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9 hours ago, Jacko51 said:
So does Micky Adams and is 17 years younger.
Micky Adams as DOF, never thought of that. I'll meditate on the pros and cons over the next 10 minutes or so.
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1 hour ago, Guitar Ray said:
If he keeps us up given where we are right now it’ll be an amazing achievement. I think the 5 year deal was almost an admission from the club that we were likely to go down and gave an assurance to Moore that he’d be given time to rebuild if the worst should happen.
I hope that is the case. Can’t keep chopping and changing in my opinion.
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last chance saloon.
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VALE 3 oxford burton 1 1 Brizzle Northampton 1 0 Exeter wigan 1 3 Wycombe peterborough 0 3 Cambridge bolton 0 46
CAMBRIDGE 3 wigan reading 1 1 charlton barnsley 0 0 derby blackpool 0 3 wycombe brizzle 1 vale 0 48
By those predictions they still finish above. We could do with beating Burton to drag them right in.
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^ This is assuming we are in League 2, but obviously I hope we're in League 1 and there's still an outside chance!
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We don’t have to be decent, we have to be the 5th worst, and at the moment Cheltenham, Burton and Cambridge are at least as shaky as us.
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2 minutes ago, Valiiant said:
Woeful. Can't even score one goal against a team not playing for anything and clearly going through the motions.
Hopefully can against the other teams playing for nothing coming up: Northampton, Rovers, Cambridge (though hopefully they’ll be dragged back in)
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Suddenly things look a bit better… Oxford dropped off a cliff, next to Vale Park. Followed up by Burton in touching distance, all with games in hand. Green shoots.
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Love how the match thread has dropped off the main page 10 mins before kick off.
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Give pro experience to the academy players and haul the so-called leaders and experienced players up and down the country for a few months to watch and get the water bottles. Make it productive in terms of preparing for next season.
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This is the most irrelevant game of the season, eclipsed by the next, and so forth.
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It won’t shake out like this but we’re looking at something along these lines:
Vale
Cheltenham
Carlisle
Fleetwood
Crewe
Barrow
Gillingham
Wimbledon
walsall
morecambe
Crawley
Bradford
Newport
Harrogate
Notts county
Accy
Tranmere
Swindon
Doncaster
Salford
Grimsby
Colchester
Chesterfield
Barnet
That to me looks like an easier league than the one we got promoted out of. Some teams with bigger budgets, but if we can get ourselves out of the in-fighting, kamikaze downward spiral we have inflicted on ourselves with repeated mistakes and naivety, we should do well.
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Darren Moore, the backbone of the team staying, no mistakes and shortcuts on the strikers and we look in decent shape, even with the deadwood that might cling on. Everyone who is out of contract can leave now, they have no future here and we should be playing Shorrock et al to get them ready for the bounce back. The bones are there, the budget will be competitive I’m sure. Only go to loans as a last resort, as having them recalled is a nightmare (reference Port Vale 23-24 season.)
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We need a properly organised protest against Flitcroft. I hate to single out one person but he’s made his own rope by stating plainly he is responsible for “all things football”. Well the football is dire, we’ve hired mentally weak, uninterested and untalented players with an total imbalance positionally, and I am confident the squad is quite expensive ironically.
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All the young players to start every game for now on. Let Lowe, Ojo, Massey, Grant watch from the bench. You have to earn the right to play and they’re curdled cream now.
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Gore is obviously looking to preserve his rep at this point. We won’t see him again.
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1 minute ago, werstayinup said:
He seemed to motivate those at Doncaster,West Brom and Sheff Wed ... i agree struggled at Huddersfield
Who was your choice of manager??
The majority wanted him, most were surprised and happy when he joined. I remain that way but he can’t do anything with this shower.
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It’s not so much the terrible playing, it’s the attitude that gets to me more. They do not give a damn.
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Can’t be bothered to go through every player, but look at the players we’ve got who are used to losing:
Ripley - relegated
Chislett- relegated
Smith - relegated
League 2 players, Players on their first pro club who have let them play more than 5 games
cast offs, injury proners, literally a player from non-league plucked to start games.
What a joke.
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I wonder what NLV, B&G, SC etc. feel about a peaceful protest asking for flitcroft to be removed - taking place before the next home game.
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6 minutes ago, Guitar Ray said:
Fairly routine victory for the opposition. We moan about strikers but the problems run right through the team.
Exactly. Put Messi up front, who’s going to give him the ball? Lowe, Ojo, Weir? It would be like putting a candle under a bowl and wondering why it’s still dark.
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1 minute ago, Wozza4England said:
3 season tickets not used today; myself and two mates. I missed the pre-match pint and the banter but certainly not the ‘football’.
