Match Thread: Forest Green R v Port Vale

[Davo666]

Some FGR staff member has just cleaned the camera lens on the ifollow camera with a rag. How delightfully tinpot.

Delightfully tinpot FGR managed to beat us !!

 

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[onestepatatime]

Get a grip some of you. We are a division 2 lower regions team. We are inconsistent. We can expect some games to be awful, some to be hum dingers. Division 2 players in general will have some good games, some average and some rank. They wouldn't be in Division 2 if they were consistent and playing good each game. There isn't a cat in helps chance of Aspin's black and white army going out of the League. We will be ok especially as there really are teams below us that are absolutely awful. Some we win, some we will lose. Valiants please don't go into overdrive apathy when we lose a game. UTV.

 

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[Howjy04]

In the top 10 worst performances I’ve ever seen.Vale Fan in Alsager got it right.Pope went back 4 months today.I really don’t want to argue btw.He won no headers,had no shots or headers at goal in 90 minutes.We have got to change our playing style,when the ale house stuff doesn’t work.Angus looked lively and at least had a shot.FGR were garbage also.

 

 

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[Worcs White]

That was a dreadful game played between two abject teams the complete opposite of the Luton performance. A great following that’s stood out in freezing conditions deserved much better than that, it was really poor. Neither side looked much cop and one piece of very good football by an experienced striker with a great shot won the game. Very difficult to pick any positives from any Vale player we offered nothing and I couldn’t pick out any player worthy of credit.

 

The five minutes of pressure they had before the goal came about when Davis headed a ball out for a corner when all he needed to do was leave it to go for a goal kick. Minor decision but it created the pressure they needed that ended in the goal. We seemed to do that all game by losing the ball, poor passing or continually putting the ball out for throw ins, our own bad play gave them opportunities to put us under pressure. A very poor day at the office.

[arthurdog]

Gh the new guy Dior, ominously already looking a bit out of his depth in league football.

 

Good grief,the kid only signed the other day and was making his debut and played 15 minutes and you are writing him off already. Honestly I despair with some people.

[gags 64]

Worrying to me that we have lost to a team basically thrown together 2 days before a game.

 

3 new signings who barely had the chance to bed in but by all accounts seemed far better organised and up for it than us

 

We do tend to lack a physical presence with our lightweight midfield and definitely miss a holding man like Grant

 

 

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[portvaleofbelvoir]

A poor game with a very good goal.

 

There was very little between the teams. One thing that stood out for me was how poorly we crossed the ball today. I thought only one of them was decent.

 

I thought both Gunning and Collins had a good game to be fair to them.

 

There was one incident in the second half when their towering player called Monthe appeared to be doing the Heimlich manoeuvre on Pope in their box. That’s how securely he’d marked him. Pope didn’t appeal but he’d been booked earlier I think.

 

Oh and if their chairman is so eco friendly then why doesn’t he put a roof over the away end and stop all the body heat going up into the ether? It was absolutely freezing,

[CambridgeDon]

That was a dreadful game played between two abject teams the complete opposite of the Luton performance. A great following that’s stood out in freezing conditions deserved much better than that, it was really poor. Neither side looked much cop and one piece of very good football by an experienced striker with a great shot won the game. Very difficult to pick any positives from any Vale player we offered nothing and I couldn’t pick out any player worthy of credit.

 

The five minutes of pressure they had before the goal came about when Davis headed a ball out for a corner when all he needed to do was leave it to go for a goal kick. Minor decision but it created the pressure they needed that ended in the goal. We seemed to do that all game by losing the ball, poor passing or continually putting the ball out for throw ins, our own bad play gave them opportunities to put us under pressure. A very poor day at the office.

 

Sounds absolutely dire - no wonder Aspo kept the players in the dressing room for over an hour. This will tell him a lot about these players and some of them will know that their futures are limited if they keep this up. Hopefully, this will prove to be another turning point, leading on to another run of good form.

 

The question bugging me though is how he's going to change it unless he can introduce some competition for places. To quote Micky, good organisation and motivation can only get you so far - what's needed is a few better players. Can we rely on Norman to help out?

[Jacko51]

Blatant penalty on Pope in second half. If that was a pen at Notts then this was a pen and three red cards. The guy just grabbed him round the waist and dragged him to the floor. The liner had a clear, totally unobstructed view and gave nothing. Moments later one of their players fell to the floor claiming a push and he was flagging wildly for a foul. It was a very poor game but stupidity like that from officials didn’t help.

