Match Thread - Bristol Rovers v Port Vale

[jjvale_03]

really showed how far we have fallen since smurf took over.2 to 3 years ago we would have been beating sides like bristol rovers.anyone who thought we were playing well before the sending off is deluded.we should have been more goals down with the chances they missed.how many chances did we have?cant remember their keeper making a save.vassell is a liability and seemed to be tackling our own players instead of theirs.how elliott improves the team i cannot see that he is as good as any we have just got rid of.we need recognised league players who improve the team not chancers who are just making up the numbers.at least get a couple of decent players on loan until the end of the season.at least we are not wasting £900 a week on dodds.

 

dodds bingo another winner

[jjvale_03]

Watched all the game up to the sending off and penalty shortly after .

Here are my marks on what i witnessed .

Brown 7

Vassell 3 Rawlinson 3 Smith 4 Clark 2

Oyeleke 1 Kay1 Hannant 2 Joyce 1 Miller 2 .

Was a whole lot of nothing .

First goal Kay lets there player get wrong side of him and he travels another 20 yards with Smith just standing there and get his shot away so 2 players fault then .

Up until the goal they looked a nothing side also then the rest of the game ,we couldnt pass ,we couldnt tackle ,we were slow as and a shambles in general with no leaders on the pitch just a load of what seemed to me unmotivated and couldnt be arsed bunch of players thrown together .

A very poor nights work i just couldnt understand why the dangle of the carrot called Wembley didnt bring out a Rudge type performance from the players .

It was worse than under Sinnott and i saw the majority of them lousy displays.

 

Kay gets caught out of position every single match, often gifting the opposition a golden opportunity. I like his attitude, I don't doubt he's a positive influence on the training pitch, but he is simply too old and slow and immobile to play in the EFL now. I assumed he would've gone the same way as Tonge this season but alarmingly he's one of Aspin's 'go to' players.

[Robbie Earle's Perm]

To be fair he didn't want Dodds and went for Waters, however after visiting the club, I presume the wage cap Smurf introduced stopped him signing mate

 

I doubt anyone really does including Sheridan, long since past his better days.

 

Waters doesn’t seem any great loss either.

 

What was the wage cap? I thought he was given a budget to spend / waste how he saw fit?

 

Offensively it doesn’t seem like we have any talent spotters, Aspin and Nogan’s knowledge combined in this area is clearly up there with that of a two month old chimp, t’s why we are so poor when it comes to scoring goals.

[Robbie Earle's Perm]

Kay gets caught out of position every single match, often gifting the opposition a golden opportunity. I like his attitude, I don't doubt he's a positive influence on the training pitch, but he is simply too old and slow and immobile to play in the EFL now. I assumed he would've gone the same way as Tonge this season but alarmingly he's one of Aspin's 'go to' players.

 

Me too, I can’t fathom how we haven’t managed to replace someone so limited. Great at barking at other players like Pope and Legge are but exceptionally limited when the ball or an opponent is in playing distance. The number of howlers he makes per game is slowly creeping up.

[jjvale_03]

I doubt anyone really does including Sheridan, long since past his better days.

 

Waters doesn’t seem any great loss either.

 

What was the wage cap? I thought he was given a budget to spend / waste how he saw fit?

 

Offensively it doesn’t seem like we have any talent spotters, Aspin and Nogan’s knowledge combined in this area is clearly up there with that of a two month old chimp, t’s why we are so poor when it comes to scoring goals.

 

So you're back here to spin the narrative that NS provided a decent budget which has been wasted by the management team? Amazing how you reappear just as the pressure starts to mount on the owner.

[Robbie Earle's Perm]

So you're back here to spin the narrative that NS provided a decent budget which has been wasted by the management team? Amazing how you reappear just as the pressure starts to mount on the owner.

 

Don’t be daft, where did I say he provided a decent budget?

 

More spin than Brexit some folk.

[butt lane vale fan]

I doubt anyone really does including Sheridan, long since past his better days.

 

Waters doesn’t seem any great loss either.

 

What was the wage cap? I thought he was given a budget to spend / waste how he saw fit?

 

Offensively it doesn’t seem like we have any talent spotters, Aspin and Nogan’s knowledge combined in this area is clearly up there with that of a two month old chimp, t’s why we are so poor when it comes to scoring goals.

Why do you think we keep signing quantity over quality mate. Yes the budget can be spent on bringing players in, however their wages cannot go above the wage cap.

The prob is Quality strikers want decent wages.

[Robbie Earle's Perm]

Why do you think we keep signing quantity over quality mate. Yes the budget can be spent on bringing players in, however their wages cannot go above the wage cap.

The prob is Quality strikers want decent wages.

 

I’ve banged on about quality over quantity for years even in the dark days of v2001.

