat trick next week you'd be loving him Shame on you for slating the young man.

I thought I'd start this thread EXCLUSIVELY for Happy Clappers. As a bona-fide member myself I'd just like to say I'm really looking forward to this coming season. I'm happy to state now that if pushed for a prediction, then I think we will finish somewhere between 24th and 1st. Good luck all connected with the club, the players in particular. I'll feel a bit like RZ at first as I won't be able to identify most of the players but I'm sure I'll get there by Christmas. Up the Vale (Ps, I reckon 3 posts before it's spammed by a moaner [emoji1787]).

After all of the crap and vitriol that's been going Carol's way over the last few months I wouldn't blame her in the slightest for not putting another penny into the club. But she won't do that. Because she genuinely cares about the club. And we're very lucky that she does. 99% of other owners would have done a Norm. There's only so many people willing to lose millions running a football club and at the same time always try to have its best interests at heart. Carol is one of them. But some of you think she should walk away. Or have you changed your minds now she's likely to be financially much better off and expect her to justify your annual £300 purchase by putting 180 million into the club?

Genuinely I think that everyone within the club, especially Carol, got carried away after promotion and the ludicrous amounts of positive press she received. She believed her own hype. OBE, award-winning darling of football. Dissent was removed from the club. Fans, and their opinions, were shut out and resented. Flitcroft was deified in her eyes. They could do no wrong and they were going to inexorably build to the Championship and everything would continue to go well as they’re all brilliant. Anyone with any doubts could leave. The letter is a microcosm - we are right, you don’t get it. We are brilliant. She imposed a model onto the club that the fans didn’t want or need. A sad, cautionary tale about ego, arrogance, and humility. A classic tragedy - the rise, the hubris, the fall. League 1 status was never a given. It needed sensible hard-work, constantly reflecting and improving. The nuts and bolts needed to be secure. There should have been zero talk of the Championship, of daft infrastructure, until a really solid, reliable League 1 core had been assembled. Carol thought she’d cracked football, had solved it. Look how great she was doing! We will go down, and right now Carol is in the denial stage of delusion. Her speech last night showed the first cracks appearing. The penny is dropping, far too late, and she’s trying to convince herself based on chats with the family of the new coaches. It’s desperation. I still think she’s a well-intentioned, naive woman who got far too full of herself and Flitcroft as DC delivered on the pitch. She equated DC and AC’s excellent management with something a lot bigger. She genuinely trusted Flitcroft to sort everything out, and has become way too dependent on him. She’s made mistakes the same way all of us have in work. I sincerely hope this summer is a reflective period for her. Take some time away. Go to Supporters Club meetings and listen to Dicko and Porter. Get some critical, cynical, experienced figures in the club. Reorient the finances to focus heavily on the first-team budget. She can still salvage a positive legacy, but she has squandered the legendary status she was assured in June 2022.

How about the bit. David had no plans to be involved in football. Why was he interviewed for the management job then ? The second time I've read it, the worse it is. Patronising and condescending with veiled digs. Simply awful.

I feel as though fans have been hauled infront of the Headmistress and given a lecture on who is in charge. Condescending to say the least. However it is now abundantly clear who Carol believes is in charge and that's DF. Up to fans now to decide if she's correct. I fear for my Club now.

I'll watch how I word this for fear of upsetting folk. But your last paragraph is the absolute crux of why I go to the game. I want to be entertained and win a few home games ( our home form is abysmal like last year ). Whilst I am grateful for everything our owners have done and saving the club we seem to of taken our eyes off the ball on the pitch. Heres the bit I'll get stick for but I've broad shoulders. Not concerned with fanzones, rollover hotdogs, face painting, DJ ( who just seems to amuse himself), or old folks bingo. I want to see a team on the pitch with desire and intent. Too often we are able to predict what will happen ( Saturday a case in point). All the extras and goodwill are great . But ultimately I pay for my 2 season tickets to see the action on the pitch. And it's poor fayre.

CAFC fan here. Enjoyed all the comments on Uche, all very helpful. He's coming into us as 4th/5th choice IMO, but whilst we have players injured we need a focal point for a more direct playing style that Appleton wants to implement. Through that lens it looks like a good signing. Would be underwhelmed if he was coming in as the main man to build around next season. He is coming in as we have Leaburn and Aneke out injured. JCH and Ladapo were both on our radar and I think that was more of an either or as opposed to Uche being a target because we didn't get JCH. A back up should we lose May to injury. Fingers crossed you lot get the fire-power you need over the next couple of weeks and best of luck for the second half of the season.

'Write them a letter telling them how good i am'

*** OVF PRESS RELEASE *** I'd just like to reassure all our regular readers that plans are already well in place for the summer transfers and rumours thread. We have employed a team of experts to ensure that only the very best rumours and transfers are posted on this thread. We are scouring the whole planet for the best ones. We noted that on our recent fans forum (or forum as we call it on OVF) some people were concerned at the proportion of rumours to actual transfers on our recent January transfers and rumours thread. We intend to address that imbalance by temporarily posting transfers involving Man Utd, Spurs and Liverpool* on our forthcoming summer transfers and rumours thread. This meets our goal to be a trusted forum where top-level transfers can appear for a short period of time and grow in the welcoming environment of a lower league forum. Please note we have recently made some changes to our word filter after a request from a few people... phrases that will no longer be accepted on future transfers and rumours thread include "That player needs a thorough medical", "How about not waiting till the final day to make signings?" and "How about signing a ***** striker." We hope you understand. The OVF team *Liverpool transfers will only remain on the thread for a short period of time

Wow - you manage to kill the mood every time, don't you? "Begging around" and "scrounge" are as far away as they can be from what's really happening here - we are identifying young and gifted talent from elite clubs, and persuading them that these players can get a good grounding with us. None of this is done by happenstance...nor with a begging bowl! As you may have read, Man United "scouted us" for a while, to make sure we were the real deal for them. That, alone, is a feather in our cap - to establish that kind of trust with clubs like Liverpool and Man IU. We often hear "why can they loan players from top clubs, but we can't?" - it's because we've never put in the groundwork that has to be done, and not, since the days of Rudgie, had many managers with the chutzpah to ask Man Utd for one of their players, on loan? Yes - I get we're still 18th in the League...and some of us think we're one game from the drop...but we haven't played many matches, recently, for various reasons out of our control, which has left us with up to 3 games in hand, and a single win could move us up 4 or 5 ;places. Take a look upwards, for a change, instead of permanently fearing the drop? It's not scary!