JoeB2

A direct shoot-out with Darrell Clarke is likely.

I’ve been so negative for months but we’re bang in it, here. The best form of the three teams with possibly the easier run in too.

Wigan, Exeter, Wycombe, Cambridge. They’re the games. We sort of need 8-10 points from them. Burton have Oxford, Stevenage, Cheltenham, Reading, Fleetwood. They’re absolutely dog at the minute. Cheltenham have a horrendous run in: Orient away, Carlisle, Gas, Burton, Lincoln, Posh, Stevenage.

Today was a tough one. Northampton are very good at home - that’s their 10th win. It’s 2 of us, Cheltenham, and Burton joining Fleetwood and Carlisle. Incredibly, we’re in the best form of the 3. Cheltenham have 1 win in 9. Awful form Burton look done. No wins in 9. Vale - 7 points from 15, 3 clean sheets in 5. A loss today in which we’ve had the best chances with Uche and Chislett at a side very good at home. Both goals on the break via mistakes. We’re a significantly better side than we were a few weeks ago. Burton and Cheltenham need to turn around absolutely honking form, whilst if we perform as we are, we will probably pick up 2-3 more wins. Dunno. Bang in it, aren’t we?

Think it’s important to point out that 95%+ of Vale fans haven’t given Loft any public stick. There’s a minority of idiots but fans were chanting his name before kick off yesterday.

Got the biggest grin on my face watching the pitch-side video of the goal celebrations. Garrity and Yak absolutely love it.

Moore’s biggest strength, when you look at his other clubs, is building confidence and morale - an often overlooked part of football. We’ve all seen the video from Sheff Weds where Bannan credits Moore with maintaining confidence after the 4-0 defeat which they overturned in the semis. Yesterday the players looked right up for the fight and out-of-form players like Smith and Loft had their best games of the season. Massey came on and was straight into it. Yak was back to his usual aggressive self. There was a clear shift in morale. The big caveat is that Burton are crap, but so were Shrewsbury and Fleetwood - Moore has got something into this group during the last week. I’m not convinced it’ll be enough to win 4-5 more, but there were signs yesterday that he can turn this oil tanker around - even if that happens next season.

Most clubs in professional football have one. Carol needs some at director level who understands the game inside and out. I’d aim to replace Flitcroft with someone working in a recruitment department at a very successful club relative to budget - Brentford, Luton, even Lincoln etc - and allow them to build a team. None of this ridiculous philosophy and mass infrastructure stuff. Focus on signing good footballers who are undervalued by others. A far more limited remit, which will allow them to focus on fewer things with more detail. Recruitment should be the number 1 measure they’re judged against.

I got a weird feeling on Thursday night that I should go to this game. It was weird as I hadn’t had an interest since Derby. 30 minutes later and it was announced Flitcroft had gone. I took it as a sign. Brilliant afternoon. They got into them! Proper scrapping. Horrible game in horrible conditions on a horrible pitch. Loft outstanding without the goal. They’ll have nightmares about him. He’s absolutely rapid! Moore’s clearly got some confidence into him. Absolute carnage when he slammed home. I still don’t think we have the quality to win 4-5 more games, but there’s some fight in those dogs! The fans proper deserved that. Full voice and incredibly positive.

Ripley Clark Smith Lopata Yak Ojo Sang Massey Garrity Mighten Wilson

Into these.

I’m in a much better mood about us this morning. Relegation is a certainty, but relegation to League 2 need not to be an existential disaster but more a temporary setback which clubs with far greater resources than ours have contended with. With a manager at the helm who has success in getting a good squad of players into the top 6, alongside a stability in club ownership that we’ve not had before, then Top 7 should be the aim - especially if Wrexham, Stockport, and Mansfield are out of the league. A new DoF with extensive successful recruitment experience, alongside sensible ST prices and a concerted effort to improve home atmosphere, compounded by the most important factor of ‘winning games of football sometimes’ and all will be relatively rosy. Carol has received justified criticism and this relegation is a problem of her own making. However, we have to be aware of how fortunate we are to have a local family committed to PVFC and ensuring our long-term prosperity. It’s down to them to put right this mess.

Dicko too! Proper PVFC.

On a wider note - some decent transfer business in 21/22 in which he was carried by a truly excellent management team. Garrity and Hall were brilliant signings. As soon as DC stopped working miracles, the club fell apart.

Absolutely massive credit to Bede, Mellor, Mark, Tony, Jean, NLV lads, and anyone I missed off. They braved it and talked Carol into viewing things very differently. Got a load of undeserved stick from people who didn’t have a clue. Once again, these lads and ladies sacrifice time and effort for PVFC. Raising a glass to them.

With the dearth of attacking options, the only way this team was going to have a chance of staying up was with an excellent defence and nicking the odd win. We perhaps should have gone for a manager more suited to managing lower-ability players and creating an excellent defence. Moore must have qualities to deliver 96 points in a League 1 season, but perhaps not qualities for this specific situation. Kennedy would have probably been a better short-term choice. Had Lincoln with one of the best defence’s in League 1 last season and, although Skubala has them flying now, it’s largely Kennedy’s squad and Skubala has benefitted with the return + signing of some forwards. Ah, well. Nevertheless. With Moore’s rumoured wage and contract length we are tied to him for the foreseeable and need to hope he can turn both PVFC’s and his own collapse in form around from August onwards.

It’s an all time poor start. Absolutely dreadful.

It seems we’re still deep in ‘process-mode’. Every signing has to be at a value, outsmarting everyone else to fit the ‘tactical, physical, technical, and psychological profile”. It has to be data-driven and a chance for the DoF to be the smartest in the room. We seem to have had someone in and decided not to sign them. Sometimes, all that needs to go and you just bring a body in for an inflated wage and a survival bonus. Someone the manager knows, or someone that comes recommended. This obsession with refusing to pay market value, in finding undervalued gems misses the point that often you just need the obvious best fit and the inflated price they command. Not every signing has to be a Garrity or a Hall. Often, you just need Lee Hughes, Darren Purse, even a Chris Eagles. The obsession with doing things in this process-way is likely going to cost us a place in this league. I genuinely think 10 randomly selected OVF posters would be doing a better job.

At this point we should have rolled the dice on anyone. It’s been a month. If we signed someone a week after the window shut they’d be coming off the bench by now and not far from a start. Whatever they cost, relegation will cost substantially more. An unfit forward is better than the options we currently have. Again, the DoF seems to be trying to outsmart the market without just accepting we’re in a mess and taking the hit. A forward should have been here weeks ago. Anyone.

The disintegration of PVFC since January 2023 has been so comprehensive it’s almost impressive. I honestly think 5 randomly selected OVFers would have us with a better record than we’ve had over the last 12 months. The Shanahans all absolutely love him so he’ll get ‘the chance to put things right’ when we go down.

1 point from 23rd, 21st, and 20th when you’ve been brought in to help avoid relegation is ‘not good’. I expected some degree of impact - nothing major, but just a sign that someone competent was in the dugout. He’ll get time, but this slow start has likely killed our survival hopes and we can’t just pretend these results were inevitable. We should have picked up 4-5 points.

Two points deducted. Challenge remains to win 5 and draw 4, or win 6 and draw 2, of our last 14.

I think there was every appetite for a few years of mid-table. There wasn’t for 31 defeats in 54.

Hate them, me.

I’m not sure anyone bar Rory has called for Moore to go? Stop clutching your pearls, lads.