 

Would seem odd to give a budget and then not let the next crap manager off the conveyer belt spend it as they see fit.

 

What’s the cap?

[Iron Curtain]

To be fair it is £900 a week Aspin could have wasted somewhere else. That’s 50k practically over a year he could have put into signing a better player to replace some of the god awful crap he currently likes in his first team.

 

It’s amazing how the Smurf Defence League DEMANDS proof of anything someone says about Norman.

 

But will band this number around as proof that he has funded the team appropriately based on one of their own’s “I heard from a mate”

 

And then they claim not to have a pro smurf attitude.

 

Welcome back REP.

[Robbie Earle's Perm]

It’s amazing how the Smurf Defence League DEMANDS proof of anything someone says about Norman.

 

But will band this number around as proof that he has funded the team appropriately based on one of their own’s “I heard from a mate”

 

And then they claim not to have a pro smurf attitude.

 

Welcome back REP.

 

I see the Dudds defence league is still going strong.

 

Ay up owd lad.

[PV1973]

If last night was a 3-4-3 then Neil completely fooled me, as it implies that when going forward that even if the midfield stay static we would have at least two supporting our lone striker, who to me was totally isolated. True Miller contributed nothing, but at least, unlike some there is genuine mitigation.

I do agree with with the comments people are making about Vassell and Kay though, the former was bloody awful, and the latter, as indeed happened several times Saturday, loses the ball in all the worse possible areas and because his legs are not what they were once were, when doing so he's out of the game as he just can't track back quickly enough. Haven't seen the replay yet, but am pretty sure a perfect example of this came with their first goal.

Playing a 3-4-3 needs willing, it needs commitment, both from the players to do so and from the manager to allow them to do so, and whoever the three are, should be abetted by at least one central midfield player and they all have to bust a gut to get forward (and back) when we are in possession and last night it simply didn't happen...at all.

3-4-3 may have been the pre-kick off intention, but once the match began, unlike Saturday when it did happen, it was as far as one is likley to get from being so.

It also demonstrated to me, even though Aspin had him on the naughty step for three months, just how important Gibbo has become, be that at RB or wing back, and how much we now miss the energy he provides.

I also wonder if Legge has now been dispatched to the same naughty step, as in just two weeks, he has evidently gone from being a defensive rock to an used sub, and whilst I don't mean to be rude to any player, but unless injured, to see Vassell picked in front of him is utter madness!

I made a point in the Crawley thread that although we played well against them it might be a different matter when we come up against a better team, playing a more traditional formation, and sure enough that was the case last night. Although it was supposed to be 3-4-3 we didn't manage to impose it on the game at all. Its easy to say in hindsight, but I don't think Conlon should have played that role as one of the front 3, for me that has to be someone with more energy to also drive us forward, like Worrall or even Whitfield.

 

I like Kay, I actually think hes a positive influence on the team, but can he really be expected to play 3 games in 7 days? Even though he struggled to get back for their first goal, their lad ran 20 or 30 yards with no one coming across to close him down.

 

Hannant isn't a wing back and he made none of the runs that we see Gibbons and Clark do, and whilst I agree that Gibbons adds more energy than anyone as a full back (even Clark IMO), we didn't lose the game because he was missing. I think we lost it because of the lack of energy and attacking flair with the addition of Conlon and also the decision to play 2 very similar holding midfielders against a side who can play some decent stuff and are more mobile. Plus for whatever reason we were unable to get our wing backs forwards and also the 2 who were supposed to be either side of Miller got nowhere near him for much of the game.

 

But how bad an indictment of the squad or the managers lack of trust in players when as fans we are hoping an inexperienced 20 year old full back is playing to try and bring energy to the side? He isn't going to be able to do that every game, because first and foremost hes a defender and in addition the opposition will become wise to closing his space down. So who do we turn to then? I think Aspin should put some trust in his squad so that when he plays 3-4-3 that we have enough with 3 centre halves and 2 holding midfielders to be able to also take the game to the opposition. By that I mean maybe play Hannant or Worrall or Monty either side of Miller along with Gibbons and Clark as the wing backs. Maybe put Manny as one of the 2 holding midfielders even. We are stifling ourselves IMO with the managers choices.

[Upfromnowhere]

+1 pv

[Iron Curtain]

I see the Dudds defence league is still going strong

 

I will keep supporting an ex player who I don't think should be vilified, spat at and abused despite his dwindling abilities.

 

You keep supporting the bloke who is destroying the club, has taken us to within one point of non league and despite receiving well over £2m in transfer business, cup runs and confidentiality contracts has invested less than 5% back in the squad.

[Mario]

REP allowed back in to spread his Smurfette propaganda.

[PV1973]

It’s amazing to see the responses that the return of rep has garnered. It seems to have brought something out in other members we’ve not seen much of since his ban.