Match Thread: Port Vale v Mansfield Town.

[Iron Curtain]

Robbed a point today against the better team.

In the cold light of day tomorrow it will be a good point earned by an injury savaged team against a team who have some very good players.

Before the Newport game I said I would snap peoples hands off for 4 points from Newport, Plymouth, Exeter and Mansfield.

The fact it feels slightly disappointing to only of got 4 points, with the injuries we have, is testament to how far we have come from last year.

i also said I would judge Askey and this squad after 10 games... we currently sit 13th having had a very tough start fixture wise. Slow and steady improvement... just what the doctor ordered!

Lets hope we can get the players back and we go again for the next set of games!

[TylerB]

3 minutes ago, PVFC764 said:

 

We were at home, they have not been playing well and you would have expected their confidence would have been low.  According to the papers they have been finding scoring hard to do.  However, they came at Vale and played very well, showing they wanted the ball more and they are better than their current position shows.

We nicked a point today.  Their fans will feel gutted they did not get 3 points today.  You will never win every home game, but did we actually look like we could have won today, the players were below their usual standard we have seen them play.  Bring on the next game and hopefully we will see a better Vale team. 

 

With the players they have they are going to turn a corner at some point. We definitely dropped below the standards we've been setting ourselves at home today no doubt. But they are a good side on paper if nothing else and to nick a point when you're miles off it on the day and without a couple of your best players, that's no bad thing. We desperately need Amoo and Oyeleke back in the side though.

[Valearmy19]

1 hour ago, PV1973 said:

Lots of players below par today. The game is passing Taylor by again, maybe a midfield 3 would suit him better. Poor goal to give away they split us open inbetween smith and crooks, that shouldn’t happen really. Good save from Brown and no one tracking the runner. We seem to be intent on playing ourselves into trouble on the right with Legge either giving it to Gibbo in a tight spot or Worrall or Cullen not showing for the ball down the right. Popes battled well I think, won a lot without necessarily having many players running off him.

This may be harsh but I’m going to question some players desire today, Montys got a kick and come off after less than 15 minutes, did he really try to run it off? Lloyd is going through the motions I’m afraid to say, Crooks looks to be lethargic, at times Joyce is getting nowhere near the fullbacks to link play, Taylor looks lost, Cullen can do more to show for the ball from full backs and link it from the midfield. Yet in amongst all that, you’ve got a player like Gibbons who clearly isn’t fit and isn’t going through this at 100%, (I heard today he hadn’t trained all week and then had to get an injection to play), yet he’s still put the effort in and tried  to be positive with the ball up that wing. He’s shown desire to still want the ball and even when he looked totally <ovf censored> he managed to get himself in to the box and made a positive impact, with the ball falling to Popey who did really well to dig out a cross for Cullen to score.  I really wish we had more players who would show that same desire and passion in the shirt. 

Did think Taylor was a passenger that first half but thought 2nd half he played really well.

 

He’s still a young lad really and has been thrown in at the deep end with the injury’s etc, he will have more good games than bad. 

 

In general it was a poor performance however the better sides grind out a result even when they play poorly! 

[Badgerspaws]

Each home game I attend in the hope, rather than belief, that we will have seen the worst referees that the EFL can throw at us. Again, I walk away today seeing one of the most abysmal displays of officialdom that you could ever see. The EFL must surely act on this.

However, it has proved to be a point gained today rather than two points lost.

[CambridgeDon]

Tracking this from a distance, I thought we were dead and buried when it went to 1-2, so a last minute equaliser by Smith makes it feel like a win even though by all accounts we were not at our best. Injuries are clearly taking their toll, especially in midfield, where we just didn't strengthen enough in the close season. Manny is the one player who gives momentum to the attack and can pick a good through ball so relying on him when he is so prone to injuries was always going to be a risk. Hope these injuries clear up soon because at this stage we just don't have the depth we need.

Good point though against a good side who had a point to prove (always dangerous, ask Watford!) and on paper at least a not so challenging run of fixtures coming up in October. Arthur is getting a lot out of these players and the squad is bound to improve over time. We just need to be patient as this work in progress goes forward.

UTV.

[Playa Amodores]

The performance wasn’t great today and looked second best for most parts of the game. Mansfield were good in spells but I thought we improved as soon as we decided to stop playing Popeball. We started with this tactic and we won nothing. There’ll need to be changes when players are fit. I thought Legge played well again and was very unfortunate with the poor refereeing decision.

[dantheman]

Very hard fought point today. Would have lost that last season. Difference in effort his their for all to see. Sadly still lacking in skill. 

Thought Askey let the fans down a bit today, some of his decisions were very amateur. Hope he learns from it and moves on. 

Still as said we used our get out of jail card to good effect. Well done the vale.  

[Conrad]

Shocking referee, how the hell thats a penalty I’ll never know, does he even know the rules of the game? I have my doubts.was his aim to book every player on the pitch, if so he nearly succeeded.

Lioyd was woeful today, it’s bad when a sub gets subbed.

[JRC]

58 minutes ago, TylerB said:

 

We're not good enough in midfield with injuries to ever play 4-4-2. I hope Askey learned a lesson today. Pope is now an impact sub player and Lloyd should be playing Sunday league football.

We've signed players to play with pace from two wide players who can get further forward and and keep defences worried about us getting on the outside. That's also where the press comes from, along with us normally having 3 pretty busy rather physically imposing midfield players who cover a lot of ground. Fingers crossed we start getting one or two back rom the injuries over the week. The positive was they didn't force a lot of saves from Brown. 

[Jacko51]

Mansfield were one of the scummiest sides I’ve seen for a while. That No 6 Bishop was doing his very best to get Vale players booked with his dramatic falling about. They spent the whole game taking advantage of the inexperience of yet another new ref who was conned by them all the time, particularly with the penalty.  Delighted that we scored in the time added on for their time wasting!!