[PV1973]

Let’s be honest that was a dire game with nothing between the sides bar a great goal. But in amongst that we created 2 very good chances that we should have done better with. Firstly how Harness missed the chance on the edge of the 6 year yard box I don’t know. Secondly when Worrall got free in the box and fired it over he should have hit the target. However both those chances were arguably all we created all game and they came late in the second half. But it wasn’t enough from us to have just a small spell of pressure like that.

 

First half I think we looked to keep it tight. Pugh and Gibbons hardly ventured forward and we looked to play over the top in the channels. I thought we had some joy with that, and got a few decent crosses in but we lacked any real cutting edge. We had no joy at all with getting the ball up to Pope. Our best outlets were Gibbons with Harness out wide on the right and Whitfield and Worrall down the left, but that was really slim pickings. Going the other way we were too exposed in the midfield, Harness does not track back and a few times we were caught 2 on 1 out wide. Equally there were times when Kay and Tonge were out of position or misplaced passes and they were in on the back 4. But for the majority of the game we were just lumping the ball up front from the back and didn’t get it down much. Surely they were under orders to do that from the management. Having said that Boot didn’t really have a save to make all game.

 

Second half they must have recognised how we were getting down the sides and they dropped their wingers back and played 5 at the back. They hardly got out of that shape and we couldn’t break them down. Again pope was having no joy and hitting him just wasn’t working. With them keeping a solid 5 at the back we struggled to get down the sides and in the main we had to hit balls in to the box from further up the pitch, much easier to defend. One of the few times we did get to the byline saw Harness miss his chance.

 

Overall I don’t think the midfielders and forwards put enough in. It’s all well and good keeping the back 4 staying in, but if that happens you need the players in front to put a shift in, I don’t think they did. We hardly held he ball up up at front and as a result couldn’t get players in to the game, Whitfield was anonymous, and also that meant more pressure on the defence. I also don’t think we had the guile to break them down. I’d question our tactics too. Maybe we could have gone 3 at the back and pushed the full backs on, but maybe that would have closed down our space even more. Barnett came on to go 2 up front and he had the same effect as Pope. Worrall and Harness were all over the place first half positonally and second half we seemed to be playing with no right winger at all. Overall we were sloppy. Granted it took a moment of brilliance to win the game and we missed a couple of great chances, but they stifled us and we couldn’t find a way through it. Maybe a midfielder who’s a bit more creative with an eye for a pass is a must, but we kept banging away doing the same stuff and had no answers from the players or management tactically.

[Bea Smith]

Give it a rest mate

 

 

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I don't see why he shouldn't post a perfectly valid opinion, none of us like losing, particularly when it is completely avoidable.

The one error in his post is when he says the squad looked cheap compared to FGR. It isn't the squad, or the management team that look cheap at Vale...

[philpvfc]

Can take losing but I cannot take losing when the players don’t give 100% and play as bad as we did today. Bottom of the league and they were better than us. Froze me knackers off, 30 minutes to get off the car park, certainly a ground I wont be rushing back to. Only thing gone well today was Coventry winning, then that gets ruined as Hughes gets the sack.

[For Us All]

In the top 10 worst performances I’ve ever seen.Vale Fan in Alsager got it right.Pope went back 4 months today.I really don’t want to argue btw.He won no headers,had no shots or headers at goal in 90 minutes.We have got to change our playing style,when the ale house stuff doesn’t work.Angus looked lively and at least had a shot.FGR were garbage also.

 

 

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If teams do a job on Popey we don't seem to have a Plan B.Luton couldn't handle him but Notts and FGR could.

Duffy and Gunning knew what was coming and prepared for it.

We need to adapt.

[Regal Beagle]

If teams do a job on Popey we don't seem to have a Plan B.Luton couldn't handle him but Notts and FGR could.

Duffy and Gunning knew what was coming and prepared for it.

We need to adapt.

 

Agreed, Swindon and Mansfield also did a decent job against him and look what happened there.

 

If Pope plays well, we play well. We need a viable alternative though as we're bound to bump into tricky defenders and Pope is bound to have the odd off day.

[Bea Smith]

Agreed, Swindon and Mansfield also did a decent job against him and look what happened there.

 

If Pope plays well, we play well. We need a viable alternative though as we're bound to bump into tricky defenders and Pope is bound to have the odd off day.

 

 

I agree about needing someone else up front - someone like Reuben Reid would have been good, don't you think ? I'm sure Aspin will have considered him, but might have not had the same funds as a massive club like FGR had available for their manager to sign Reid, - oh, and Gunning, --- oh, and 3 others so far.....