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leedsvaliant
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Posts posted by leedsvaliant
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I'm of a train of thought that maybe we need to go back down. It feels we're completely under equipped for this division. We've had a succession of bang average teams come here, and as soon as they put any pressure on us, we crumble.
The lack of time wasting, disrupting their flow, giving away cheap fouls, was really evident second half. We're too nice and accommodating. Any team that's done well this season has a couple of horribles who are constantly in the refs ear.
Wednesday night showed us how far we are away. We need to get relegated, rip it up entirely and start again.
What a complete waste all that winning on penalties against Swindon was. Mansfield will be replacing us next year and will be better prepared. Funny how things come full circle isn't it?-
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0 shots on target at home in a must win game is awful. We'd be going nuts!
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Four changes smacks a bit of Clarke mucking it up and now rolling the dice.
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Yep, me too. They spent the last few minutes just passing it along the back line.Crosby did that to some extent at Charlton away last season until the Barnsley miracle recovery at MK Dons. That was at 3-1 down. He had no faith in our ability to come back so went all negative.
I was there and was appalled at such tactics.-
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In technical terms, one of our better technical footballers. But a forward should be judged on goals and assists, of which he has done nowhere near enough in the past 2 seasons. He looks like he has all the ability in the world, but if you don't utilise it effectively then you're a waste of a player. He seems to have lost the drive that he had with us in league 2. Maybe injuries and low confidence have played a part?
Whatever the reason, we need 2, maybe 3 forwards who have a significant impact on either assists or goals. We just can't carry him anymore.-
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I agree. Thought he was faultless today. Thought the Yak was good too...they both kept it simple...head it and kick it away when necessary. Thought Sang had one of his best games for us...everything that we did that was good seemed to come through him.Smudge was back to his best funny how playing him in his best position pays off.
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I think 48 will do it this year, possibly 47. So 3 wins and 2 or 3 draws, or 4 wins. A win on Friday would be massive ahead of away games. If we could sneak a win out of one of Northampton or Wigan, both teams with not much to play for, that would leave us with trying to win 2 of our last 4. Not impossible but our form has to change dramatically.
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Rovers fans are saying they've been dreadful this season but yet they're still comfortable in mid table, so they must have something about them. They've got very little to play for, which in some ways makes them more dangerous. Hopefully a bit of confidence and belief will finally seep into us.
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I actually thought he did everything right with that chance in the first half. Keeper got in a good position to narrow down the angle, just unfortunate that he couldn't squeeze it inside the post.First game that I have not watched all season. I had something I could not get out of.
The 2 minutes highlight's that I have watched. it was like watching the Ryan Loft supershow.
The power, the aggression was brilliant!
Even the chance he missed in the first half was all created by himself through that power & aggression.
He played a massive part in the build up to the goal his scored in which is ayou finsh, superb! -
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I thought Moore said in his interview that he might be involved today?You're an oldie but newbie
,uches nowhere near close to playing yet,he's only just got back to training on grass 
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If we have got one of the lowest budgets in the league, then the question must be why? We must be turning over bigger sums than a lot of the clubs above us, our corporate side and club shop appears to be doing well, shirt sales are up, bigger attendances than for a few years....
so what is draining our resources? Have we got too many staff? Are the owners not pumping in as much as other owners? Are we getting enough from sponsors? Should we be letting others sponsor our shirt/stadium? Is the ground swallowing up too much money? Are we allocating too much of the budget to vanity projects?
If we can't compete with Exeter, Burton, Cambridge, Stevenage, Shrewsbury, Northampton, even Bristol Rovers and Leyton Orient, we might as well pack up and turn the lights off now. What's the point?-
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I know it's not always an indicator but my mate saw him play against his son for a school and he said he was absolutely brilliant. The best player on the pitch by miles and everyone watching him applauded him off the pitch! My mate is not a Vale fan but he could tell this lad was brilliant. I think once he fills out a bit he'll be a real talent.