[PV1973]

Second half we did a bit better than the first, not too hard I guess. But pretty much what I said first half in an earlier post stands for the second. I don’t know whether it was last weeks game and the midweek game taking their toll but some lads looked a way off it, Joyce wasn’t his usual self and Crooks looked to be carrying a piano at times, really lethargic. Lloyd looked way out of his depth, I actually felt sorry for him. I’d question how much Monty wanted it today and I’m also wondering if it was his man that ran off him to score The first too? On the flip side Legge has a good game, some great challenges and was unlucky with the pen. Worthy man of the match. 
 

There were very few chances or attempts for either side second half and despite some of their dominance on the ball I think a point isn’t undeserved. Interesting to hear Askeys comments on the radio afterwards about all our best attacking work coming down our right. That’s how it’s been all season and today we offered literally nothing down our left once Monty went off and it was also noticeable how they made a point of running constantly at our left too. Surprising considering Gibbons wasn’t fit as I’d have been going at him all game if I was Mansfield, but credit today to Gibbo for getting through that game at what looked like 75% maybe? I really wish some of our other players had that desire. I’d question the decision to go 4-4-2 today because we did get over run, but we battled back well. I’d also question the decision to bring Lloyd on instead of Bennet on the left because it killed us as an attacking force down that side. Good to see Nathan Smith get on the score sheet again. 
 

Special mention for the ref who was unbelievable. He totally lost control in the second half, their delaying tactics, time wasting and gamesmanship went virtually unpunished. The penalty looked a terrible decision, (credit to Askey for coming out and saying they had singled Rose out to the ref a diver), but the ref still fell for it. Every time a player went to ground it was a foul, he killed the flow of the match. These refs need to really understand that they should try and keep the game flowing. 

[Erniemossrules]

3 hours ago, PVFC764 said:

Monty now coming off after 16 minutes.  Lloyd on, going to be a hard day by the looks of it now.

Poor decision by Askey when he had Bennett on the bench.

Then had to sub a sub.

[valiant_593]

Strange game. Worst I’ve seen is this season but the huge positive is to come away with a point. Shows some decent character at least that. First half was really poor though. I’m not one to moan about the ref but that looked a shocker for the penalty  

Strange starting 11, to go from not playing pope or Cullen but playing bennet by himself to then playing both pope and Cullen was an odd one. Said it before the game don’t thini pope should be starting. (At home anyway). Lloyd is not close to being good enough that was made extremely clear today. Think we should look to bring a left winger in on loan. Montano isn’t great anyway and always injured and the replacement cleary not at this level. 

Overall very poor showing but a decent point at the end of it. Need to improve though. 

[Erniemossrules]

14 minutes ago, PV1973 said:

Second half we did a bit better than the first, not too hard I guess. But pretty much what I said first half in an earlier post stands for the second. I don’t know whether it was last weeks game and the midweek game taking their toll but some lads looked a way off it, Joyce wasn’t his usual self and Crooks looked to be carrying a piano at times, really lethargic. Lloyd looked way out of his depth, I actually felt sorry for him. I’d question how much Monty wanted it today and I’m also wondering if it was his man that ran off him to score The first too? On the flip side Legge has a good game, some great challenges and was unlucky with the pen. Worthy man of the match. 
 

There were very few chances or attempts for either side second half and despite some of their dominance on the ball I think a point isn’t undeserved. Interesting to hear Askeys comments on the radio afterwards about all our best attacking work coming down our right. That’s how it’s been all season and today we offered literally nothing down our left once Monty went off and it was also noticeable how they made a point of running constantly at our left too. Surprising considering Gibbons wasn’t fit as I’d have been going at him all game if I was Mansfield, but credit today to Gibbo for getting through that game at what looked like 75% maybe? I really wish some of our other players had that desire. I’d question the decision to go 4-4-2 today because we did get over run, but we battled back well. I’d also question the decision to bring Lloyd on instead of Bennet on the left because it killed us as an attacking force down that side. Good to see Nathan Smith get on the score sheet again. 
 

Special mention for the ref who was unbelievable. He totally lost control in the second half, their delaying tactics, time wasting and gamesmanship went virtually unpunished. The penalty looked a terrible decision, (credit to Askey for coming out and saying they had singled Rose out to the ref a diver), but the ref still fell for it. Every time a player went to ground it was a foul, he killed the flow of the match. These refs need to really understand that they should try and keep the game flowing. 

Reffing his second league game.

Wasnt going to book Legge after the pen then their players surrounded him to get Legge booked.

Booked Pope for complaining about a decision then let their players get away with murder.

The club must seriously ask why we are getting all these useless and clueless refs to officiate our games.

It can’t just be bad luck.

[blackdog]

1 hour ago, Badgerspaws said:

Each home game I attend in the hope, rather than belief, that we will have seen the worst referees that the EFL can throw at us. Again, I walk away today seeing one of the most abysmal displays of officialdom that you could ever see. The EFL must surely act on this.

However, it has proved to be a point gained today rather than two points lost.

Ive read somewhere think it might have been the Plymouth site that the reason for all these very inexperienced officials is down to Var, a large number have moved up to cover VAR game and us bottom feeders have to take the inexperienced Refs.

Inexperienced or not you cannot defend some of the decisions, I thought Pope could have had a penalty when he was pulled back by the shirt in the box and then Pope himself is booked for holding their youth momentarily as he chased back.

And I dont understand why they dont /can't take action against the gamesmanship that seems to be rife these days if someone goes down pretending to be dead and then gets up without treatment they should be booked for ungentlemanly conduct.  I guess Mansfield knew he was a newby and so took full advantage.