Staying up or going down ⚽

[raywalkersbananakick]

Belief and character, massive factors in our hopes of survival. As much as I was left underwhelmed by the signing of Pugh, now I'm pinning my hopes that he can be the midfield anchor man to hold us all together. Otherwise we look like a soft centre you could walk through.

 

If you'd asked me 2 weeks ago I'd have said we'd have stayed up no problem. Now with what's gone and what we've got, we are an unknown

Pugh is an absolute 1st starter for me vocal and experienced .... the back 4 need protection

 

Sent from my SM-G920F using the onevalefan mobile app

[stupers]

I'd seen enough before Saturday to think we wouldn't be in any trouble, but what a depressing result Saturday was. I would say we're looking over our shoulders but I still think we'll be alright.

 

I was thinking on the way home Saturday though, would it be better long-term for the club to go down? I don't think the club will get any boost from staying in this league. It's going to be hard to build momentum, certainly with the club the way it is at the moment. Despite the terrible owners, there was a buzz when we went down to League 2 and we got a bump from the promotion season which we never built on. But we won games, were one of the bigger sides in the league and generally it was a bit more fun. I think our fans enjoyed being one of the big fish in a small pond, compared to where we are now.

 

I know it's a controversial thought, but I can't get it out of my head so I thought I'd write it down to be discussed

[Worcs White]

I have everything crossed that MB can mould these players into a team and get the points we need, but playing anything other than 442 with the players we have will not yield the points we need. It hasn't worked all season and won't now. I felt Saturday was more a formation to accommodate new players, rather than one to defeat the opposition.

 

If Oldham win away at MK tonight we'll drop another point and only be three off the bottom four places.

 

I've looked at the remaining fixtures and even with my glass half full hat on could only see us getting 48 points and that included a win against the Posh. The stats make depressing reading and don't lie, 7 points out of the last 30 available. We are in free fall and games like Saturday have me believing we will be off to Grimsby next season.

[Guppy 4 England]

Looked at objectively, we probably need another 20-22 points from the remaining 17 games to stay in league One--not unachievable IMO?

 

All teams in this division seem capable of beating each other with no great logic--Believe me--if you're also doing the League One prediction competition! Look at the Southend v Scunthorpe match on Saturday and Bolton who not long ago looked a shoe-in for promotion have had a bad run--so too had Peterborough (until today!) We'll pick up again at some point and although I'm not a betting man, looking at the teams below us I still think we might just scrape into 19th/20th position. 18 games to go--keep the faith!

 

We need approx 18 points. I am sure we will get it, winning home games is a must, picking up anything on the road a bonus.

 

We need Forrester back fit asap, its no surprise he bagged a hat trick in the reserves in his first game back.

[smithie]

I'd seen enough before Saturday to think we wouldn't be in any trouble, but what a depressing result Saturday was. I would say we're looking over our shoulders but I still think we'll be alright.

 

I was thinking on the way home Saturday though, would it be better long-term for the club to go down? I don't think the club will get any boost from staying in this league. It's going to be hard to build momentum, certainly with the club the way it is at the moment. Despite the terrible owners, there was a buzz when we went down to League 2 and we got a bump from the promotion season which we never built on. But we won games, were one of the bigger sides in the league and generally it was a bit more fun. I think our fans enjoyed being one of the big fish in a small pond, compared to where we are now.

 

I know it's a controversial thought, but I can't get it out of my head so I thought I'd write it down to be discussed

 

It's only fun if you're eating the smaller fish.

[PVTony]

After having played eight games against the six 'worst teams?' in L1 (including Shrewsbury, who have the same number of points) Port Vale have only won one game. That was against Chesterfield.

From those eight games we have won one,drawn four and lost three.

That equals 7 points from a possible 24 against L1's worst teams.

Goals for = 6. goals conceded 11.

Oldham seem to be improving of late. Maybe they will pull clear of relegation.

The other five teams seem very poor, although Vale have only gathered five points from the six games that have been played against them.

Hope is that the bottom clubs poor form continues and the Vales form improves.

The next few games are tough and criticle. The next two are away to Gills and Millwall.

Worrying times ahead, but nothing can be done other than Brownie getting the best out of the squad and the fans giving their utmost support.