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Neil McKenzie gave my all time worst Vale performance away at Bury. He was like a 6 year old playing against adults.... absolutely dreadful.I think the absolute pits for me was Dean Glovers team. Midfield pairing of Neil McKenzie and Ross Davidson with Klye Perry and Danny Glover up front, Chris Slater at the back. We were so lucky that season as it was only Luton starting on -30. Rotherham and Bournemouth on -17 and Chester being truly horrific that kept us up.-
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If Reading escape the drop, I'd still be going nuts with the league over allowing them to sign players like Smith and Knibbs. They should NEVER have been allowed to assemble the squad they have given what's happened. It's basically cheating someone else out of a league one place. Relegation minimum punishment is what they should get.
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I think we're leaving ourselves with too many 'must win' games, and given our form over the last year, I don't see us suddenly being the team to win 40-50% of our matches.
I'm still really annoyed and frustrated with the first postponed game. We'd just come off the back of a pretty decent December and a reasonable result against Charlton.....Reading weren't in great form and we had a few more attacking options, followed by nearly 1000 fans. That postponement, followed by further postponement the week after, really knocked any slight momentum we had built.
We end up playing them when they're on a really good run and we're in stinking form. Not only that, they have players like Smith and Knibbs who are likely to be on a fortune that they don't even pay. How is that fair? It's cheating, plain and simple.
If it comes down to us being relegated by these 3 points tonight, I would kick off with the EFL. All this solidarity bullocks is a load of shi3te, I can guarantee that Reading and their fans didn't give a stuff about us when we were in a similar position.-
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We're in terrible form so we're not going to be the Dutch 70s side. We just need to scrap it out, try and keep a clean sheet and nick one up the other end. At this point it doesn't matter how we get them, we just need points.
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All that is brilliant, really admirable. But we're a football club, not a charity. Apple might do some corporate social responsibility stuff, but their main aim is to sell phones and ipads. Happy for these things to happen, as long as the football club continues to progress.The cashless thing is a pain in the arse but understandable. Under the old regimes, it was a poorly kept secret that there was no proper way to track that cash handed over to casual staff actually ended up in the club cuffers and it was pretty common knowledge that some sticky fingered staff kept a bit for themselves in the back pocket. In terms of questioning are we a club that looks after its own, you only have to go down to the foundation building and Tommy Cheadle's in the week. Food bank on a Friday for locals who are struggling to make ends meet, Golden Valiants on a Thursday which is now in the hundreds in terms of attendance and is a great lifeline for older people who live on their own to get out and socialise and have a bit of fun, Mens support group on a Monday evening, dementia support on a Tuesday- representatives from the council, mental health charities and all sorts of things on duty to help people with issues- the list goes on. Thats not even getting to all the free sports and leisure sessions. If that isnt 'looking after our own' then i dont know what is.-
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I think some of the long-term strategy stuff is important. Whilst I couldn't care less if there was no food served, no entertainment, no comfort for when I take a pee, unfortunately it is a massive part of attending for some people. Most people on here would watch Vale in an old cow shed but such is the competition to get people's money off them these days, the match day has to be an experience. My daughter would have hated attending during the Bill Bratt/Smurthwaite days, where literally zero thought was put into the match day experience. There simply had to be some expenditure in the infrastructure of the club. Unfortunately, infrastructure and the football team need to be spent on side by side and I just don't think Carol or the club have the finances to do both to be instantly successful. If it were my business, I would be looking for someone to sponsor the ground, looking for a sponsor of the shirt other than synectics, I'd be looking to beg Donaldson and other very wealthy Vale fans to become shareholders. It's a real bottomless pit and Synectics do not turnover huge amounts of money. Unfortunately, football fans are short termist and if we lose some of the playoff bounce we'll never see these fans again.
What I think has also got people's goat is the community stuff, which while admirable, is not the sole job of a football club. There's got to be engagement with the local community because it gets other local businesses involved (and spending money) and all businesses should have some focus on social responsibility. But it shouldn't be the overriding focus of the club. The focus is the football team...end of. Any of the nice bells and whistles should come once the club has become a success on the pitch. Once you get to the Championship and Premier league, you have the money and resource to plough into these things.
Carol seems like a nice person. I met her before she became owner and she is a genuine person. But sometimes you can't help but think that her focus is on changing the world for the better rather than focusing on getting a successful football club.
She's done a fantastic job on some things and the ground and pitch is unrecognisable compared to 10 years ago. I just think someone needs to refocus her on the purpose of a football club. We're not a charity.-
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Young could be a loan (as he has been on with Swindon) with a view to a permanent move in the summer. So technically the club would have told the truth. The original purveyor of this rumour has disappeared though.
