Match Thread: Port Vale v Exeter City

[beasty77]

All this Aspin out talk is simply ******* embarrassing. Are people that blind? Normanfuckingsmurthwaite is the problem. If Aspin keeps this side up hes worked miracles.

[mickyferns]

All this Aspin out talk is simply ******* embarrassing. Are people that blind? Normanfuckingsmurthwaite is the problem. If Aspin keeps this side up hes worked miracles.

The bigger picture Smurthwaite is the problem but the reason we haven't won in 2018 comes down to the manager simple as, he has the players to work with but they don't want to play for him, even 7 out of the 8 HE signed don't perform for him is that Smurfs fault? The owner is the cancer at this club but the manager has to take the blame for the performances on the pitch.

[valiant_593]

Neil Aspin isn't the issue. Please will people get this through their skulls. Smurf has had 5 managers under his tenure, and fans have constantly blamed each of them. Can none of you see the recurring problem? Imagine Aspin does go...why would you have faith in Smurf appointing the Manager you want? Why would Smurf all of a sudden support the new Manager with a wage structure that attracts quality over quantity? What is it that I'm missing that makes him such a great owner in some people's eyes?

 

What am I and now a lot of others missing that makes aspin a good manager? What is it now 13/14 games without a win. I don't care what issues there are at the club or what players you have that is an utterly embarrassing record. The squad is bad but not that bad. He may not be the biggest issue but he's part of it. If it was brown or page or Bruno everyone would want him gone.

[darren1810]

We all know the problem at Vale, its got to the stage of apathy. I agree Aspin has his hands tied and he is blindfolded. At the time i expressed reservations about what credentials he had to be our manager. Had we appointed the Boreham Wood or Ebbsfleet managers then this place would of exploded with outrage, yet both were above Gateshead in the table. Aspin was purely appointed as an ex fans favourite and to placate / deflect the anger from you know who.

We are slowly sleep walking our way to non-league football. Forget the oh we created loads of chances, we will beat Chesterfield talk, we simply look unlikely to win another game this season.

We have just had the likes of Yeovil, Morecambe, Barnet, Grimsby, Stevenage during this winless run. Zero victories against poor to awful opponents.

I listened to Adam Yates after the game on the radio, even the players come across as deflated and negative. We must make sure we don't lose to Chesterfield was pretty much his sentiment, how about we WILL beat a very poor Chesterfield instead?

The root cause of all the misery is the man at the top however as others have said , take off your blinkers and see that things are not all down to him. Bizarre team selections have played their part and then he tries to rectify it in the 2nd half .

Quite simply this is the lowest i have ever felt about my club and these lot are the worst set of players ever to disgrace the shirt.

[mickyferns]

We all know the problem at Vale, its got to the stage of apathy. I agree Aspin has his hands tied and he is blindfolded. At the time i expressed reservations about what credentials he had to be our manager. Had we appointed the Boreham Wood or Ebbsfleet managers then this place would of exploded with outrage, yet both were above Gateshead in the table. Aspin was purely appointed as an ex fans favourite and to placate / deflect the anger from you know who.

We are slowly sleep walking our way to non-league football. Forget the oh we created loads of chances, we will beat Chesterfield talk, we simply look unlikely to win another game this season.

We have just had the likes of Yeovil, Morecambe, Barnet, Grimsby, Stevenage during this winless run. Zero victories against poor to awful opponents.

I listened to Adam Yates after the game on the radio, even the players come across as deflated and negative. We must make sure we don't lose to Chesterfield was pretty much his sentiment, how about we WILL beat a very poor Chesterfield instead?

The root cause of all the misery is the man at the top however as others have said , take off your blinkers and see that things are not all down to him. Bizarre team selections have played their part and then he tries to rectify it in the 2nd half .

Quite simply this is the lowest i have ever felt about my club and these lot are the worst set of players ever to disgrace the shirt.

Great post, pretty much sums my feelings up too I just couldn't word it as well as u have

[TJHValiant]

I find this “very decent” man stuff to keeping Aspin ridiculous. We have had 2 other playing legends in Foyle and Glover in charge, who were both rightly panned for poor efforts.

 

Bruno, under the same Smurfwaite was wanted out for losing a mere 6 games on the bounce. He makes the Aspin era look like a glory period.

 

Page, who got us to our highest ever league finish, also under a Mr Smurfwaite was wanted out for boring football and poor away efforts.

