[Stevenage (H) FAC2R Match thread 12th Dec]

I'll probably get pelters for this but I feel like fan culture nowadays only allows people to be 'overjoyed with happiness' or in 'the depths of despair'.

Quite often recently I've felt that we've all been overreacting, but losing from 2-0 up and then from 3-2 is very very poor.

I do buy into the idea of trying to play possession based football and the reasons for it:

- Teams playing possession football more likely to be promoted

- Allows us to develop technical youth players with higher sale value

- Enabled us to attract Premier league youth players on loan.

However it has kind have been sold to us that Andy Crosby is required to run that. I have no doubt that he is a good coach, but I think we are seeing he doesn't yet have the 'in game' management that comes with more experience. How often when we had DC in his pomp would you see him flip a game on its head (often preemptively). In fairness to AC the injury crisis hasn't given him much to play with on the bench.

If we are stuck to our model are we not better off hiring high potential 'flowing football' managers with a bit more experience. If they succeed and get poached it means we have had a good season. I know we'd draw from a pool of lower league managers but the type of thing Swansea used to do where each manager fitted and developed on a consistent style of play.

A final point in defence of AC, but subs last night did feel very much in line with the number of games we have this month. I am gutted about losing out on the cup money but if it helps us get a win against Wigan is it wrong?

[January Transfers and Rumours]

Walters won't get more game time then he will with us. 

He's still to young and raw to instantly improve a rival league one team.

Does he really want to sign for a championship team and sit in the reserves? 

Surely a deal with us makes sense.

On another note I had the opportunity to see a Bath City Vs Yeovil game the other week. Bath had this young winger 'Thomas' who was head and shoulders above everyone on the pitch. Skillful, speed and end product. Noticed he was in the VNS team of half season too. Wouldn't be surprised to see him in higher leagues soon.

[Middlesborough H EFL QF Tickets/Crowd]

It's ok. We'll smash Exeter 7-0, Loft will score a perfect hat trick and Uche will score a panenka penalty.

We'll take that confidence into our league games, go roaring up the league and everyone will be clambering for tickets.

No problemo.

[Vote of No Confidence (2)]

This is going to sound bonkers, but as long as we stay up, I don't mind that we are trying to play a more technical type of football.

In the long run I can't see how we could get promoted to the championship playing reactive, hit on the break football. Occasionally you get a freak team that do, but on the whole all the teams that go up control possession and are more technical. I think the club want that style of play as any youth players we develop who play nice football have more chance of a higher sale fee. It also helps with attracting high potential loan players which is something we are seeing this season. 

Things are really rubbish right now in the league and that needs to change soon. However I'm not yet at the point where I think we need to rip up all the progress that has been made, sit back and go more direct. Like it or not we are stuck with our current strikers till January. Would a new manager be able to do more with our current strikers?

I think it's clear from some of the interviews earlier in the year we got priced out of top tier strikers and invested more in midfield instead. Is that Crosby's fault? Or is that the constraints of being a mid sized league one team.

Final thought but we fixed the goalie situation this season, after realising we got it completely wrong last season. Maybe the same will happen with a striker in January/next summer. I think the reality is that it is probably really hard to get everything right at once. As long as we don't go backwards in the next window I think we'll be ok. I'm still with Crosby for now.

[January Transfers and Rumours]

I expect we will look for another high calibre youth as a loan for LWB in Jan.

No idea where we are with our budget but why would it be different from last season where we said we didn't want to make many signings in Jan.

I'm fully bracing myself for a bit about 'value in the market' and getting better value in the summer. It makes so much sense to spend the budget in the summer as atleast you get a full season out of your signings. 

Hopefully we learn the lessons of last season and don't go backwards or let players go on their terms (i.e hall). Also we gotta hope we keep hold of arblaster and devine.

[Ale and the Vale Podcast]

Just thinking about the debate about left backs commonly being the boo boys at vale.

Is it because at home games they play in front of completed lorne street stand and busy part of paddock/ railway stand when kicking the other way.

In comparison right backs get empty lorne street (kicking towards bycars) or less busy part of paddock/railway when kicking towards hamil.

Anyway point i'm making is that it's much more visible if any mistakes are made at LWB when playing at home.

Not excusing it but it was a good point made on the pod and got me thinking.

[Ale and the Vale Podcast]

Thought the last pod was hilarious. That whole chat about carlise's rapid player having a sprinter for a godfather. "In the wife, not the life" hahahaa

[Ale and the Vale Podcast]

On 22/08/2021 at 17:46, stupers said:

Thanks for all the feedback, positive and negative. We understand that us releasing the episode would maybe cause some pushback. As Vale fans, all of 20+ years we didn't want to rock the boat. We're fully behind Flitcroft, Clarke and everyone at Vale. Anyone who has listened to a single pod over the summer would know that, and as far as I'm concerned that hasn't changed. 

However as an ex-player (and legend) it would have been wrong for us to turn down a chat with Tom to talk through his time at Vale and how it ended from his perspective. We probably could have challenged him a bit more on a couple of things, but as someone says above we're not in-depth journalists. We do this for fun, and all the money we generate after costs goes to Vale-related projects (100 quid to the SVA initiative just the other day). We were just, as ever trying to put out some content that Vale fans would find interesting. We'll take all constructive criticism on board and see where we can improve. 

I really enjoy the pod. In a similar way to OVF it makes me feel more connected to the club. Even when results arent great it's like shared frustration therapy. I don't get to many games as I live miles away and have young kids so i look forward to the weekly reviews.

Anyway just saying thanks. There will always be different opinions on things and keep doing what you are doing. 👍