Match Thread - Port Vale v Crawley Town

[Heatwave]

It may have been a bonkers idea but, if he's going to experiment, when else could he have done it other than a practice game? Managers have to find out the capabilities of their players and this is the best way of doing it.

[paulvaliant]

Team for me would be :-

 

Brown

 

Rawlinson Smith Legge

 

Gibbons Joyce Manny Hannant

..................Montano

 

Pope Miller

[PV1973]

It may have been a bonkers idea but, if he's going to experiment, when else could he have done it other than a practice game? Managers have to find out the capabilities of their players and this is the best way of doing it.

True.

[TheSage]

It was a daft idea. It was like Hodgson asking Kane to take a corner.

I can't fathom why Aspin does these things. Davis and Raglan at right back are two other odd ones. Rawlinson too.

 

We've said this before but it is worth repeating. Why on earth don't we have at least one ready made replacement for each place in the team, bearing in mind that 2-3 lads might be able to fill in for 2-3 different positions? We've got about 7 central midfield players, another 3-4 who don't look like ever playing for us again, no-one to fill in for Pope, but as far as I can tell only one recognised full back. The squad looks unbalanced and it shouldn't be at this time of year.

 

Sounds like Pope is very doubtful again.

[For Us All]

I'm committed to going this one as already me and the boy tickets for Lorne Street and he's excited about going so don't let me down Vale need at least a goal for him cheer in his first ever league match. Personally I expect us to get beat comfortably the way things are but it's a funny old game u never know.

 

Yeh right.

[valiant steve]

Any news on Pope?

[valiant_593]

Any news on Pope?

 

Injured. If he dosent make it then we need to change the style. Aspin shouldve been working on it all week. Try actually passing it about a bit. He’s said it’s difficult to get a ready made replacement for pope on loan which I get. So surely the option is to play differently when he’s not fit.

[valiant steve]

We need Dodds, Hannant, Worrall and the centre backs (from set pieces) to be more of a threat to the opponents goal and to be positive and run at defenders and beyond Miller (and hopefully Pope) which will create more space for the striker/s.

I expect Crawley to be very negative and try and spoil the game. That seems to be standard with most away teams in this division. An early goal for us would be nice.

[Erniemossrules]

I'm committed to going this one as already me and the boy tickets for Lorne Street and he's excited about going so don't let me down Vale need at least a goal for him cheer in his first ever league match. Personally I expect us to get beat comfortably the way things are but it's a funny old game u never know.

 

Thought you would be at Preston Saturday evening game.

[rsb]

We need Dodds, Hannant, Worrall and the centre backs (from set pieces) to be more of a threat to the opponents goal and to be positive and run at defenders and beyond Miller (and hopefully Pope) which will create more space for the striker/s.

I expect Crawley to be very negative and try and spoil the game. That seems to be standard with most away teams in this division. An early goal for us would be nice.

 

No it would not because vale would sit back and try to defend it.

[valiant steve]

No it would not because vale would sit back and try to defend it.

 

No we won't. The confidence it would create would lead to another 3 0 win.

[TheSage]

I don't know what will happen. But increasingly nowadays the first goal seems crucial.

If Pope isn't fit and we concede first it could be a long afternoon, but if we can get ahead and create a bit of the Cambridge atmosphere in the second half then we'll wonder what all the fuss was about.

Fingers crossed very firmly. We can't play poorly for the third successive game can we?

[Samwelo]

My Team:

 

Brown

Rawlinson Legge Smith

Gibbons Montano

Manny Joyce

Kanu Hannant

Miller

 

Obviously under the assumption that Pope is injured. I would also happily see the new lad at LB based on the reviews from Villa fans

[Jermaine Holwynn]

Drop Kay is my personal opinion, don't think he adds anything to this team really apart from the odd wild crack from 30 yards.

 

Way too defensive with both him and either manny/joyce - I think although he had a half decent performance on Tuesday (in comparison to the rest of the dross) it's way too defensive and backwards with him in there - lets face it as well, he's might put a foot in and got about a bit, but his distribution is terrible compared to oyeleke, who plays the exact same role.

 

And what happened to Conlon? He had a good preseason, that's why they signed him, a more expressive/conventional midfielder who can spread the play a bit rather then just break it up.

 

Mitchell needs to start, as does gibbons, Rawlinsons confidence is probably shot now and I think we go with monty on the wing. If Pope is fit it looks like this, if not, replace with Dodds/Quigley (I actually thought it was unfair to judge Quig on Tuesday, he had the heart and the running but the game had gone, no real chance to show any ability)

 

Brown

 

Mitchell, smith (gotta show up at some point this season), Legge, Gibbons

 

Monty, hannant/conlon, oyeleke, Worrall

 

pope, miller

 

Dunna slate us!

[PV1993]

Drop Kay is my personal opinion, don't think he adds anything to this team really apart from the odd wild crack from 30 yards.

 

Way too defensive with both him and either manny/joyce - I think although he had a half decent performance on Tuesday (in comparison to the rest of the dross) it's way too defensive and backwards with him in there - lets face it as well, he's might put a foot in and got about a bit, but his distribution is terrible compared to oyeleke, who plays the exact same role.

 

And what happened to Conlon? He had a good preseason, that's why they signed him, a more expressive/conventional midfielder who can spread the play a bit rather then just break it up.

 

Mitchell needs to start, as does gibbons, Rawlinsons confidence is probably shot now and I think we go with monty on the wing. If Pope is fit it looks like this, if not, replace with Dodds/Quigley (I actually thought it was unfair to judge Quig on Tuesday, he had the heart and the running but the game had gone, no real chance to show any ability)

 

Brown

 

Mitchell, smith (gotta show up at some point this season), Legge, Gibbons

 

Monty, hannant/conlon, oyeleke, Worrall

 

pope, miller

 

Dunna slate us!

 

Conlon is injured