Worst Vale Defence Ever?

[melv]

and that 19 year old could have given us 3 points last night - says it all

 

Which just goes to show how crap this lot are.I remember Innis giving Dicko a rayte bol******* and he was right to do so

[paulvaliant]

Peter Billing always used to worry me. Never looked comfortable or confident imho and with a strange run if memory serves me right, probably didn't help having class defenders around him in Aspin, Deano, Swan and Tanks. Of the current lot I would get rid of ALL the experienced defenders bar Veseli.

[mr.hobblesworth]

I'd keep Yates.

[valiant_593]

I'd keep Yates.

 

Why? Hes been poor all season and is a league 2 player. Nowhere near good enough. If we want to go to the next level players like Yates have to be moved on.

[SourceOfTheTrent]

As a long standing fan I, like many others on here, have seen some awful defenders and defences representing the Vale and the current lot are performing pretty poorly this season. Up until Innis arrived I think we had only kept one clean sheet then suddenly kept a few in a row which surely couldn't have been by chance, demonstrating how sadly lacking the collective efforts of our regulars have been when an inexperienced 19 year old has such an effect.

As a team game defending is not just about the back four, as the old cliché goes it starts with the front players and goes through the whole team. I've said for a while we sometimes get overrun in midfield which results in goals conceded but at the moment I think our biggest issue is the failure to have any aerial command in our own box, goalkeeper included. Coupled with this is how easy it is for the opposition to sling crosses into our area, not good when we struggle to defend crosses!

Of the defenders in the squad I think some are not good enough for L1 and some others are looking worse than they should because they either aren't playing as well as they can or they don't benefit from being in the right 'blend' that suits their abilities, as demonstrated by the improvement shown when Innis was added to the blend.

Rob Page should know who he needs to let go and who he can keep and build with and as a former defender himself he must be aghast at some of the goals we concede.

Personally I think we should now use the rest of the season to start working on getting the defending right and being hard to beat, looking towards improving what the team will do next season and that means all over the pitch. Rudgey's first target every season was the number of clean sheets he expected, usually around the 20 mark, indicating his agreement with the old Herbert Chapman doctrine of 'what we have we hold' and building on that. 20 clean sheets guarantees a minimum 20 points or 30% towards survival / 15% towards promotion. This season we're on for less than 10 clean sheets, ie, less than half the percentage needed towards survival. Bottom line is when we don't score a couple of goals or more we lose which is a recipe for disaster.

[SourceOfTheTrent]

BTW, I don't think we're a million miles away from having a decent side but we have to stop conceding so many goals. I'd go for quality over quantity in the squad because I think that offers the most effective return on the budget seeing as we can't have the big club luxury of both.

[FolkyVale]

In the 91/92 season our defence was Hughes (42 apps) - Glover (46) - Aspin (42) - Mills (33).

18 games without a win.

I remember crying when I got home from the Middlesbrough game - we lost 2-1 and it dawned on me that we were SOOOO bad that Boro scoring an o.g. was our most likely way of getting a goal.

 

So there, I've said it, the worse defence I've ever seen was Hughes, Glover, Aspin and Mills.

[Robbie Earle's Perm]

In the 91/92 season our defence was Hughes (42 apps) - Glover (46) - Aspin (42) - Mills (33).

18 games without a win.

I remember crying when I got home from the Middlesbrough game - we lost 2-1 and it dawned on me that we were SOOOO bad that Boro scoring an o.g. was our most likely way of getting a goal.

 

So there, I've said it, the worse defence I've ever seen was Hughes, Glover, Aspin and Mills.

 

You need to have a lie down, they were 4 heroes! ;)

[FolkyVale]

You need to have a lie down' date=' they were 4 heroes! ;)[/quote']

 

It has to be said that the midfield in front of them that season was awful.

Walker did his cruciate and missed most of the season - Nico Jalink (nuff said).

Hughes and Mills were both on their last legs and Aspin & Glover were done for height over and over again.

Houchen and Foyle couldn't hit the side of a bus even if they were sitting on the top deck.

An utterly demoralising season!

[Ben]

Bob Delgado and paid 30k for him in 1978.

[kevin_struggles]

We managed to beat Spurs with Kevin Steggles at right back...:D

 

 

Last night was very poor but some defenders from the late 70's early 80's were probably worse.

 

 

he struggled a bit did Kevin ;)

[Heatwave]

Just checked on Wikipedia. Vale finished in 88th position in the league in the 1979-80 season

 

We did indeed. Rochdale kept us out of the re-election zone (remember that?) by only losing to Hereford 2-0. That saw us stay out of the zone on goals scored.

 

Someone's already mentioned Bob Delgado so no need for me to add his name to the list; only to say that I was unfortunate enough to watch his debut for Vale at Barnsley, a 5-0 defeat.

[kevin_struggles]

In the 91/92 season our defence was Hughes (42 apps) - Glover (46) - Aspin (42) - Mills (33).

18 games without a win.

I remember crying when I got home from the Middlesbrough game - we lost 2-1 and it dawned on me that we were SOOOO bad that Boro scoring an o.g. was our most likely way of getting a goal.

 

So there, I've said it, the worse defence I've ever seen was Hughes, Glover, Aspin and Mills.

 

Ist that the season where we kept drawing? My memory is fading a bit but if it was that season then we didnt have a bad defence, our problems were up the other end.

[Robbie Earle's Perm]

It has to be said that the midfield in front of them that season was awful.

Walker did his cruciate and missed most of the season - Nico Jalink (nuff said).

Hughes and Mills were both on their last legs and Aspin & Glover were done for height over and over again.

Houchen and Foyle couldn't hit the side of a bus even if they were sitting on the top deck.

An utterly demoralising season!

 

Loved Nico but he was no good in a dog fight, he'd have been class in a promotion chasing side.

[AlienTitWrench]

Remember the days of players like:

 

 

Richard Walker

Keith Lowe

Colin Pluck

Liam Burns

Big Exodus

Mitchell Hanson

Clayton Fortune

Steve Rowland