Tranmere 0 Vale 1 - Post Match Comments

[Birches Head Fred]

A strange game to comment on and it's difficult to put into words. We could, and should, have had the game sewn up at half time and it's hard to recall a more one-sided 0-0 first half ever!

Loft, Pope, Birchall and others all had good opportunities to give Vale the lead but it seemed to be one of those games.

 

Pope's penalty was well hit but the keeper chose the right way to dive and pulled off a great save in front of a huge away following baying for Vale to take the deserved lead.

Half time came and went and it seemed only a matter of time until we finally broke the deadlock.........and what a goal to break it! Lines' free kick was inch perfect although the keeper did appear to leave plenty of the goal to aim at. Take nothing away from Lines though, an excellent curler into the top corner.

 

Cue a goal rush??????......no, this is Port Vale. 1-0 up against 10 men with enough chances to win 4 games and we end up clinging on somewhat.

 

Defensively excellent and Chilver's best game I've seen him play. Neal too made some fine saves.

Midfield - Griff was IMMENSE in my opinion with an all-round performance and some quality passing too!.

Up front, Tom and Ben worked their cotton socks off with little reward.

 

All in all a great 3 points and another clean sheet. A win is a win and although perhaps disappointing not to have won more convincingly, this was Tranmere away and probably the first time I've ever seen that.

 

Cracking away following and it's a good job too otherwise it would have really looked empty.

[grebovale]

Rate chuffed with this result,when they had a player sent off and the penalty miss I feared the worst,,

[ollyandpatch]

Goal from Rovers end !!

 

 

And from our end !!

 

[cheeky]

Lines, Griff, Loft for MoM. 2 out of the 3 are making me eat humble pie this season!

[Vital Spark]

Lines, Griff, Loft for MoM. 2 out of the 3 are making me eat humble pie this season!

 

Chilvers was MoM for me today.

[Shropshire_Valiant]

Excellent 3 points. Strangely we probably played better first half but just couldn't get the goal. You got that horrible feeling it was going to be one of those days, luckily Lines came up with that moment of brilliance. Hanging on a bit too much at the end but we thoroughly deserved the win, Tranmere were probably the worst team I've seen(apart from a couple of players) this season and we could/should have had 5 or 6 goals in that first half.

Good display from Chilvers especially 2nd half. A mention for Loft from me too, not his biggest fan at all before this season but he looks a totally different player. But for the first half miss he was excellent imo again and his turning into a really good all round midfield player. Top marks Lofty!

As Rob Page said Williamson put a good shift in as did the whole team to be fair.

 

Onwards and upwards!

[Howjy04]

Griff the Beast was my Man of the Match.

 

Total commitment to every ball, and today we were treated to some dribbling and even passes.

 

Excellent stuff Griff!! I'm glad you came back.

 

Probably his best game in a Vale shirt,Lines and Lofty were also excellent.

[sheffield61]

If Micky doesn't sign his contract soon, give the job to Page.

I wonder how long before the Sheff U job becomes available again?

Strong rumour here that will be on Monday morning!......

[Vital Spark]

Good day out yesterday, nice weather, good performance and result, although we made hard work of the last 10 minutes. Some great individual performances with Chilvers, Lines, and Lofty shining.

 

All this positivity tarnished by the appearance of Bratt and Jackson. I'm concerned by the fact they appeared to be representing the club in the VIP area - what's going on? Let's hope Smurf can quickly shed some light on this disturbing and very public appearance.

[Santa]

Ronnie Moore's post match interviews when his teams lose to Vale are always amusing. You usually wonder what game he's been watching.

 

[video=youtube_share;YHYoEIZKr1Y]

[Edge81]

Stunning free kick from Lines.

 

Popes penalty was a touch unlucky but a decent height for the keeper. Our recent record from pens isn't great. Surely Lines must be capable from 12 yards?

 

He's said that the pope and dodds on Twitter

[Howjy04]

On the football league show it said Ronnie Moore felt hard done by.I think they should have scored 2 but we should gave scored 9.

[blinkme]

yeah we've missed a lot of penalties in the last few seasons.

 

missed 2 from 2 this season? or have we had more than that? think i might be forgetting JMW scoring one

[valiant_593]

Should have been 6 or 7 to us if we could finish something. Out shooting was nothing short of woeful, pope and loft both missed a few, pope had 2 or 3 clear chances and a penalty. Game should have been over before the penalty. We need to start taking our chances against the better sides as our misses will be punished. Anyway it was a thoroughly deserved 3 points against a really bad side, saw many league 2 sides better than them last season.

 

Neal 7 couple of decent saves.

Yates 6 worst I've seen him this season.

Robertson 7 solid

Chilvers 8 very good game.

Dickinson 7 solid.

Birchall 5, thought he was pretty poor to be honest.

Loft 7 lots of energy and running at tranmere shame about his finishing.

Lines 8. Weak first half and an excellent second half with a great goal.

Griffith 9 I've been very critical of griff but he was my man of the match. First half was brilliant, his tackling as usual good but his passing and actual skill on the ball was great, great performance.

Williamson 7 looked dangerous as usual, still don't think he will score enough though.

Pope 5 struggled didnt win that many headers missed a fair few excellent chances and to top it off a poor penalty.

 

Subs

JMW 5 poor, dribbling in your own half with 5 mins to go isn't what you want to see.

Hughes 6, could have and should have scored.

 

Tranmere will be going down.

[nodge]

Birchall is not a winger. First half the lad that was sent off had him in his pocket bar the rash challenge in the box. Second half he got nothing out of Goodison.

Looked ok when he was picking up the ball in the middle though. He's no use on the wing though.