robf

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

Mighten was playing before he got injured. Not sure what's going on with Lopata though.

That's my view too. I actually think Ethan adds something different, but he doesn't seem to be Moore's cup of tea. If that's the case then surely it's worth pairing Ojo and Walters and putting our top-goalscorer in a more advanced role? I think it makes sense especially considering how toothless our forwards are (with the honourable exception of Baylee who is still learning his trade). I think BG is in his element making surging runs into the box. I also think Rhys Walters is an interesting one as he's potentially more than just a ball winner, he can produce the odd quality through ball. I can see (or I hope I will see) BG potentially thriving off a few of them...

That's not what Mike Baggaley says in his newsletter. He said he spoke to Moore and both H/T subs were purely tactical. Quote - "Ethan Chislett and James Plant were replaced at half time yesterday while Jesse Debrah and Ryan Loft came off on 58 minutes and Baylee Dipepa on 73. Darren Moore confirmed all those changes were tactical and none were because of injury" I'd agree with some of the earlier comments that Chislett, as far as stats go, is potentially one of the best sources of goals and assists. Even if Moore thinks Chislett needs to be replaced, I would hope in the next match he may consider bringing on Walters to partner Ojo and pushing Garrity further up. I just don't think Weir is adding anything at the moment.

Sorry if this has already been discussed but... I can't understand the Chislett half-time sub. I'm not saying he was having a brilliant game but he did have two chances and also tracked back for a good saving tackle. It seemed too soon to take him off. Moore said the change was tactical but, for me, Weir did nothing of any note and it would have been better to keep Chislett on for longer than 45 minutes as he's one of the few players who can create something with a moment of skill. Talking of subs (and again I'm not trying to make anyone into a world beater) but I thought Walters did well - looked confident and made a couple of lovely long range pinged crosses. I hope he does sign a contract as I think he could really flourish with some regular first-team football next season.

Here's hoping Vale are no April fools. This is the thread for all things Northampton Town match...

I can just imagine it... "There's a lengthy check on that foul. Baggies striker Ronnie Allen is sitting on the advertising hoardings enjoying a Woodbine, while Port Vale's Reg Potts has left the pitch, he's got a bus home to catch..."

A video clip from our YouTube channel showing the penalty that never was (by the way the full clip is worth a watch) -

The dedicated thread for the discussion of the home game against Bristol Rovers...

I've been waiting a long time to get the phrase "Loft conversion" into a match report headline...

A brief OVF tribute Former Port Vale midfielder Billy Kellock passes away – onevalefan.co.uk WWW.ONEVALEFAN.CO.UK

Hope it's OK but I am moving this to Gone but not forgotten section.

I saw him score twice on his Vale debut. He looked great that day. RIP Billy.

I thought it was useful to have that article for reference as there's lots of threads when people say "what contract is so and so on?" and I thought an "explainer" would be a useful thing to refer back to. It's very much a "top-level" piece though - who knows what clauses there are in there? For instance, Uche was announced as staying "at least until the end of the season" so is there an appearance clause in there? Is there one for Wilson who has probably played more games than many people expected.? Does anyone have a "relegation clause" and so on... However, I hope it's useful. I came up with the idea of "Explainer" a while back and the idea is that a current Vale topic is covered in as much detail as I can find out as an informational piece. Some previous Explainers have been: 1. The Vale Park Campus - https://www.onevalefan.co.uk/2024/01/explainer-what-we-know-so-far-about-the-port-vale-campus/ 2. The Liam Brazier transfer rumours - https://www.onevalefan.co.uk/2024/01/explainer-why-latest-liam-brazier-rumour-should-be-treated-with-a-pinch-of-salt/ More "explainers" will appear from time to time...

Hi, I'm setting up this thread as there's still some issues accessing this site and the instructions on this thread may be of help. -- 400 error I've had the odd report of a 400 error when trying to read the front page / news articles (i.e. not the forum but the "blog" part of the site). We are looking into what is causing it, but it can be sorted (at least temporarily) by clearing your cookies. Instructions on how to do this for various browsers are here - https://www.hellotech.com/guide/for/how-to-clear-cookies-chrome-safari-mozilla-firefox-edge -- We (as in myself and tech guru @manc_vale) will post other instructions for other errors on here as and when we receive them. Hope this is helpful to some of you!

I was just looking for something to listen to on BBC Sounds during my work and I noticed this programme at 11am today. There's a Port Vale connection (as the intro below says one of the teams is "Pork Vale") while it seems to be a good way of staying healthy and helping your mental health, so some of you may be interested to listen - Real Madras, Borussia Moobsandbackfat, OB City, Man Titty, Inter PieAmi, Pork Vale, ScranMere Rovers - all real teams that play in the big league. Man Vs Fat is a football league designed to help men lose weight. The league says it has helped around 23,000 men lose 601,288lbs since it started in 2016. But dropping a few belt notches is not the only thing that has transformed lives Men talking about their mental health is still typically rare - Jay Unger has struggled with his own weight and has played in Man V Fat for a few years. Being part of a fat football community, has helped him and thousands of other men to open up about their mental health and get through some of the most difficult situations in their life Some of the stories are really heart-breaking and difficult to listen to - but ultimately the men in Newport, North Tyneside and Edinburgh Jay meets tell him how a community, brought together by football, has helped them reshape their lives.. BBC Radio 4 - The Big League WWW.BBC.CO.UK

This is an OVF Jeff Smith pic. He was never a big favourite of mine, but he would still walk into this side, even today...

@Brian Johnson Correct. I saw a photo of an Atkinson with a tache and selected the wrong 'un. Still looks like our Atkinson though.

One for the older 'uns perhaps but maybe it's the return of injured-plagued left winger Paul Atkinson? It certainly looks more like him than Gary Madine. Atkinson's taken a while to get back from his latest knock as he had surgery in 1988...

I'm not on Facebook but is it this one on X/Twitter/whatever?

I have not seen the phrase "world beater" at all earlier in this thread. I've seen "prospect", "keep up the good work" and "bright spark" though. I don't think anyone's thinking he's a "world beater" but rather that he's done well in difficult circumstances and has been rewarded with an U17 cap. He's still very much at the fledgling stage of his career and arguably the club should not have been risking ruining him by giving him so much first-team football early on, but I don't see anyone on here hyping him up, just a bunch of fans pleased to see a youngster doing well so far.

I'm delighted for Blythe Bridge's Baylee. He looks a real prospect. I think the last Vale striker to be picked for the England junior sides was Brian Mills. He got an England U19 cap in 1991 and started ahead of someone called Andy Cole...

I doubt they'd do the exact same event. Did the club actually make any money from it? It's a charity gig so proceeds went there. In some respects some of the infrastructure changes may have cost money. For me, being entirely cynical, what would arguably be better would be occasional commercial gigs where, rather than charity, the club benefits from a cut of the gate receipts etc. I guess it depends on whether the club has a licence for such things. The fact they have invested in some improvements to make holding gigs there (i.e. removable hoardings, electricity supply points etc) suggests that they have. I doubt these could take place every summer but the odd one could be a nice money spinner.

And our director of football saw fit to sign him up till the end of next season...

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