Match Thread: Swindon Town v Port Vale

[Joe B]

Michael Doughty is also quite the baller. Impressed with him.

Doughty + Grant is a decent League 1 central midfield.

[Guitar Ray]

22 minutes ago, Santa said:

Lee Power is an idiot though and nobody would ever know if it was a parody. 

😂😂😂

[Conrad]

21 minutes ago, Joe B said:

Only player to emerge with credit today was Burgess, who never lost the ball (apart from when the unusually poor Joyce decided to pass to him whilst he was on the ground) and was the architect of our only chance which Cullen should have buried.

Gibbons always looked to get involved but several threw in the towel/weren't up to scratch.

Correct, Burgess was motm imo. also.

[Guitar Ray]

11 minutes ago, Joe B said:

Michael Doughty is also quite the baller. Impressed with him.

Doughty + Grant is a decent League 1 central midfield.

More than decent, they’re both comfortably league 1 standard. Their midfield was the big difference today. These two plus Jaiyesimi are better than anything we’ve got.

[toyahw]

8 minutes ago, Conrad said:

Correct, Burgess was motm imo. also.

On a day of few positives I'd agree with you there. Way above the other two of the midfield three. Who were really off it today. Conlon has to start in place of Atkinson Tues based on today.

[Jacko51]

3 hours ago, Guitar Ray said:

Obviously not happy that his team are top and have just won 3-0, Lee Power on Twitter,  “Hi #PVFC fans.  May I just ask where the other 7,000 away fans were?  Disappointed only 200 showed up as I had the Stratton bank ready. Thanks Lee” 

What a horrible man. The Etihad is worth visiting whereas Swindon is an overpriced pig hole full of arrogant tossers like Power. 

[PV1973]

Personally I thought too many weren’t up to the battle or had the desire to first off go and win their individual battles. Having said that Swindon came out and were dreadful for the first 20 minutes, their left hand side was awful, they couldn’t keep the ball in play, but we didn’t capitalise on their shaky start by pressing them ourselves. When they came down our place I thought they were a really good footballing side, constantly trying to draw out our full backs and get runners in behind with clever movement, yet today their main tactic was to launch it and try and turn us around. In fact we looked so comfortable in that first half hour that I didn’t feel  like we’d get beat like we did.

People will point to smith going off being the start of them getting on top, but even before that they were gradually getting in to the game and slowly starting to dominate our midfield and front 3. That for me was the problem today, Cullen was getting nothing out of their defenders and isn’t physical enough on his own, Amoo and Worrall were isolated and the midfield 3 were getting bullied out of it. To be fair Burgess has some good moments though and was probably one of the few bright lights of our midfielders. But.... I don’t think we had a shot at all first half!

Having seen the goals back we’ve had an absolute shocker down our left hand side for the first 2, we were all over the place, especially monty, watch where he ends up following the ball for some reason. Second one has seen our entire defence have to shuffle over to cover the space behind Monty, but to be fair the ball inside Amoo is  absolute class and sometimes you have to hold your hands up. But the goal was coming, we were losing possession too easily up front and in midfield and the ball was coming start back constantly. I’d say another big factor in this (despite not playing) is we have no one as good as Popey to do what Popey does. Today was the perfect game for him. Hold it up and battle with centre halves, Cullen isn’t that man and when Bennet came on he showed that neither is he. 
 

Again the third goal was a quality strike, not much you can do there. But by then I doubt we’d have come back from 2 let alone 3.

The biggest concern was the perceived lack of fight and desire from some players. They were constantly after us, never giving us a minute, chasing lost causes. Some of ours didn’t. Grant was on another level, he could have played in his flip flops today and just showed what we are missing. Head and shoulders the best midfielder on the pitch, he made it look easy. Also I thought they were stronger than us in the middle. Atkinson, Joyce and Burgess were getting pushed off it and losing the ball a lot and I’m not sure we put the same effort in as they did. I hate saying that too. 
 

Few players came out of it with too much credit. Brown obviously. I thought Gibbo did well and kept going and found himself in some good areas second half. Burgess in spells was easily our best of the midfielders. But other than that I’m struggling. Again it shows we are lacking some depth in the squad when players are out injured or are out because they’ve been an idiot off the pitch. Tuesday will be a big test of character and a test of those lads that will come to replace the regulars out injured. 

[Joe B]

5 minutes ago, PV1973 said:

Personally I thought too many weren’t up to the battle or had the desire to first off go and win their individual battles. Having said that Swindon came out and were dreadful for the first 20 minutes, their left hand side was awful, they couldn’t keep the ball in play, but we didn’t capitalise on their shaky start by pressing them ourselves. When they came down our place I thought they were a really good footballing side, constantly trying to draw out our full backs and get runners in behind with clever movement, yet today their main tactic was to launch it and try and turn us around. In fact we looked so comfortable in that first half hour that I didn’t feel  like we’d get beat like we did.

People will point to smith going off being the start of them getting on top, but even before that they were gradually getting in to the game and slowly starting to dominate our midfield and front 3. That for me was the problem today, Cullen was getting nothing out of their defenders and isn’t physical enough on his own, Amoo and Worrall were isolated and the midfield 3 were getting bullied out of it. To be fair Burgess has some good moments though and was probably one of the few bright lights of our midfielders. But.... I don’t think we had a shot at all first half!

