Match Thread - Port Vale v Crawley Town

[For Us All]

Another three points and a clean sheet at home.We are slowly getting there.

UTV.

[TylerB]

3 points is 3 points but the performance overall wasn’t brilliant.

 

Defensively we looked decent and much better with the height of both Legge and Rawlinson.

 

Crawley have had more possession and shots but they were mainly shots from outside the area with maybe 1 or 2 clear cut chances.

 

Going forward we still look like we are missing something.

 

A quick wide player that can actually beat a man with pace or skill.

[philmpv]

Aspins defensive reshuffle fully justified by the clean sheet. Yes, we were under the cosh for a lot of it, but put it in context: Manny, by far our best midfielder so far this season off injured after 30 odd minutes, the most natural backup still out injured, meaning kay has to be brought on. Until that point we were having much the better of it.

 

No doubt the 'what if' brigade will have us bottom of their imaginary table with no points and no clean sheets, but who cares?

 

UTV

[connor hackett]

The big plus from today is how well the defence played. That extra height in the middle and the new lad at left back had a great debut. Hopefully Aspos solved the first part of the puzzle, building from the back. He needs to address our creativity now. We look better than last season, and if we can find that little extra spark going forward, anything is achievable. Still a work in progress, but definitely moving in the right direction. Get behind your team everybody

[mickyferns]

We were very very lucky today thank God they had nothing up front cus they played us off the pitch and made us look amateur. One thing I will say is although we are a poor unit there was no shortage of effort even from those who had a shocker, Gibbo and Worral particularly poor today. Still not convinced in Aspin at all tactically very incompetent.

[Caselord]

Winning today had nothing to do with luck. We should be praised for defensive organisation & individuals winning their defensive battles.

[Jacko51]

Manny’s injury was the turning point. We lost control of the midfield when he went off. THe defence were good and young Clark had an outstanding debut. Not enough closing down on the rest of the pitch.

 

Can i suggest to Aspin that he gets a copy of the offside law in big letters and sticks it on the dressing room wall. He might like to test Miller and Quigley on it daily as well!

[PV1973]

Sometimes you have to win ugly and even though we didn’t see full backs flying up the wing or shots galore everyone had to dig in and stick to their jobs, and we dug in and got the result. In the absence of better players to come on or any kind of tactical change I thought we did well to grind it out. The players deserve some credit for that.

[DIV3SOUTH]

Oh dear we aren't very good. In fact in the second half we were non-existent. Our tactic seemed to be let's confuse Crawley by playing as if we are the away side and start wasting time as early as the 50th minute.

 

The award for running around like a headless-chicken goes to Scott Quigley No 14.

[Santa]

If our players had a brain between them we’d have sprung that offside trap of theirs a few times and put the game to bed comfortably.

[JRC]

Aspins defensive reshuffle fully justified by the clean sheet. Yes, we were under the cosh for a lot of it, but put it in context: Manny, by far our best midfielder so far this season off injured after 30 odd minutes, the most natural backup still out injured, meaning kay has to be brought on. Until that point we were having much the better of it.

 

No doubt the 'what if' brigade will have us bottom of their imaginary table with no points and no clean sheets, but who cares?

 

UTV

 

We were the better side until Oyeleke went off. Maybe Joyce could have been used a little further forward and Kay should have say in the holding role as we lost all forward momentum. Hopefully he or Conlon will be fit for Carlisle.

 

Hannatt was decent but Worrall looks off the pace this season.

 

Defence was excellent and despite a lot of the ball they had one shot on target all game. Good debut from Clark, Gibbons was decent. The two centrehalves were very solid.

 

Front 2 looked decent until Oyeleke came off, thereafter they were isolated.

 

We may have a big problem on Tuesday if Montano, Hannatt, Oyeleke and Conlon are all unfit as there is a worrying lack of pace without them. But I'd have taken 5th at this stage and the defensive improvement was promising. Didn't make a pretty spectacle but I'd have taken the result at 3 o'clock.

[connor hackett]

Today’s substitutions, Oyeleke, a forced change, which dramatically changed the game, he was running the show and we were on top. Miller for Dodds, nothing was sticking up top Dodds came on to give us an outlet. Same as when Quigley came on. He never threatened to score, but he ruffled feathers and broke play up. Tactics were fine, quality wasn’t there though. However I’m still encouraged that we’re moving forward as a team.

[elav trop 1876]

I watched this one from a jacuzzi in the Dominican, which was nice. Despite giving up a lot of possession in the 2nd half I felt that Crawley only really threatened on a couple of occasions. Overall the defence looked solid. I’m sure that last year we would have found a way to concede in the 5 added minutes so I’m happy to take the 3 points and move on.

 

Totally agree,

 

strange game , think first half we got into some very good positions with lack of communication between midfield and or wrong execution in the final 3rd so hopefully with more time together this will produce more goals- defence did very well especially the new young lad at left back he did little wrong and lasted the full 90mins,same for the rest of the back 4 as were dominant and did little wrong so no criticism -

miller died as he gave all and with many going off not sure about Quigley but the main change was many going off..

 

 

overall a much needed and happy win think our first 11 are decent at this level just when injuries and suspensions take there toll we may become more suspect.

 

well done the players and staff

[TylerB]

Our best 11 is play-off material. But outside of those 11 we're largely relegation fodder.

[Realism]

Difficult game to watch but good result, and that was all that mattered.

 

Confidence has clearly taken a hit from the last two games but the defensive performance was very encouraging. I thought all four defenders and Brown were very good.

 

We are lacking pace and it was a real turning point when Manny went off. Neither Joyce nor Kay wanted to push on and it emptied the midfield.