robf

That was almost my exact experience. We'd also been to the Chesterfield game and our usual routine was to listen to Sports Report to catch up on the day's action. Instead, we got this series of increasingly awful updates from Hillsborough as we drove back. It was really sobering and my heart does go out to those who lost loved ones that day. What a terrible and avoidable tragedy.

Admin note - please refrain from personal attacks on members on this and any other threads. It is against the rules that you all agree to when registering an account on here. Persistent offenders will (and have) been banned.

I think the emoji in my post says it all. As a respected (sometimes) forum operator I clearly cannot condone such behaviour. But I bet the Vale will be happier to receive a tenner each (well, their cut of the tenner) from fans who otherwise wouldn't be there than receive nothing at all from fans not in attendance.

So with Sky showing around 50% of matches there's no way that Vale fans in the UK, who can't go, will use a VPN and log on for the International iFollow coverage of every game, especially the ones not on Sky. Yep, that definitely won't happen. No chance.

I was relying on Google for my figures - may well be wrong. However, the broad point that it will broadcast less than 50% of games remains.

Or toilets

Yep, sorry to be so cynical but I suspect the timings will prioritise the Sky Sport listings people rather than people going to games. So, if Sky want us to have a game at say Exeter at midday on a Sunday, I suspect that's what will happen* *Note: for those us based in the SW that's not actually too much of an issue at all but I know I am in a very small minority here!

The statement says it will show 248 League One (editorial note - better put the League Two figures here as well) and 248 League Two games. A quick Google search says there are 506 games a season in League One and 552 in League Two so they will basically be showing less than 50% of all the games. When you add in the fact they are bound to show a greater percentage of the more popular clubs then Vale fans who can't get to the game are going to see a real drop off in the number of games available to watch.

There are myriad reasons why a deal may have taken till now to complete. Perhaps he had alternative offers to consider? Perhaps he wanted to take his time over committing to moving country for such a short deal? Perhaps there were family and other commitments why he couldn't agree earlier? Perhaps the club were unsure on whether he was the right choice until recently? The timing could really be any of a load of reasons, not all connected purely to football.

Unless I've missed stuff said in the press conference, there's been no word on Jones and Mighten. I presume they may be both injured if they are not in the squad at all. I was trying to conjure up a starting eleven and there's a real issue at LB/LWB. I wouldn't start the new signing, it's too big a risk but I have no idea what to do. I'd almost be tempted to play Plant (out of position) as LWB but then who plays as RWB - Sang (who has been badly caught out of position recently)? Massey? Lomax (probably too great a gamble)?

Well, as you've labelled it as "match thread" - let's make this the match thread for the game... Admin note - there's a few background things that need to done to make the match threads appear in certain places (e.g. making the match thread thread appear in the RH sidebar is set via some backend commands/tags) so usually it's an admin job to start these threads. No problem in this case...

Not Exeter as well? They've admitted they'll be experimenting with the team for the remainder of the season... Exeter City eyes turn to next season with squad selections - Devon Live WWW.DEVONLIVE.COM

Thanks. That is a fair point and I'm going to action that. I think the most appropriate section (as it's Tranmere) is "Other Football Issues" I didn't actually notice the section it was in as I was navigating to it via the "Hot Topics" section on the RH sidebar.

Well, to be fair. OVF covers a fair number of topics and no-one is holding a gun to anyone's head forcing you to read them all. So, with respect, if you aren't interested, that's absolutely fine, just ignore it. However, to answer the question "who cares" - enough users to generate 7,000+ views of the topic and 30+ replies, so it clearly does interest some users. I'm sorry if that in any way sounds condescending - it's really not meant to be. I'm just trying to make the point that although not everything on here will interest everyone, the interest in this topic suggests that while it's not interesting you, others do find it interesting.

Smurthwaite bought it in 2018. He then sold it in 2019 to another party which had been formed by someone called Neil Robinson, a Nuneaton sponsor. The current owners (Arden Tigress - not sure if this is the party NS sold it to or subsequent owners) decided to deny Nuneaton Borough access without any warning in Oct 2023 forcing Nuneaton to ground share elsewhere. At present, no-one uses the stadium hence this article: Mystery over future of Nuneaton's Liberty Way stadium - CoventryLive WWW.COVENTRYTELEGRAPH.NET

Admin note - we are using this thread originally set up for the postponed game in February, for the rearranged tie. You may notice some of the earlier posts are about the first game! Thanks!

As people are talking about subs as it's half-time there's one thing I can't understand... So Debrah is out of the squad - either dropped or injured - but in that case why on earth isn't Lopata on the bench? Or if not Lopata what about Ben Lomax? We've already got Sang in the back three, if Smith or Iacovitti have to go off who are we going to bring on? Lowe? Grant? Move Ojo back? Any of those mean your back three has two midfielders playing in it. With seven subs, I'm bemused there's no specialist defender on the bench.

If it's not working then you can switch from home/away commentary through the cog on the bottom right and select audio....

BBC Radio Stoke saying the formation could be: Ripley - Sang, Smith, Iacovitti - Plant, Garrity, Ojo, Chislett, Shorrock - Massey, Loft I think this again shows the inbalance of the squad and the poor recruitment in that Sang and Massey are both playing out of position in that formation.

Thanks. Admin note: it always helps to use smileys/emojis on jokes. With a forum reliant just on words it's difficult to tell sometimes. With this forum you can't see if someone is smiling when they say something or being serious unless you use the symbols!

And nobody is. Pointing out that an inexperienced player has been picked ahead of an experienced one has nowt to do with discrimination.

From the OVF front page - “There isn’t an immediate appetite to replace the director of football” – Port Vale CEO WWW.ONEVALEFAN.CO.UK

The OVF article is here by the way - Port Vale striker is ruled out for rest of the season WWW.ONEVALEFAN.CO.UK

Away from the argument of whether he should have stayed or not, what an amazing job Darrell Clarke has done at Cheltenham! He's got ten wins from 32 games in charge. That's after taking over a side which had played eleven games and had a record of one draw and ten losses. He took over in October, two months before the window opened, so he had to initially work with the players he had - he's done a magnificent job in my opinion. In an ideal world, it would be great if Clarke's Cheltenham and Vale both stayed up and Martin Paterson's Burton went down... However, sadly it looks like only one of Vale, Cheltenham and Burton to stay up.

This is the thread to discuss all things Wigan Athletic v Port Vale...