Bobnewtonian

Will you bury me under the Bycars will you bury me under the sun will you bury me under the bycars when my duty to football is done I ve got a mate he is silly cus my mate is a Stoke city fan if my mate came to watch port vale maybe my mate would grow to be a man . Let’s get back on track next season and stop feeling sorry for ourselves… cricket and euros will take up the summer then let’s get back on it…. Swindon away first game? utv

cup game for the under 14s tomorrow on there if you fancied a bit of fresh air over the bank holiday !!

Easy to be blasé... more difficult to make a difference to people's lives who really need it like these people at Vale are trying to do.

I don't quite understand your 2nd sentence sorry. I m a Loft fan he’s tall and very quick it’s upto vale to get the best out of him… probably a top quartile league 2 forward but bottom quartile league 1 forward … ( bit like us as a club really). He wasn’t t fit when he first started with us he looks sharper now. But I m sure he will admit as well as he played he should have scored when clean through on goal like that.

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. I m sure even he would say he should have scored there. I couldn’t make the game yesterday but on the highlight s package he looked like Haaland… I guess he also started with us when he wasn’t really fit which gives some people the illusion that he s not trying. He looks a little bit leaner I think now than when he first joined. a win Friday and I would say we ve pulled this relegation malarkey to 50/50… still 60 /40 we ll go down to me. utv

You never know.. if he’s like all the rest (and who can blame him) he would have insisted in a release clause I m sure for instance if a premiership club or a bid of s certain amount was tabled he d be entitled to be released. so I don’t think there will be big money to be made there unfortunately.

Tend to agree that’s the only performance where it looked like a few weren’t fully commited… maybe they knew Crosby was on his way? we have lacked confidence and been guilty of muddled thinking due to changes in style of play bought about by changes to and then back from a possession based game which has lead to mistakes both individual and team wise along with a lack of athleticism and a fair dose of not being good enough but I don’t think they haven’t been trying. Why would a lower league pro not give it everything when his mortgage payments and kids schooling are directly linked to his on field performance? yesterdays result was in part diwn to not being a goal behind in the first 20 minutes for a change and we grew into the game especially 2nd half. utv

Hope so

He went Stoke I think I remember as part of the mark chamberlain deal?

Thankfully an improvement over what we ve seen recently... I ve gone from watching it from behind the sofa to only blocking the view with my fingers. Far from convinced we can keep a clean sheet but with Garrity in this team with Plant to add energy off the bench maybe we can sneak out of the bottom 4 by the end of the season. Their commentator is doing my nut in though. Utv.

Not sure… if we class Bells tenure as getting the “first team picture right” even then we ended up in administration. So having things right on the pitch without the infra structure in place isn’t the way to go.?

Correct and we ended up in administration… so something has to change if we want to progress beyond our current natural league 2 / league 1 position… and that is what the new owners are trying to do.

You've just taken a couple of sentences in isolation though ... my point is that given what's gone before the club needs to do things in a different way. less than 6000 on a Saturday v Wigan given where we were as a team isn't going to allow us to progress as a club without selling players on for a profit to supplement it. The 7500 average the season before is skewed by the away followings, I m speaking about home fans.

Your post will get a zillion likes but it probably is over simplistic. Undoubtedly mistakes have been made in the transfer window, however lets take a look at what has gone before (albeit a simplistic one) and we can see why the new owners wanted to do things in a different way with more emphasis on the infra structure than in previous years... We've had a successful local business man as an owner with success on the pitch : end result though we couldn't pay our tax bill and went into administration. We've had a fans consortium as owners (myself and and others lost thousands of pounds trying to back this event) end result was zero success on the pitch and administration. We've had a non local successful business man as an owner end result was zero success on the pitch (almost ended up in non league) and threats that he was going to put us into administration. Its hardly surprising then that the new owners (quite rightly in my opinion) wanted to take the club in a different direction. Improve infra structure and community work, improve pitch, change our playing style to a possession based game to help attract better youngsters and to sell players on at a profit rather than ending up in a financial mess. They have also tried to increase our fan base by the introduction of youth and community teams and raising the profile of the club by having RW as president. Without increasing our fan base we will always be between top half of league 2 and middle of league 1. On 16th Dec we were in all the cup competitions (including a league cup quarter final) and a reasonable league position having been involved in some decent games, yet we still got less that 6000 home fans through the gate on a Saturday. This isnt enough to progress without the owners dipping more into their pockets and makes the development and sale of players even more important than it would be for a club with a larger fan base. Its the execution of this change that isn't currently going to plan but I think that the owners require some credit for understanding and at least trying to execute that change. But of course it is a result's business and better signatures as you describe in January would have gone some way to improve our results no doubt. But we ve just paid big money for probably the biggest named manager out there so lets hope he can get a couple of home wins and get a bit of momentum going as we go into the last 10 games. Never give up.

They started away at Carslile and were subbed at half time they were bad. Coming on as sub is different than starting.

Good

I confused myself there!

I think the loss of Arblaster and Devine was expected but combine that with the loss of Ojo and Garrity would have been a lot to take for most teams in League 1. I think out of contract players are out of contract for a reason. ok if we can get one without a major finiancial impact I can just about reconcile that but throwing money at one isnt the way to go for me.

I wouldn't break our pay structure for Gayle. Short term contract on default salary for him (or similar out of contract player) I could understand, but we wont progress as a club with those type of signings. For me any spare money we have should be put toward attracting a 23 year old centre forward who will be released by a championship club this summer. Improve him and sell him on. We have Loft, Wilson, Mighton, with attacking midfielders like Chislet, and Garrity in a couple of weeks and hopefully Gore. We also have Uche but I've no idea where he is with his fitness. Its not table topping but still better than Cheltenhams options of Taylor and Lloyd, both of whom we let go after much derision on here. I d be looking at getting the best out of Loft, probably playing him in a wider position with Mighton on the right, making sure either Garrity or Chislet or Gore got themselves through the middle to support along with another midfielder and a wing back to keep the ball alive in and around their box. With Wilson off the bench after an hour as gaps appear and the opposition tires. Same hopefully with Plant if he can just get himself fit. But sorting out the defensive side of things will be the priority this week I think for DM. By the way who is doing the coaching ? And who is the fitness coach ?

And Uche ? Long term ?

Should we cash in? If we did how would we replace him? I knew this would happen if he could get himself fit…

Is an ST a season ticket holder?

Interesting you say he could be the difference between staying up and going down yet you would have had him sacked off at the first opportunity. Your thinking isn't very joined up. Utv.

Vietnam?