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None of them ever go. That's why I don't bother with the Premier League anymore. They only think that they exist. At least with the likes of Brentford, Bournemouth etc. they can still remember what it was like to be a lower league club. Even most real Man City fans preferred it when they were in league 1. I'd love to see a united get relegated one day, that would really sort out who the 'real' fans are. Annoys me that I know people who support United or Liverpool who are from Stoke and have literally no connection with these places. It's so easy to support a team that wins most weeks. The real football people are those who support a team through highs and lows.Just off topic for a bit... has anyone else noticed the number of uninformed Man Utd "fans" who are suddenly upset that Dan Gore may be going to Port Vale. I did a Twitter search for "Port Vale" and the latest posts are just chocka of uninformed nonsense from fans who think their teenaged talent (with one minute of League action to his name) is far too good for the likes of Port Vale.
[/url] I presume that's because they haven't heard of us because we're not on Sky Sports every week and that they've got no clue that though Dan Gore may be "far better than Port Vale" we've now got a proven record of looking after young loan players and that we can give him plenty of first-team starts, something a kid with one minute of senior football may not get in the Championship or Premier League.
Thank goodness, I'm not a supporter of a "big" club, I don't think I could take that amount of rubbish, spouted by uninformed idiots.
And if you ever get fed up about a topic on OVF, it's well worth a brief trip onto Twitter - the amount of garbage on there may rapidly restore your faith in the quality of debate on here!
Rant over...-
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He's got an attitude problem. Another one who thinks he's better than he is.We should be in for Cole Stockton? He's not deemed good enough for Burton to farm him out on loan who are below us?! -
It's often a luck thing. I've known many talented footballers who could certainly have played at league 2 level but for whatever reason they haven't been spotted or played for the wrong team. That Chris Slater from Chasetown should have been nowhere near professional football...he got lucky by having a reasonable game against us.Anyone who calls a professional footballer useless clearly has no idea how difficult it is to become one !
i know there are levels but anyone who makes it are in the top few percent in the world at football
There's also dedication. A lot of the talented footballers I knew were more of the Gazza mould than the Gareth Southgate mould. You've got to dedicate your life to being a footballer and virtually live like a monk. Lots of lads hit 16-18 and would rather booze and women than football.
Clearly, anyone who has made it into league football is talented but I'd certainly say that in league 2 especially there are a few who are very lucky to be playing professionally.
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There's a lad that's been at Crewe, Joe White, who they seem to rave about. I think he's on loan and they've just brought in a similar type of player...
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Thought Blackpool looked half decent until they got to the box.....Rhodes has scored a few for them but looked dreadful and they just generally looked very impotent and lacking ideas when they got to the box. Reminded me very much of Vale earlier in the season.
Thought we started slowly but then got to grips with what they were trying to do....Thought we were the better side second half as we were a bit more direct and outran them.
Great win to finish off the year.-
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Exeter City (H) match thread - 13th April
in Port Vale present
Posted
Some people have said that Carol is only in it for financial gain. That's utter rubbish....nobody with any financial ambitions would run a 3rd division football club. You're literally throwing money away. Even Smurthwaite realised that there's nothing to be made from a football club and was extremely lucky that the Shanahans paid way over the odds.
I do think, however, that she enjoys the prestige of being a female chairwoman a little too much. I admire the charity stuff but I think the 'legacy' ambition has taken over from sensible decisions. There seems to be an ambition to run a football club in a corporate entity style, with a high level of Corporate Social responsibility. Unfortunately, football just doesn't work like Synectics. You can spend all the money you like on staff and 'projects' but ultimately the biggest outlay should be the team. It's a football club. The clue is in the title. Stevenage have got a <ovf censored> ground, almost certainly a smaller corporate side than us, yet they're pushing for the playoffs because they spent big in the summer on their team.
Somebody with football business acumen needs to get in there before she spadges more up the wall on vanity projects.
If it were me, I'd have looked a long time ago about creating a smaller, fit for purpose stadium on the same footprint. I'm sure our old, decrepit ground, that in spite of serious investment still looks old and decrepit is a millstone round our neck. We still haven't got a finished stadium after 25 years for instance.