onevalefan.co.uk Present Past Specials About Forum
Jump to content
onevalefan.co.uk forum

Advert


Advert


Match Thread: Port Vale v Walsall


Fosse69

Recommended Posts

This game demonstrated how much we miss Joyce, everything we do begins with the ball at his feet. Whilst his play is never spectacular, he is intelligent and knows when to release the ball and who to release it to. Something we desperately needed on Saturday.

 

Just a bad day at the office in my view, whilst missing a couple of key players. With a Joyce and a Worrall playing Saturday we'd have won that.

 

Massive shame Taylor missed that free header first half however, had that gone in it would have been a different game. Not to criticise him of course, he's having an excellent run and won't score every chance he gets. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Advert

34 minutes ago, Howjy04 said:

So you think we should play the same, no movement up front, team next week?I obviously watch a different game to some people.I brought a Walsall fan friend to the game on Saturday.He asked me about Popey and was worried Walsall would get a pasting.He phoned me yesterday.He left me with” Has Pope come out of the centre half’s pocket yet?”.

No, I would start Cullen over Bennett,  he looked quite enthusiastic against Walsall and can only get better as his fitness improves. You can see he is a quality player from his brief appearances.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Howjy04 said:

Bennett back in next match from the start?

Whatever brings you to that decision because it couldn't be for his contribution when he came on Saturday because he did nothing apart from shy away from one opportunity to head the ball. It was hoof ball as you put it against Walsall because we had no midfield and no winger worthy of the name. You could criticise Pope if he missed any chances but he never got any given to him by his very poor team mates where only Smith and Legge came out with any credit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

39 minutes ago, old sage said:

Whatever brings you to that decision because it couldn't be for his contribution when he came on Saturday because he did nothing apart from shy away from one opportunity to head the ball. It was hoof ball as you put it against Walsall because we had no midfield and no winger worthy of the name. You could criticise Pope if he missed any chances but he never got any given to him by his very poor team mates where only Smith and Legge came out with any credit.

All strikers rely at least to an extent on others providing for them. However, unlike Pope, a lot of decent strikers at this level can create their own chances if need be, or provide a threat from distance. We are so reliant, when Pope plays, on 3-4 others playing well and providing precise crosses straight onto his bonce (as he cannot move), when our crossing is generally shocking. When Pope hasn't played this season, we've looked so much more dangerous going forward, as well as playing much better from a team perspective. Bennett/Cullen will run the channels, try to get in behind, and not just stand in the centre of the pitch yelling at their teammates to hit a long diagonal ball when surrounded by centre halves that he will invariably lose. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It all felt like "After the Lord Mayors Show" with everything that had gone on the week before it just seemed everything was really flat.

Walsall were absolutely awful and could argue they are the worst team to come VP this season, Carlisle for example played far better second half and we beat them... they posed virtually no threat at all but yet again we've started a half asleep... their goal was almost carbon copy of the 30 second goal Carlisle scored! That said Pope gets a huge shove in the back... the ref would have blown up against us for that.

Conlon was an idiot, cost us any hope after that but I would say the guy who he elbowed was lucky to still be on the pitch after a cowardly shove on Smith as hes in the air... could of been a serious injury and lucky it wasn't.

Too much hoofball, we seemed devoid of confidence which is surprising and it was fairly uncharacteristic. we do however seem to struggle against sides who stay tight and play the games of throwing themselves to the floor, time wasting and feigning. The head injury feigning was a new and worrying one if it catches on... fake a head injury to get the game stopped and allow you to reset... hope other teams dont catch on.

Disappointing way to end our home form as I think pretty much any other performance at home this season would of seen us victorious. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, philmpv said:

All strikers rely at least to an extent on others providing for them. However, unlike Pope, a lot of decent strikers at this level can create their own chances if need be, or provide a threat from distance. We are so reliant, when Pope plays, on 3-4 others playing well and providing precise crosses straight onto his bonce (as he cannot move), when our crossing is generally shocking. When Pope hasn't played this season, we've looked so much more dangerous going forward, as well as playing much better from a team perspective. Bennett/Cullen will run the channels, try to get in behind, and not just stand in the centre of the pitch yelling at their teammates to hit a long diagonal ball when surrounded by centre halves that he will invariably lose. 

Are you watching the same game? Pope runs around quite a lot and I have seen him beat faster players from our team to the ball due to his greater anticipation despite being further away than them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, old sage said:

Whatever brings you to that decision because it couldn't be for his contribution when he came on Saturday because he did nothing apart from shy away from one opportunity to head the ball. It was hoof ball as you put it against Walsall because we had no midfield and no winger worthy of the name. You could criticise Pope if he missed any chances but he never got any given to him by his very poor team mates where only Smith and Legge came out with any credit.

Bennett played for 15 minutes opposed to the 90+ Tom played.He was unable to get on the end of Pope’s flicked headers ,the same as the other forwards,because there weren’t any.Feel free to criticise the rest of the team,Owd,Pope never has a bad game.John Stones is bricking it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Rampant Zebra said:

Are you watching the same game? Pope runs around quite a lot and I have seen him beat faster players from our team to the ball due to his greater anticipation despite being further away than them.

We must be watching different games! Either that or you're watching the matches on ifollow using a dial-up modem and experiencing buffering issues

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Howjy04 said:

if Legge was shirt pulling and bullying an opposing forward nobody would be moaning ,in fact they would be demanding he be MOTM.Tom was dominated by ONE centre half.We went back to Popeball and failed miserably.People need to realise its a team game and doesn’t revolve around one player.No shots or headers that their goalie needed to save.Bennett back in next match from the start?