 

Yet people want Aspin to stay?

 

That makes no logical sense. Even going back to Foyle and Glover, people wanted them out before the owner at the time.

 

Does that mean that ultimately Bratt was better than Smurf?

 

I do agree that Smurf needs to sell but the idea that Aspin is a great manager who is being held back by dire support is hard to take.

[Twitters]

All this Aspin out talk is simply ******* embarrassing. Are people that blind? Normanfuckingsmurthwaite is the problem. If Aspin keeps this side up hes worked miracles.

 

Agreed. Anyone blaming Aspin at this moment in time needs to give their head an absolute wobble.

 

It is blatently clear that Aspin was not given the money he needed and the team needed to push on in January. We lost Gunning because the club wouldn't make him a decent offer despite Aspin vocally wanting to keep him. We lost Pope to injury because we have no-one else who can play and get the goals we need up front. Barnett, Forrester and Turner just aren't good enough to replace Pope and Angus is a long term project. Apart from Hannant and Angus, all the players we've signed have been loan deals where we are probably contributing little to nothing in terms of wages to their parent clubs. We don't have an experienced keeper and wages are taken up by two experienced but aging players in midfield. So Aspin has been working with a chairman who won't put his hands in the sweetie jar for wages and working with players signed by the former manager who blatently aren't good enough.

 

Yes a couple of times Aspin has made tactical decisions that have left people scratching their heads, but so did Mickey Adams and so did John Rudge. Aspin deserves a chance next season and deserves our support. Aspin was appointed on October 4th. We took 26 points out of a possible 42 in his first 14 league games. Over the course of the season that's 85 points. We put 4 past Luton and beat teams like Coventry and Carlisle. In the first game in January we were a dodgy penalty away from taking a point from Notts County. Aspin clearly has the ability but we are stuck in a rut and he needs our support to get out of it, not idiots wanting a manager sacked who's only been in a job 6 months.

[Twitters]

I find this “very decent” man stuff to keeping Aspin ridiculous. We have had 2 other playing legends in Foyle and Glover in charge, who were both rightly panned for poor efforts.

 

Bruno, under the same Smurfwaite was wanted out for losing a mere 6 games on the bounce. He makes the Aspin era look like a glory period.

 

Page, who got us to our highest ever league finish, also under a Mr Smurfwaite was wanted out for boring football and poor away efforts.

 

Yet people want Aspin to stay?

 

That makes no logical sense. Even going back to Foyle and Glover, people wanted them out before the owner at the time.

 

Does that mean that ultimately Bratt was better than Smurf?

 

I do agree that Smurf needs to sell but the idea that Aspin is a great manager who is being held back by dire support is hard to take.

 

Sacking him makes no logical sense either. Who are we going to get in at short notice who can turn the team around with no decent fit striker, an aging midfield and kids at centre back because the chairman provided no money to the manager to pay decent wages?

[mickyferns]

Agreed. Anyone blaming Aspin at this moment in time needs to give their head an absolute wobble.

 

It is blatently clear that Aspin was not given the money he needed and the team needed to push on in January. We lost Gunning because the club wouldn't make him a decent offer despite Aspin vocally wanting to keep him. We lost Pope to injury because we have no-one else who can play and get the goals we need up front. Barnett, Forrester and Turner just aren't good enough to replace Pope and Angus is a long term project. Apart from Hannant and Angus, all the players we've signed have been loan deals where we are probably contributing little to nothing in terms of wages to their parent clubs. We don't have an experienced keeper and wages are taken up by two experienced but aging players in midfield. So Aspin has been working with a chairman who won't put his hands in the sweetie jar for wages and working with players signed by the former manager who blatently aren't good enough.

 

Yes a couple of times Aspin has made tactical decisions that have left people scratching their heads, but so did Mickey Adams and so did John Rudge. Aspin deserves a chance next season and deserves our support. Aspin was appointed on October 4th. We took 26 points out of a possible 42 in his first 14 league games. Over the course of the season that's 85 points. We put 4 past Luton and beat teams like Coventry and Carlisle. In the first game in January we were a dodgy penalty away from taking a point from Notts County. Aspin clearly has the ability but we are stuck in a rut and he needs our support to get out of it, not idiots wanting a manager sacked who's only been in a job 6 months.

