Santa

Derby pulled out of signing Smith on loan from Wednesday in January because they wanted a loan fee and his wages paying in full. He's supposed to have been on five figures a week.

It's funny how Bill Bratt appears to be using Vale being rubbish again as an opportunity to rewrite history. Did anyone go to the 'talk' he gave in a pub in Burslem on Valentine's Day?

He's the only bloke who ever came back from Turkey with a hairline that was worse than when he went.

I think Tall Paul was Paul H, former V2001 director. The bloke you're on about is Paul T (paultvale?) - I haven't seen him at the games for a couple of years TBH. He was a Mod on here I think.

Uche Mk II is one of the strangest footballers I’ve ever seen. Too slow and no stamina for the amount of running required for a centre forward. Disproportionate amount of upper body strength, shields the ball well but wins very few headers. Can’t hit a barn door and his all round play isn’t good enough to overlook that. He's been the second most disastrous centre forward signing we’ve made this season. I’m not falling into the trap of thinking some of our players might be better next year simply because they’re in a lower league. Sitters like the one on Saturday don’t get any easier in League Two.

PJ isn’t very fussy these days since the paintballing accident.

Spoiler alert: we get relegated at the end

At the end of the day Cheltenham need a favour from one of two relegated sides to stay up. Feel a bit sorry for Cambridge fans, the timing of the Bonner sacking was odd as they let him carry on for 2022/23 despite him having a poor run. Like with us, changing managers doesn't seem to have done a thing for them. They also have the best GK shirt in the whole division.

I was at the McAlpine for Warnock’s last game in charge of Town and it was clear that the manager they already had was wringing every last drop from a very limited group of players, to put it politely. I’m not surprised Moore wasn’t able to get a tune out of them, as he hasn’t done with us. Considering where he was in the summer after Wednesday’s promotion, Moore and his agent picked his next two roles extremely poorly. Whether or not this is Moore’s fault, and whether Moore is the right man for us going forward, are two separate issues. I still have my doubts about the latter and whether both us and him are the right fit for each other.

Our best chance of a win is if Cambridge rest a few players and play Jack Stevens in goal. My Prediction: Port Vale 1-0 Cambridge Utd Stevens OG

It was a statement. it fulfilled the purpose of needing to make a statement. It didn’t say an awful lot. Actions will always speak louder than words.

You can’t have been for a wee this season

Are we League Two Ready?

Agree with the general sentiment that we need to stop poncing about.

What would Smurthwaite need a white wig for?

Moore could see what hand he was going to be dealt before he accepted the position. His job was to play it. It wasn’t a free hit.

Warren has let himself down here. Not only did he use a swear word but he also began a sentence with a conjunction.

If you have two midfielders in double figures then it should be the icing on the cake of at the very least a half decent season.

We really missed his goal.

I'd love to know what Moore's own thoughts are with regard to relegation. I'm sure his plan was to keep us up and he will have received assurances regarding his budget for next season when he came. Otherwise I don't think he comes in the first place. Being in League Two will not have been a contingency. I wonder if this changes his thinking as to whether he wants to even be here. If you had said to me not even a year ago that Darren Moore would be Port Vale manager I would have been amazed. Nor would I have believed how his stock had plummeted since he got Sheffield Wednesday through the play offs. However from his point of view he has made some pretty catastrophic career decisions in that time.

You can't see where everyone was when the ball was played as their keeper kicked it from his own half and everyone is out of shot. Their player who received the ball, runs from deep and as the camera pans across, Grant appears at the bottom left hand corner of the screen. It's a reasonable assumption that Grant is playing him on. There were a couple of their lads trotting back from offside positions but not active. It does my head in how some of our fans still have a very old school understanding of the offside rule and shout at the liner. Do they not watch football on TV?

There was a right time to sack Crosby but by early February it had been and gone. In the end he was sacked because Flitcroft was feeling the heat so he threw him under the bus.

I have been trying to work out whether Moore is part of the solution or part of the problem, and I can confidently say that I have absolutely no idea. However I’ve seen very little that makes a case for the former.

Because he got offered a job in Turkey.

The return fixture in December was dubbed El Sackico with both Crosby and Caldwell looking in danger.