Checked the team selection at 2.00 and struggled to name 4 starters good enough for league 2.i said I wouldn’t go again until Flitcroft went, you can add DM to that. Those Huddersfield lads who came on here to warn us were absolutely spot on.
I was thinking ok we’re in good shape for this one: Clark, Mighten, Chislett, Lopata, Plant etc. attacking in a must-win game. Then the team sheet comes out. Massey, Jones, Sang. It just immediately makes you think it’s pointless playing the remaining games. I think if OVF didn’t exist and I looked at the team / club I would feel totally out of touch and lost with the decisions being made.
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31 minutes ago, JoeB2 said:
Due to some other life stuff that’s happened this week, as well genuinely ruining my weekends with how angry this team made me, I decided not to go today. It’s the first time I’ve willingly not gone to a home game - bar when we starved out V2001.
Losing as many games as we have for 14 months is simply damaging for fans with any degree of emotional involvement. I had to remove myself. It felt wrong, I felt that I wasn’t a ‘proper’ fan - but I’ve had a much nicer afternoon than if I’d gone, as opposed to being seething and moody. I’m sure many will criticise me, but I couldn’t deal with another Saturday like this one would inevitably turn out.
Feel for the fans who went and had some degree of hope. This is an awful team with absolute no fight, and a manager who, whilst dealt a poor hand, is playing it horrendously. 1 point from 6, is it? It’s appalling, and there are questions he needs to answer next season.
Everything I’ve heard from Carol suggests that Flitcroft is going nowhere, and we all need to come to terms with it. We know he’s the problem, but unless she has a Damascene conversion in the next few weeks, he’ll be in situ come August.
For now, I’ve got my Saturdays back. I’ll a fool who’ll renew in the summer, but I’m not sure these players are worth the wasted Saturdays till May. The sun is coming, Euros in June, Carol won’t fold us. We will go down and the world won’t end. We’ll be back to 5000 total gates, and probably won’t come straight back up.
It’s rubbish, but what else can we do?
The establishment don’t care about your wellbeing, otherwise they would make the changes we are all crying out for. Not going doesn’t make anyone any less of a fan, it lets the club know we can’t be mugged off.
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So it’s time to start preparing for next season in League 2.
Plant, Dipepa, Shorrock, Lomax and Walters (?) will develop more quickly, as they could be legitimate starters that are not being bedded in, they are active contributors getting better and better.
Obviously getting ride of players who are not up to it who are under contract will be preferable - but if we can’t do that at least they’ll do less damage and be more useful and productive, which may lead to better confidence.
I strongly think that although Darren has probably made mistakes, he will turn the team around with his own players gradually being recruited and the trash removed over time. Both he and Carol must have known his first full season could have realistically been in league 2, and now that’s the case he’ll have a rebuild that makes the fans feel comfortable again. I think he can do it and we can’t judge based on what he’s trying to do with the current team. I hope he doesn’t walk.
Obviously the fans and the club will be caught in a divisive stand off until Flitcroft is gone. That will never ever change and Carol seems happy for that to be the case. That is a bigger stumbling block than any other, as the toxic atmosphere and the failed recruitment both stem from that role. Fail to sort that and we cannot rebuild fully, properly or durably.
Apart from that, we need / need to:
Retain key players: Ensure that crucial players remain with the club to maintain team cohesion and talent. Garrity, Chislett, Clark, Ripley will be cheat codes in L2.
Strengthen squad balance: Acquire new players that don’t use this ‘utility’ model. Just get players who play where they are supposed to play, and others to cover that same position. Simple.
Review coaching staff: Assess the coaching team and consider changes if necessary to improve tactics and player development. The injuries, tactics and inability to change have been terrible for years and it needs to be addressed.
Financial stability: Manage finances carefully to avoid further setbacks and ensure the club's long-term sustainability.
Engage with supporters: Maintain positive communication with fans to boost morale and retain support during challenging times especially.
Stop improving facilities: Nobody cares about new training facilities and stadium infrastructure if the results are not shown on the pitch.
Develop a clear short term strategy: Define short-term goals for the club and implement a coherent plan to achieve them. Long term plans mean nothing. We can have a general vision, but talking about the Championship at the bottom of L1 is somewhere between criminally ignorant and laughable.
Foster a winning mentality: Instil confidence and determination within the team to strive for success and bounce back from relegation. This team has no character, few big personalities and no meanness. I don’t care about them being mates, I want them to win as a team and sometimes you need to embrace the dark arts to achieve that.
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Oxford (H) match thread - 16th March
in Port Vale present
Posted
where is Walters? Him and Ojo together would make sense.