On what evidence do u base "Aspin clearly has the ability" cus I haven't seen a hint of it yet. Smurthwaite is a buffoon that's for sure and not backing up his promise to splash the cash clearly shows this but how many managers in this league have owners that have thrown tons of money their way for players? Not many that's for sure cus that's what this league is made up of free transfers and chancers so in that respect we are in the same boat as them all other than the manager we employ..... Who for a second thinks Accy have got a huge budget that dwarfs our own? I'd bet their budget is closer to half of ours but they have a great team spirit generated from a good manager.

[darren1810]

I find this “very decent” man stuff to keeping Aspin ridiculous. We have had 2 other playing legends in Foyle and Glover in charge, who were both rightly panned for poor efforts.

 

Bruno, under the same Smurfwaite was wanted out for losing a mere 6 games on the bounce. He makes the Aspin era look like a glory period.

 

Page, who got us to our highest ever league finish, also under a Mr Smurfwaite was wanted out for boring football and poor away efforts.

 

Yet people want Aspin to stay?

 

That makes no logical sense. Even going back to Foyle and Glover, people wanted them out before the owner at the time.

 

Does that mean that ultimately Bratt was better than Smurf?

 

I do agree that Smurf needs to sell but the idea that Aspin is a great manager who is being held back by dire support is hard to take.

 

I expect to be mocked and laughed at here but i have broad shoulders. We would not of gone down under Bruno. We were sinking and playing poorly but he was sacked because of the blue ones promise of top 6 .

 

We all go round in circles, but lets look forward. We stay up great. Did the clown Brown not give 2 year deals to the likes of Kay,Lainton and Barnett.

I had personal abusive messages because my opinion was that Barnett was in my words ' a dreadful lump ' .

This summer will see the 3rd mass clearout in a row and starting with a totally new squad.

 

Just consider this when harping on about budgets....Morecambe who last night had a crowd of 893 and who have their main player Ellison ready to draw his pension managed to beat Exeter and thrash Wycombe recently. Budget helps of course it does but it isn't the sole reason for success, ask Burton Albion or Shrewsbury.

[Family Stand Terrier]

What am I and now a lot of others missing that makes aspin a good manager? What is it now 13/14 games without a win. I don't care what issues there are at the club or what players you have that is an utterly embarrassing record. The squad is bad but not that bad. He may not be the biggest issue but he's part of it. If it was brown or page or Bruno everyone would want him gone.

What you're missing despite repeated posts pointing out the blatantly obvious, is that the squad simply isn't good enough. It's a fundamental part of football and a pattern repeated throughout every league at every level...if the squad isn't good enough, regardless of who the manager is, you'll fail.

 

What you're also missing is the ability to look at the bigger picture. Aspin has turned a poor squad with 5 points and 2nd from bottom, into a much harder team to beat, with a superior goal difference to all those around us, 7 points and 4 spaces clear of the bottom 2. All of which he has achieved with pretty much the same squad that got us into this mess in the first place.

 

He wasn't brought in to entertain (how can he with this squad?). He hasn't had any where near the level of support he was promised, in fact it was the opposite, the squad has got weaker. Yet, whilst we're not winning, we're grinding out draws and the valuable points that come with them. We'd have lost most of those draws in the past.

 

I also fail to see why anyone in their right mind would want Smurf to take action with 8 games left, bearing in mind his track record of making pathetic, embarrassingly bad decisions. Seriously, think before you post. What do you think would happen?

 

Anyone blaming Aspin at this point, knows zero about football. It really is that simple. Everything, and I mean every tiny little thing that's wrong with the club, can be traced back to Smurthwaite.

[Smugsy]

I don't want Aspin sacked and 90+% of our problems are down to Smurfwaite but he has to shoulder some of the blame for the run that we are on now because he can't get the plaudits over December's run and not have it the other way round. His insistence on playing Tonge and Pugh together is baffling. Brown took a hell of a lot of stick over that but it seems that because Aspin picks them then it's "Well he's got nothing else" attitude. I thought under Brown that you could get away with one playing but not two and that has not changed but it seems like they are the first two on the team sheet each week. Put Worrall or Hannant in the middle and play Harkness or Whitfield out wide. It will give us energy in the middle that we are sorely missing. Oh and who's turn is it to play right back Saturday?

[Family Stand Terrier]

I expect to be mocked and laughed at here but i have broad shoulders. We would not of gone down under Bruno. We were sinking and playing poorly but he was sacked because of the blue ones promise of top 6 .

