JRC

Stockport and Wrexham have been able to outbid us for several years. I suspect if they get promoted they will be outbidding the smaller Championship sides, rather than us.

Certainly need at least a point. Our away form is truely awful and scoring away from home is proving close to impossible. Since the start of the year we've managed 3 in 7 games.

Our goal difference is better than Shrewsbury. It's only 2 worse than Cambridge but to pull level we need to win and they need to lose. We'd then at least be level on goal difference but we've scored more goal. The difference with Burton is just 3 goals. We have a game in hand and the gap is only one point. A 3 goal difference isn't insurmountable.

He's become a regular at international age group level and scoring goal in men's football. Based on how much Thierry Small cost Southampton I'd be surprised if a big club didn't come in with an offer around a million. I think that would be hard to turn down. At the moment he's the hottest prospect in leagues 1 and 2. Garrity will certainly leave if we go down. Lower end Championship clubs and the bigger league 1 clubs would be interested at somewhere around 500 - 750k. With 12 months on his contract I'm pretty sure we'd accept something around that figure. Chisslet will probably also leave if we go down.

Sam Hoskins should probably have played higher. Very loyal to Northampton. He's better playing more centrally than as a winger. Maybe often being played out wide has limited his career a little. Very intelligent player.

From where we were 2 weeks ago I'd be reasonably happy if Cambridge had to win their last game to stay above us. That would at least show we had played well for a sustained number of games.

The next 2 away games are massive. Neither team has much to play for. As a minimum we need 2 points from those games. The 3 remaining home games are winnable. Torquay were relegated years ago with 51 points and a number of teams have gone down with 50. Looking at the table today and games to play it is not inconceivable that 52 points may be the safety target. It's entirely possible we could win the 3 home games and still go down. It's quite likely the Cambridge game will be a winner takes all.

For Cheltenham a lot depends on if they can get Matt Taylor back .... and how serious Lloyd's injury was yesterday. Rob Street is definitely out for the season. They have no other forwards and will be heavily dependent on Liam Sercombe for goals. Squad wise I think they may be in a very bad position. They'll be tough to beat but if the injuries go against them I think they'll fail due to a lack of goals.

I think teams may need as many as 50 points this season to stay up. Shrewsbury are obviously best placed, similar position to us last season. Fleetwood and Carlisle are looking all but certain to go. They are also the 2 teams who have conceded more than us. Of the other 5 teams we do have the best goal scoring record, which may count in our favour. Lyle Taylor went off injured for Cambridge yesterday. Lloyd went off injured for Cheltenham, who are missing Matt Taylor. We have lost Wilson but he's not been that effective this season. 4 goals, 3 from open play; a goal every 411 or 545 minutes respectively and no assist all season. We also have Uche coming back and the fast developing Dipepa. The big thing for us from yesterday is Garrity, although he seemed to be moving relatively well when he came off. Shrewsbury are abysmal at scoring, while Burton are little better. The next 6 games are going down to who wins the most, a draw is just marginally better than a defeat. Hopefully we'll be in a better position than those around us to score the goals to get more wins.

As a defender it's harder tackle when going backwards. Your weight and momentum are all in the wrong place. It's also hard to shepherd a player away from goal when the whole defence is going backwards and lost it's shape. I thought it was an excellent goal because once he had the defence in panic mode he kept on running hard and never let them regain shape collectively or set their body position individually so they had a stable position to get in a tackle. What he also did well was he recognised that 3 of the 5 defenders around him were were running back and to their right, where Loft had made an intelligent run into space. That opened up the space on their left and to our right for him to run into and ultimately score. If Loft hadn't made his run the 3 defenders would have reset the defensive line and Dipepa would have been pushed wide of goal on our left. For me it was an excellent goal because there was a moment when we forced their defenders to defend by instinct, rather than by training ground drills. He recognised the situation, ignored the easy ball to Loft which Bristol were scrambling to counter and made use of the space that Loft's run had opened up. Even getting around their number 3 at the end was done well as he was moving left to right to fill a hole that had opened up to the goal, so his momentum meant he couldn't do a lot when Dipepa went right again, which gave him extra time to set himself before getting his shot away.

Firstly I've been really impressed with James Plant over the last couple of games. He is starting to look like an accomplished wingback on both sides. Excellent and important 3 points. It's going to be incredibly competitive between now and the end of April. Today was probably the last game for James Wilson as a Port Vale player. Looked very much like a hamstring. Hopefully Garrity was more of a precaution, we need him fit for the remaining games. Monday is now the biggest game of the season. Best chance of an away win on paper.

Not an easy but a winnable game today. The fixture list has been relatively kind as we have 4 home games against teams you would expect (rather than hope) a reasonable league 1 side would get a result against. The away games are far tougher. If we win the next 4 home games that's 48 points and we almost certainly stay up. We win 3 and draw one we'll maybe stay up. If we do worse than that we deserve to be relegated anyway.

Dean Smith and hulbert need to be added to the awful signings list aswell! Hulbert was OK in a holding role. He was no world beater but he did the simple stuff well enough.

I suspect Craig Rocastle is still buried deep in your brain 🤔

Until we are relegated or the Cambridge game every game will be the biggest from now on in.

I believe it was Horton who (allegedly) got stabbed in the back by Foyle and Glover. They were (allegedly) promised the job at the end of Brian Horton's contract. Horton found out he wasn't getting a new contract and left. Foyle was still playing when Rudge left and only profited in the sense he got the job as youth team coach. He took over as manager when Horton left.

The biggest game of the season so far.

If Rudge has some input it will probably be Foyle. Certainly a nice guy with a deep love of football. If part of the job is overseeing the youth development I'm not sure how strong his CV, although he did briefly coach our under 15s. His general recruitment was good for us when he had no money; the bit that went wrong was when Bratt opened the purse strings. Post Vale he's generally had a good track record. Possibly the only person in the game who watches more football than Rudge used to. He'd be much more in the background than Flitcroft.

Loft and Wilson will start. Dipepa will probably be on the bench.

We do seem to play Rovers in games that matter. What price another Loft winner?

Nope but he's back properly in training.

I suspect Uche and Dipepa will make the bench next weekend. Having 4 forwards available will make a difference.

Before getting to Vale what an ugly side Burton have become. They are a talentless Wimbledon. I thought the players stood up well to the physical challenge. First half against the wind was a challenge. Second half we actually played some good stuff. I thought Loft's overall game was outstanding. They had big centrehalves and he won more than his share of headers. After a poor start at Vale his general play has been quite good, just no confidence infront of goal. Did well to create the chance for Chislett. Chislett probably did us a favour in missing as you could see how much scoring meant to him. Hopefully he can knock a few more in over the remainder of the season. Sadly probably a bit too late in the season to make a difference but I want to see fight and for the players to be trying to stay up.

The first 2 weren't great but OK. Southall was probably the best keeper in Europe when he came in for that short spell. Went back to Everton and the rest was history. Bury away was the best goalkeeping display I've seen in a Vale shirt.

As late as October we had conceded fewest in the league from set pieces. It hasn't been an all season thing but has happened with increasing regularity as the season has progressed.