Match Thread - Port Vale v Grimsby Town

[fraggle]

Great strike but this is what happens when you set up negatively. They’ve sussed out that lumping it forward is our only hope and become more confident.

 

It was a good strike, but how much did Legge back off his man, allowed him to come in off The left hand side, by some 15-20 yards to then have a strike, shocking, i was screaming from the stands and boom.... goal, brown had no chance.

 

There are too many players on the pitch, with a complete lack of a football brain and the man in the dugout is the same.... you get better football at Fenton park on a Sunday!

 

So many times did I see Vassell stand and watch his own pass, rather than run from the overlap and receive a return ball - he will NEVER be any higher than the level

 

Manny - played WAY to deep today, I thought he was totally ineffective during the game, he needs to quicken his game up, he has potential but has a chip on his shoulder for me, picking the ball up off the toes of your defender isn’t good football...

 

Quigley - not good enough at this level, doesn’t anticipate the ball in the box, a number of occasions today, he could’ve had more than the 1 GREAT chance he had.... half asleep (no football brain)

 

Conlon - I think he’d had his Christmas Turkey fill.... unbelievable bad, did NOTHING all game

 

Smith - just a hoofer, he adds nothing to the game for me, shouldn’t be in the 1st 11, clueless as a passing Centre half, hoof ball, part of the problem we have - long ball!

 

Pope, Hannant, Legge, Clark, Kay - can all take some credit from the game but 5 players can’t win you a game, especially when 1 of them is really a defensive midfielder...

 

Brown - NOTHING to do today apart from pick the ball out of the net, they didn’t really have too many other chances where Scott had to make a save.

 

Aspin - MUST GO!

[Beza]

The language was disgusting and against football ground regulations , like it or not. At least 20 youngsters were in earshot of the foul language from Aspin and Nogan. Apologies are needed for those kids!

god Dave that performance and the one at Macclesfield is enough to make the Pope swear. Not Tom of cause.

[fraggle]

The most upsetting thing about today for me, was Neil and the coach turning round and effing and blinding at fans at the tops of the their voices. There were quite a few youngsters there today who would rightly be discouraged from going again by their parents.

 

If they don’t get sacked they must be fined for this... totally unacceptable!

[darren1810]

We all get carried away with a win, likewise we are all knee jerk with a loss.

But after a consistent period of dross I will give my tuppenth worth .

 

Clark is no better than Gibbons , I get he is only 19 , he is either being dragged down or basically is a rookie increasingly looking bang average.

 

Conlon is showing exactly why he was shown the door by the mighty Stevenage. Yet another anonymous performance by him.

 

Vassel is truly woeful. Out of his depth. If he isn't a left back as per Rawlinson at right back then Aspin has hung him out to dry.

 

Kay at 36 , a good career and steady Eddy is now a first choice pick. Ahead of Aspin signings Joyce and Hardcastle. Quite staggering really.

 

I could rant and rant but today has culminated in a load of our managers signings either sub or not even in the squad.

Then the icing on the cake is one ( or more) of them were supping in the alehouse. Clearly shows that there is no unity or squad spirit, pardon the pun.

 

I and numerous others are being driven away by this utter bilge.

 

Digest this people .....in 180 minutes against Macc and Grimsby we have not managed a goal .

 

I'll take survival now because by the time the next 3 games are finished ( other teams will play 4 ) we won't be far off the bottom 2.

[elav trop 1876]

It was a good strike, but how much did Legge back off his man, allowed him to come in off The left hand side, by some 15-20 yards to then have a strike, shocking, i was screaming from the stands and boom.... goal, brown had no chance.

 

There are too many players on the pitch, with a complete lack of a football brain and the man in the dugout is the same.... you get better football at Fenton park on a Sunday!

 

So many times did I see Vassell stand and watch his own pass, rather than run from the overlap and receive a return ball - he will NEVER be any higher than the level

 

Manny - played WAY to deep today, I thought he was totally ineffective during the game, he needs to quicken his game up, he has potential but has a chip on his shoulder for me, picking the ball up off the toes of your defender isn’t good football...

