Matchday Thread: Port Vale v Bradford City

[Santa]

He scored a goal for Vale and used his hand

He did bundle it over the line against Fleetwood with his hand, I agree. But that isn't a good enough reason for the referee not to disallow his goal today.

[melv]

He did bundle it over the line against Fleetwood with his hand, I agree. But that isn't a good enough reason for the referee not to disallow his goal today.

 

I agree.The point I was trying to make is what comes around,goes around.And not forgetting incompetent officials.

[Sandyford_Lion]

Good to see the effort from the lads but most are really poor footballers. Each time Bradford broke on us it resulted in an effort on goal, most of which were pretty poor to be honest. Each time we broke it resulted in a player losing the ball or a crap cross to no-one.

 

I don't get this thinking that we deserved a point for the effort the lads put in; 100% effort should be a given from every professional footballer in the country. On ability we got what we deserved.

 

When Brown was made caretaker manager, I was all for him having the job until the end of the season and permanently if he kept us up but I expected more than one win in ten. I guess it would be virtually impossible to employ anyone decent at this stage, particularly with Smurthwaite's apparent reluctance to pay the going rate and the tarnished reputation he must have for the way he gloated over getting rid of Page.

 

 

Yes there was effort today but the quality was really poor

 

Keeper back four and Pugh not too bad today

 

Front two and two wide men were awful

 

How will they score the goals we need ?

 

Hooper and Forrester cannot lead the line, cannot hold the ball and will never score enough goals that we need

 

Eagle's and Thomas are our experience in the team but cannot create chances.

Both are not fit enough to play at a pace for more than the first half

Neither can get around the full back and cross the ball in

They offer no help defensively to the team either

 

What makes it even worse is that this pairing is the only option we have and hold the experience we need

 

You look at the remaining wide players,about six of them and they don't even deserve a place on the bench

 

If the wide men and front two were better then I think it would help the defence a little more and who knows maybe just maybe a clean sheet of two

 

This squad will offer very little for us i am afraid and then only outcome is relegation.

 

Thanks to Smurf we will be relegated and deservedly so

You get what you pay for and we have purchased a poor quality squad that will get us nothing

[Hagrid]

Again a spirited performance in spells. We were on top in the second half until Jones superbly brought the ball down with his hand and finished with aplomb. How we could do with a striker with instinct like him (was a blatant handball though, staggered that the linesman/ref missed it considering I easily saw it from the back of the RS).

 

We suffered from the same problems of poor finishing today. Hooper had a golden opportunity following great work from Forrester just before HT which he dragged wide. The issue with our forwards is, probably due to their inexperience, they flit in and out of games and therefore we struggle to maintain pressure for more than 10 minutes at a time.

 

Guy was a revelation at RB. Strong in the tackle, quick to get forward, and hard working. Though Kiko had another decent game. He's very raw but his work ethic and determination are assets that we'll need in this run in.

 

Eagles looked decent in flashes but to me, when defending, he is a passenger and tucks inside far too much, which gave Meredith license to wreak havoc on the left until his booking.

 

Referee was woeful for both sides today, some bizarre decisions all round.

 

As ineffective as he can be, I would like to see Cicilia partner Forrester when he is fit, just to give us a phyiscal presence of set pieces/crosses. Forrester did superbly for Hooper's goal and he could do with a lumbering mass like Reg to aim at. Would like to see Shadipo replace Eagles at home, just to give us a bit of width, though he was fairly anonymous today. Although Pugh wasn't as influential as against the Gas, I noticed he was constantly in the ear of younger/foreign players, both to encourage and to guide. Glad to see him on the way to proving me wrong.

 

We are getting into a habit of playing half-decently and having very little to show for it, a hallmark of a relegation-destined side imho. Anything from these next 2 away games is a bonus, and there the onus is on the massive home games against Swindon and Shrews.

 

On a side note, it was nice to see Bradford fans join in wholeheartedly for the applause in the 20th minute. If they hadn't got the annoying habit of poaching any decent player we come across, I'd wish them well.

[DIV3SOUTH]

We played well for us today! But, unfortunately our 'well' isn't good enough for the better teams in this division.

Respect goes to Callum Guy, well out of position, who in the first half didn't know if he should turn left or right and often just stood still, however he improved greatly as the game went on.

[TheSage]

Bit unlucky today but some of our supposed quality players did not perform or create anything. Thomas and Foley have to do more going forward. JJ and Anton don't hold up the ball well enough for 75% of the time. Their lad Hiwula was far more mobile and a greater threat. We just lack that bit of quality in the final third.

 

The patched up defence got better as the game progressed but if we'd got a couple of big lads at the back they wouldn't have scored either goal.

 

Guy was excellent for an emergency right back. In parts, going forwards, Eagles was fine., But he can't defend and isn't yet 100% fit.

 

The two full backs were good today - Guy and Kiko. Can't see why Pugh was MOTM.

 

We deserved a point today against a top six team but I thought they had a bit more quality in both penalty boxes. A shame because there was 100% effort today. It was a decent performance but not helped by an inept and poor referee who let their lads get away with murder.

[Santa]

Forrester looks like a player who doesn't want to test his hamstring. Compared to how he played at the start of the season he seems to be doing a lot less running.

[soothsayer]

Fasan

 

Purkiss

Smith

Pugh

Kilo

 

Guy

Foley

Thomas

Eagles

 

Forrester

Hooper

 

How Eagles can be selected is beyond me. Also worry about Guy but he's never going to play Amaros. Still no sign of the other QPR lad despite Shalaj getting on he bench. Bizzare

 

Sent from my Moto G (4) using the onevalefan mobile app

 

In case you didn't attend today's game: Eagles was our most offensive, dangerous player and Guy played well as a makeshift RB after the opening 15mins.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using the onevalefan mobile app

[bookworm]

4 points away from home wouldn't go amiss.

[CAVALIER]

It wasn't radio Stoke , it was Blakeman, he is a total fuckingcuntheadedwanker

[CAVALIER]

In fairness, I thought there would be a bleep after the w

[beasty77]

We want our Vale back, we want our Vale back..

[Rampant Zebra]

I thought Forrester did OK, he holds the ball up better than anyone in our forward line. You could see the difference when he went off.

 

Sent from my XT1072 using the onevalefan mobile app

[beasty77]

How the **** can anyone say this squad is better than last seasons?? This squad is shocking, and will struggle in league 2. Most of this side is not good enough for League 1. **** me Smurf.

[toyahw]

In fairness, I thought there would be a bleep after the w

 

fuckingcuntheadedwanker; a kind of Siberian wading bird I believe.