Match Thread: Port Vale v Walsall

[Howjy04]

40 minutes ago, Santa said:

That’s quite a bold statement. 

Hey you,get back to your toy making.

[Howjy04]

11 minutes ago, philpvfc said:

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.

Playing Pope dictates the way we play.To keep blaming other players ,as some have done,and always defending Pope irrespective of his own performance is rediculous philip.I’ll leave it at that.I expect a hat trick on Saturday when the **** players have been replaced.

[philpvfc]

The best I’ve seen the Vale this season was the second half at Cheltenham. I’ve only been half a dozen games this season but every time Bennett has played he has been garbage. As long as we don’t play hoof ball and get down the line Pope is easily the best option we have.

[toyahw]

1 hour ago, Valist said:

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.

Askey did change it. It just didn't help much.

27 minutes ago, Howjy04 said:

Playing Pope dictates the way we play.To keep blaming other players ,as some have done,and always defending Pope irrespective of his own performance is rediculous philip.I’ll leave it at that.I expect a hat trick on Saturday when the **** players have been replaced.

Singling out Pope for a collective brain fart like Sat. is a bit of a stretch. There were sub-par performances all over the pitch. Which is why we lost. Too many players, Pope included, bringing their B game. Only Legge and Smith came out with much credit, and Brown who had nothing to do except pick the ball out of the net.

[Joe B]

It is possible that the service to Pope was poor AND he independently didn't play well.

You can't deprive him of any agency in his own performance levels, completely at the whim of the form of the wingers and midfield. That's fairly demeaning to a very good striker and on his day the most effective target man in the league. I accept part of his game is reliant on service but I've seen Pope, independently, turn games on their head (this season away at Crewe being a key example).

His hold up play was below his usual excellent standards and his distrubution was inadequate. I haven't see it back but I believe he was dispossessed for the goal.

The side was poor but Pope was also poor. Let's not get into the mindset of 'Pope play well, Pope's doing, Pope play bad, other players doing'.

Would still go with him from the start next week, mind, simply due to the current form of the other strikers. Cullen appears to offer zero and Bennett has really gone off the pace after his excellent patch.

[PV1973]

10 minutes ago, Joe B said:

It is possible that the service to Pope was poor AND he independently didn't play well.

You can't deprive him of any agency in his own performance levels, completely at the whim of the form of the wingers and midfield. That's fairly demeaning to a very good striker and on his day the most effective target man in the league. I accept part of his game is reliant on service but I've seen Pope, independently, turn games on their head (this season away at Crewe being a key example).

His hold up play was below his usual excellent standards and his distrubution was inadequate. I haven't see it back but I believe he was dispossessed for the goal.

The side was poor but Pope was also poor. Let's not get into the mindset of 'Pope play well, Pope's doing, Pope play bad, other players doing'.

Would still go with him from the start next week, mind, simply due to the current form of the other strikers. Cullen appears to offer zero and Bennett has really gone off the pace after his excellent patch.

I think one of the problems when wingers don’t show and Joyce was missing, (who really links things up really well), is that the easy option is to launch it long towards Pope. But Monty, Amoo or the advanced midfielders got nowhere near close enough to Pope to pick up the second ball. That’s when we look a bad side,  when defenders have no option but to try and hit hopeful long balls, that tactic rarely pays dividends, but many times on Saturday they had no other option. Another case in point of the lack of movement was evident on our throw ins when the thrower had nothing on for a long while.  All of that frustrates the crowd and I think the players lose their backing a bit when that happens.

[Heatwave]

1 hour ago, Howjy04 said:

Hey you,get back to your toy making.

He's got elves for that.

[Wrex]

19 hours ago, valefan16 said:

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. 

Faking head injuries can become a serious problem. I think clubs should be warned and if teams are found to be regularly having "head injuries" they should be investigated. Those found guilty give heavy fines to players and point deductions to clubs.