 

Quigley - not good enough at this level, doesn’t anticipate the ball in the box, a number of occasions today, he could’ve had more than the 1 GREAT chance he had.... half asleep (no football brain)

 

Conlon - I think he’d had his Christmas Turkey fill.... unbelievable bad, did NOTHING all game

 

Smith - just a hoofer, he adds nothing to the game for me, shouldn’t be in the 1st 11, clueless as a passing Centre half, hoof ball, part of the problem we have - long ball!

 

Pope, Hannant, Legge, Clark, Kay - can all take some credit from the game but 5 players can’t win you a game, especially when 1 of them is really a defensive midfielder...

 

Brown - NOTHING to do today apart from pick the ball out of the net, they didn’t really have too many other chances where Scott had to make a save.

 

Aspin - MUST GO!

All your points are mainly down to recruitment of chancers and freebies ...do you think a new manager would get a bigger and better budget , assuming of course the owner will shell out for a proven manager from a higher level

We are in a tailspin and only one person can get us out of this but he will need to dig for his wallet

[Bimbleabout]

Seen Miller and rawlinson in the car park at vale about 2.20ish ,Miller spotted in the Vine earlier apparently :) apparently it's been snowing A lot for him this crimbo :)

[darren1810]

Not sure it's down to the budget Ian.

We paid big bucks by our standards for Miller, he is the new Gary Roberts, took a huge gamble and gave him 2 years.

 

I know a Cambridge fan who lives in Bradwell, he came the 5-0 with us.

Legge was released due to his wages.

Brown ( player of the season) will be on good money , so to Joyce .

 

The budget is competitive enough.

I stand by previous postings, our first team played in the correct position is decent.

Too many changes and bizarre team selections have led to this situation.

 

We started the season without a proper left back at the club. I'm not counting Montano as he was still a rookie in that position, that is criminal for a professional club.

 

Continual favouritism has also hampered formation by refusing to drop certain players.

 

In August if someone said to me that in December , Worral, Whitfield and Miller will be nowhere near the first team I'd of thought Christ we must have one hell of a team and be 8 points clear.

 

Our budget is ok enough to sign proven performers at this level yet we continue to serve up bilge

[fraggle]

All your points are mainly down to recruitment of chancers and freebies ...do you think a new manager would get a bigger and better budget , assuming of course the owner will shell out for a proven manager from a higher level

We are in a tailspin and only one person can get us out of this but he will need to dig for his wallet

 

I don’t agree to be honest, when Aspin came in he talked about quality over quantity - we’ve most certainly not gone for quality, maybe that’s Aspin version of quality?

 

He doesn’t command the respect of players, he was a hoof ball (a good one in the day) defender, they don’t make good managers at this level.... have a look through the leagues and tell me a good manger with the same type of playing background, he sets his teams up the way HE knows how to play and that is dog poop!!

 

I do think that with the right leadership of which Aspin is way out of his depth, the team should have a game play, a style of play - I can’t see either and that’s why we are, where we are... what do they do all week in training??? Drink beer? Eat rubbish and watch re-runs is Aspin’s heady days as manager of Halifax? Utter dross and I do believe a manager who can/will command respect, will get more out of the squad. Aspin never will - clueless idiot.

 

Must go

[fraggle]

By the way - did anyone notice Louis Dodds came on today, did he touch the ball?

 

Thought Whitfield played well when he actually got the ball, did add something we were missing... someone running at players with a ball

[darren1810]

Brown

Gibbons

Legge

Rawlinson

Montano

 

Worral Joyce Oyeleke Hannant

Whitfield

 

Pope

 

Round pegs in round holes.

Not convinced over Montano and Worral isn't a winger .

 

However that team played in proper positions and given a few games to gel is a top 10 team easily.

 

The league 2 tinkerman has no idea whatsoever of his best team or what tactics and formation to use.

Far too big a squad of mediocre players which is exactly what Aspin was moaning about last time around.

 

Hardcastle, Quigley, kanu, Dodds have all been signed to boost numbers due to the change in the loan rules and transfer window. Not a one of those has contributed diddly squat apart from the Exeter equaliser.

We also have Pugh and Tonge in the ranks.

 

6 players there who are absolutely pointless having at the club.