That’s quite a bold statement. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would respectfully suggest that this game is allowed to fade into the memory like the 13 corpses we had on show. Talking about how pathetic they were only goes to get the blood running higher. To single out 3 players who had a bang average game and say that they were the best of the bunch doesn't help matters at all.  Most of them looked as if they didn't want to get hurt in case it meant them missing the Man City match .... Well 3 of those players are already on the team sheet but the rest should be wondering about their position. As for those who stepped into the team because of suspensions ........ Have they finished fastened their laces yet ?  Talk about not taking a playing opportunity !

Yes this match was truly one that shows statues can't play football.    Move more, look busy, the public are watching    Total Embarrassing display

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm a big fan of Pope, as you know, and I would argue very strongly that the problem we had on Saturday wasn't him but the service to him - from midfield and both wings, But like 7-8 others he did not play well. I say this time and time again, but he won't score if we don't give him the ball in dangerous areas in the box.

I'll say it twice - he was quite poor. But we always seem to spend ages berating him on almost a weekly basis, despite the fact that he's a Vale legend, scored 3 last week to get us the Man City riches and is our second top scorer of all time. I can forgive him an odd below par game.

The real issue we had was in midfield and out wide where we had zero energy and creativity. Amoo was poor. Monty was poor. Taylor kept on losing the ball and falling over and fluffed our only chance. Atkinson was way off the pace before half time but better after that. Conlon slows the game down and often passes backwards, apart from his silly red card.

For me, there's where the issues lay. Hardly anyone got within 30 yards of Pope and the crosses into the box, especially by Amoo and Gibbons were shockingly bad. I really don't know what he was supposed to do - up there on his own, well marked by two strong defenders and not another Vale player in sight. It was a throwback to 12 months ago.

I agree with the above. I've seen more life in a corpse than that Vale team. Best consigned to the bin and move on to the next one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They had the upper hand against Popey for two reasons . First of all playing him up front on his own with no support from a none functioning midfield or the so called wingers. Secondly and just as importantly the referee allowed every dirty trick in the book to stop Tom.He was constantly having his shirt pulled and getting bashed into by giant oafs with the sole intention of stopping Popey from getting to the ball by any foul method.
 If I was John Askey I would send some of these unpunished incidents to whoever 'controls' and selects the morons that we keep getting to referee our games. I would also ask if there are a separate set of rules regarding Tom Pope. I have said it before Tom is no angel and if he commits a foul then give it but for goodness sake he deserves the same protection as any other player. 
My initial comments were not a criticism of Pope but rather that it was abundantly clear early on that it was not working be that our approach, how poor the ref was or any other factor. My issue was we didn't realise this or try to change it.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Howjy04 said:

So you think we should play the same, no movement up front, team next week?I obviously watch a different game to some people.I brought a Walsall fan friend to the game on Saturday.He asked me about Popey and was worried Walsall would get a pasting.He phoned me yesterday.He left me with” Has Pope come out of the centre half’s pocket yet?”.

Pope isn’t the problem, he is easily the best forward we have. The problem is punting it up to him at the earliest opportunity, we did it for the fiirst half hour at Cheltenham and the whole game against Walsall, it doesn’t work, I don’t know why we keep trying it, is Gibbons instructed to hoof it to Pope because if he is then Askey is in the wrong as A) he is useless at it it and B) even when a good ball is put in we nearly always give the ball away. If he is not instructed to do it then he needs to be told or dropped. When we get down the line before crossing for Pope we are so much more dangerous as seen at Cheltenham. Simple, feed the Pope and he will score.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We lost a game of few chances with 4 or 5 players missing. That's lower league football. Overall we have a better squad than last year on a marginally smaller budget. With the money made over the cup runs the budget should be a little higher for next season. Not convinced we'll make the playoffs but I think we'll finish close enough to be pushing for it all season. That will be fine with me. Read any forum at this level and fans have the same complaints about consistency and players outside the first choice 11 not being as good as they replace. Even the top premier league sides have a dip in quality from their first 11. We lack that bit of quality in the final third without Worrall.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Reporting Posts and other information

    Rules - This forum is moderated but the admin team don't read everything. Don't assume we'll spot rule breaking and alert us by reporting content. Logged in users can hover over the post and click the orange button. Guests can contact us here. If you don't get on with another user you can "ignore" them. Click this link, type in their username and click save. Please check with the admin team if you wish to sell/auction any items. We're happy to support good causes but check first.

    Use - This forum may not be suitable for all as it may contain words or phrases not considered appropriate for some. You are personally responsible and potentially liable for the contents of your posting and could face legal action should it contain content of a defamatory or other illegal nature. Every message posted leaves a traceable IP number. Please do not reveal any personal information about yourself or anyone else (for example: phone number, address or email address). This forum is not in any way affiliated with Port Vale FC. OVF reserve the right to edit, delete, move or close any thread for any reason. If you spot an offensive post please report it to the admin team (instructions are above).

    Adverts - This site occasionally a) has adverts and sponsored features about gambling b) accepts sponsored posts from third parties. If you require help and advice on gambling read these links: Information on protecting young people | Addiction help from gambleaware.co.uk
  • Friends of OVF

×
×
  • Create New...