 

We all go round in circles, but lets look forward. We stay up great. Did the clown Brown not give 2 year deals to the likes of Kay,Lainton and Barnett.

I had personal abusive messages because my opinion was that Barnett was in my words ' a dreadful lump ' .

This summer will see the 3rd mass clearout in a row and starting with a totally new squad.

 

Just consider this when harping on about budgets....Morecambe who last night had a crowd of 893 and who have their main player Ellison ready to draw his pension managed to beat Exeter and thrash Wycombe recently. Budget helps of course it does but it isn't the sole reason for success, ask Burton Albion or Shrewsbury.

Deluded. Seriously you've lost focus now on the issues facing us. You've fallen into the tried and tested trap of deflecting blame from the main problem. Bruno would have kept us up? Smurf's greatest failure to date was the whole Bruno debacle. You've lost a huge amount of credibility with that post as far as I'm concerned. Horrendous post. Really really bad.

[PV1973]

Listening to praise and grumble on the way home last night and Aspin got a lot of stick for the Worrall sub. I sit just behind the dug outs and it looked to me like Worrall hobbled off injured after going doing in the corner a few minutes before. I haven't heard Aspins post match interview to if he addresses this.

 

Other than the goal I don't think Boot had a save to make. We were dominant throughout really, had some decent half chances, I think we hit both the bar and post and had a couple off the line too. Disappointed we didn't take one of them.

 

I said in the game that I thought Pugh and Tonge were controlling the midfield, and I think they both had a good game. Pugh was everywhere. Worrall stood out, he was very lively, with plenty of decent crosses in to the box. It was a pity he had to go off. On that though we really need another plan of attack, we rely on crosses in to the box and thats about it. We have no one capable of carving a defence open with a defence splitting ball or forwards that run behind defenders.

 

Howkins continued where he left off. He looked solid. Smith again went about his business without much fuss. Raglan was was much like Davis at right back, not that adventurous or adding much to the forward play. I know he got beat by the winger for the goal but I haven't seen the goal back to see who was marking the lad that scored, it looked like he got between the centre halves.

 

Based on Saturdays game I think Apsin got last nights starting 11 wrong and me and my mates at the match all agreed we're potentially wasting a sub in Gibbons. It was interesting to hear Aspin say earlier in the week that he needs to be careful how he manages him, yet hes heaping huge pressure on a young inexperienced player, by expecting him to come on every time we're losing and change the game. Why not start with him and tell him to sit back first half if the manager wants to start the game a bit more cautiously? Davis and Raglan are no better defensivley there. That way you're not potentially wasting a sub in changing defenders when we could be bringing on different forwards or midfielders.

 

The subs added some more energy I felt, Forrester looked tired and was probably the right decision to get him off and it arguably improved Barnett by being the main focal point, instead of him dropping off as he was when Forrester was on the pitch.

 

Whitfield probably needs a start, coming on with 15 minutes to go is too late I think. Again healso showed positivity when he got the ball, but left wing isn't his position and it just wasn't working for him.

 

It was frustrating to see a lot of simple mistakes again, I guess they're amplified when we're losing. Gibbons, Montano, Hannant, Pugh, Tonge stood out for that at times. Its frustrating because take Hannant for example, hes pulling a 60 yard pass out of the air and beating his man one minute and then firing a simple 10 yard pass in to touch the next, or Montano hes making a 40 ayd sprint to take the ball of a winger, drops a shoulder and beats him and then skews the ball out for a throw, or Gibbons, hes threading intricate balls in to the forwards feet and getting around them one minute and then slices a simple long ball in to touch the next. However at least they kept wanting the ball despite that. On the subject of getting around the forward, Harness comes on, gets the ball in to the feet a good number of times, turns and instead of playing a simple ball as the full back overlaps, he runs inside in to all the traffic and loses the ball! He has a tendancy to run down blind alleys. It just shows all the players have things to work on, that should get better with experience (I'd hope).

 

Hannant had a quieter game overall and Montano too. Like I said earlier I sit just behind the dug outs and watching the posiitonal play of Montano and the coaches reaction is funny. Hes letting forwards get in front of him or across him and Brabin was doing his nut.

 

Overall we played well, we showed effort and were positive and kept going, but have nothing to show for it.

[Jacko51]

no I didnt have my eyes "shut" my dear.But what I did notice was the lack of understanding between the front two, they were dreadful.

 

Changing the subject now, youth?