[philmpv]

Manny - played WAY to deep today, I thought he was totally ineffective during the game, he needs to quicken his game up, he has potential but has a chip on his shoulder for me, picking the ball up off the toes of your defender isn’t good

 

Pope, Hannant, Legge, Clark, Kay - can all take some credit from the game but 5 players can’t win you a game, especially when 1 of them is really a defensive midfielder...

 

These are the only 2 parts of your post I disagree with.

 

Re Manny it was abundantly clear that this was his instruction as we'd gone for 2 up top. Most if the few good moves that we tried today (I. E those played along the ground) started with him either picking the ball up or winning the ball and actually looking for a pass.

 

Re Pope he seems immune from criticism on here. He was shocking today. Leaving aside the service to him or quigley, every header than he won today pinged off his head like it was a sherrifs badge. No direction or skill at all. I've said it before and I'll say it again - so long as we keep trying to build a team around an, at best, league 2 striker with no pace or movement we will not achieve anything. That is, at least, with the only tactical thinking being to lump the ball aimlessly in his direction.

[Upfromnowhere]

I have run out of words to describe our performances as they simply get worse, and in fairness to the players, if as you would assume is the case they are playing to orders, who should get the justified criticism, them or the one giving the orders...or both.

The thing is this could get worse if Mr Aspin decides Quigley and Pope is worth pursuing with, as both were pretty dreadful today, especially, in fairness, and not for the first time, the skipper. But, as I have said all season, I think whoever plays up front is pretty immune from general flack, and today was no exception with the non existent service they received,

It was suggested earlier that a couple not involved were seen in a pub. Wow, really, well let me tell you, that's exactly where I went after watching that drivel, I didn't think it could get any worse....I was wrong!

[Inny]

To me it look a like there is no work done on the shape of the team whilst training. The players throughout the season have looked lost at times and we simply don't play as a team and resort to a big boot up the pitch.

I believe a better manager would make the team more organised, give them confidence and have something more than the long ball.

Today was awful. Not as bad as Macc but still awful. We need a change to a manager who is not out of his depth.

[Valist]

Boring. Boring. Vale.

[PV1973]

I know he's only young so I'm a bit harsh here

Is Clark actually as much better than Gibbons that we all make out.

For me he's been crap for a while

Clark is a good player, but I think he’s definitely going though a bad patch this last couple of months. I thought the goal came from him being too high again, not the first time either this season he’s been caught in his positioning and they were able to play in behind, but it was a great finish to be fair. I said last week that if he goes it’s not the end of the world as we already have Gibbons in the squad. He’s done little wrong for me when called on, but like Clark and any young player they’ll make mistakes, Gibbons is his ball retention sometimes but even so he hasn’t cost us goals with bad mistakes. Clark today really did have another bad game, especially in the second half. Players have been dropped for less than that this season. Maybe he needs a rest.

 

Apart from probably a ten minute spell in the first half and similar in the second half we didn’t play well at all. Quigley just isn’t the answer for me. Whitfield added something different that they struggled to cope with and we were unlucky not to score, but once they scored it totally killed us. Vassell did nothing again, (how long are we going to allow Clark and Vassell to put in performances like this, we are desperate for a proper left back IMO). The midfield were anonymous in the main, players 2 months ago who people were crying out to offer new deals too. We got very little in terms of decent delivery to Pope who was poor himself today. I thought Smith battled well today though. Maybe against popular opinion but I thought Dodds tried something different too when he came on, some clever reverse balls down the right for Whitfield and Clark, I’d much prefer to see him over Quigley as the second striker because his link up play is better.

 

Aspin was giving some stick out to a fan that moaned at him in the second half. Not nice to see that.

 

To me it look a like there is no work done on the shape of the team whilst training. The players throughout the season have looked lost at times and we simply don't play as a team and resort to a big boot up the pitch.

I believe a better manager would make the team more organised, give them confidence and have something more than the long ball..

I agree that it looks like we do no work at all on patterns of play. It’s like Sunday league, go out and launch it and see what drops. But then again we change formation and personnel so often then it’s no wonder we don’t seem settled. It’s like pot luck every week. However these recent performances really make me wonder how much the players want to play for him.