[Tenement Funster]

There is a lot riding on Brown here. The squad is good enough to stay up but he has to put it to best use. Thinking that players like Reggie, Kiko and Amoros have no place worries me when he seems to think the likes of Tanser on the last two Saturday's performance are good enough. I think we'll stay up. Just.

 

We made a huge blunder not signing an experienced centre half on deadline day and I can just hope Danny Pugh brings a bit of leadership to the pitch.

[valefan16]

Bad as Saturday was I think this new look team will do better away as odd as it sounds.

 

We are now built with pace and attacking promise and looked decent on the break against Scunthorpe, we also looked decent against Bury who cant defend and played Pope and Vaughan up front so were more open.

 

The issue with Saturday was that Peterborough sat in and hit us on the break (which has been shown to be our downfall with the goals conceded of late!) and we don't seem to be able to break down sides that are going to sit in. Peterborough were very Stevenage like in all the cynical fouls which left us having loads of pressure from set pieces which they seemed happy to defend all day.

 

As negatively as i felt Saturday after a positive two weeks performance wise I would not be surprised if we do alright in the two away games if we stick with the approach we had at Scunthorpe, but we need to defend better and not be so open on the counter.

 

We may even find games at home against harder opponents may be better as Bolton, Sheffield United wont sit as deep and will give us more scope going forward to hurt them.

[stupers]

It's only fun if you're eating the smaller fish.

 

To be fair, aside from that 1st season we very competitive at that level despite the mammoth weight of V2001 holding us back.

[Guppy 4 England]

We made a huge blunder not signing an experienced centre half on deadline day and I can just hope Danny Pugh brings a bit of leadership to the pitch.

 

Against probably all other vale fans views i said we needed an older centre back after northampton, we seemed to lack a leader back there despite how good smith and streete have been. I would have probably dropped smith to accomodate them as i think hes been a bit below par lately(tin hat on).

[Tenement Funster]

Against probably all other vale fans views i said we needed an older centre back after northampton, we seemed to lack a leader back there despite how good smith and streete have been. I would have probably dropped smith to accomodate them as i think hes been a bit below par lately(tin hat on).

 

Fully agreed. I find Smith to be a bit of a reactive centre half. Obviously has lots of talent and will get better but when partnered with Streete we don't read games well and concede far too many goals from a sheer lack of organisation. Dickinson was a limited player but he did organise and shout. We miss that.

[Fosse69]

There is a lot riding on Brown here. The squad is good enough to stay up but he has to put it to best use. Thinking that players like Reggie, Kiko and Amoros have no place worries me when he seems to think the likes of Tanser on the last two Saturday's performance are good enough. I think we'll stay up. Just.

 

We made a huge blunder not signing an experienced centre half on deadline day and I can just hope Danny Pugh brings a bit of leadership to the pitch.

Irrespective of what we think of Bruno, if some of the players he brought in are now fit and worthy of a place they have to be used. Building confidence and lifting the crowd is the only way we will stay up. Ignore Norman at present, concentrate on staying up.

[man in the pub]

Peterborough who were on a poor run looked like a team who were going to be involved in the promotion battle. We looked like a team who were going to be involved in a relegation battle.

Was also disappointed to hear Ben Purkiss on Radio Sjoke critising the forwards for not scoring when we were on top. Actually 1-0 down at the time . I txt in as was angry that he did not acknowledge his own 2 errors in the 2 previous games that cost us 2 goals and also remind him that we lost 3-0.

[Rampant Zebra]

Irrespective of what we think of Bruno, if some of the players he brought in are now fit and worthy of a place they have to be used. Building confidence and lifting the crowd is the only way we will stay up. Ignore Norman at present, concentrate on staying up.

I am sure Michael bBrown will use any players at his disposal if he thinks they are going to achieve results on the pitch. The fact that he plays Tanser at left back in front of Knops and Kiko suggests that he doesn't rate either of them.

[Heatwave]

I am sure Michael bBrown will use any players at his disposal if he thinks they are going to achieve results on the pitch. The fact that he plays Tanser at left back in front of Knops and Kiko suggests that he doesn't rate either of them.

 

Personally I don't know what Knops had done wrong for him to be dropped. All I can say is that on that display Tanser isn't the answer.