Having seen the goals back we’ve had an absolute shocker down our left hand side for the first 2, we were all over the place, especially monty, watch where he ends up following the ball for some reason. Second one has seen our entire defence have to shuffle over to cover the space behind Monty, but to be fair the ball inside Amoo is  absolute class and sometimes you have to hold your hands up. But the goal was coming, we were losing possession too easily up front and in midfield and the ball was coming start back constantly. I’d say another big factor in this (despite not playing) is we have no one as good as Popey to do what Popey does. Today was the perfect game for him. Hold it up and battle with centre halves, Cullen isn’t that man and when Bennet came on he showed that neither is he. 
 

Again the third goal was a quality strike, not much you can do there. But by then I doubt we’d have come back from 2 let alone 3.

The biggest concern was the perceived lack of fight and desire from some players. They were constantly after us, never giving us a minute, chasing lost causes. Some of ours didn’t. Grant was on another level, he could have played in his flip flops today and just showed what we are missing. Head and shoulders the best midfielder on the pitch, he made it look easy. Also I thought they were stronger than us in the middle. Atkinson, Joyce and Burgess were getting pushed off it and losing the ball a lot and I’m not sure we put the same effort in as they did. I hate saying that too. 
 

Few players came out of it with too much credit. Brown obviously. I thought Gibbo did well and kept going and found himself in some good areas second half. Burgess in spells was easily our best of the midfielders. But other than that I’m struggling. Again it shows we are lacking some depth in the squad when players are out injured or are out because they’ve been an idiot off the pitch. Tuesday will be a big test of character and a test of those lads that will come to replace the regulars out injured. 

Perfectly summed it up. Top post.

We were struggling even before Smith went off; that was just the catalyst for the collapse. Grant bullied us and 2 moments of quality from Doughty put them out of sight.

First time I've seen the players visibly wilt.

[PV1973]

I thought that’s Doughty and Grant showed the balance of strength, composure and quality that we need to  progress at this level. The ball inside Amoo is pure filth for the second and of course the free kick is a great strike too. I don’t think Grant broke sweat today. 

[Guitar Ray]

We’re far too lightweight in midfield.  Most of our midfielders lack any physicality, which is why Oyeleke stands out.

Taylor and Burgess give us great energy, which combined with Taylor’s eye for goal is often enough to counteract our lack of physicality to some degree, certainly on our large pitch, where we seem full of running.

Players like Burgess, Taylor, Worrell etc buzz around and are more of a nuisance, winning the ball by sheer persistence, rather than someone like Grant, who can get hold of the ball and keep it by holding players off. Grant had the strength and ability to win the ball twenty yards out from his own goal and hold onto it.  We don’t have anyone who can do that consistently.

Losing Taylor has upset the balance plus we miss his goal threat.

We need to be physically much stronger and tougher mentally away from home.  For me this is the main reason we’ve chucked so many points away this season.

[Rudge's Flat Cap]

5 hours ago, philpvfc said:

Rubbish, it was awful and a fair result. It was an even game until Smith went off where they hadn’t had a shot, then the next 10 minutes saw Brown make 2 good saves and 2 goals. The last 2 games Joyce has been dreadful, Amoo did nothing today, why he doesn’t use his pace I don’t know, Atkinson is too slow on the ball and Cullen is not the answer. Shows how bad we were as Smith was our MOM and he was only on the pitch for about 25 minutes. I want my £23 back!

I'm not one to get carried away with a bad performance but this is spot on. From the moment Smith went off we looked as bad as anything under Aspin or Brown. Swindon weren't even that good. We were woeful from 30 to 90 minutes there's no dressing it up.

[TylerB]

1 hour ago, Guitar Ray said:

We’re far too lightweight in midfield.  Most of our midfielders lack any physicality, which is why Oyeleke stands out.

Taylor and Burgess give us great energy, which combined with Taylor’s eye for goal is often enough to counteract our lack of physicality to some degree, certainly on our large pitch, where we seem full of running.

Players like Burgess, Taylor, Worrell etc buzz around and are more of a nuisance, winning the ball by sheer persistence, rather than someone like Grant, who can get hold of the ball and keep it by holding players off. Grant had the strength and ability to win the ball twenty yards out from his own goal and hold onto it.  We don’t have anyone who can do that consistently.

Losing Taylor has upset the balance plus we miss his goal threat.

We need to be physically much stronger and tougher mentally away from home.  For me this is the main reason we’ve chucked so many points away this season.

 

Grant was pants when we beat them at home. Put Oyeleke and Taylor in our midfield yesterday and Pope up top, a player who brings others into play, and it's potentially a far different game.

We deservedly beat them at home 2-0 and they beat us 3-0 yesterday. So overall 3-2 against what could well be the Champions elect is hardly the catastrophe some are making it out to be considering it wasn't our best 11 and we also lost Smith when it was 0-0 and it was a nothing game until that moment.

[wotsyobeef]

I don’t think Grant broke sweat today. 

I don't think Grant has broke sweat at any point in his career. Which is why most of it has been spent in league 1 and 2 rather than the prem and championship.

I think we all need to calm down a bit and realise we are an average team that will put in some great performances and will also get rolled over occasionally.

Whilst it would be nice to see some of the Man City windfall invested. It also gives me confidence to know that our owners who are currently trying to find their feet in football understand that you don't get a windfall like that every year and it may be wise to use it over a period of time to gradually improve the club in a sustainable way rather than spunk it on 1 ill advised window.

In the summer they will have been in charge for a year and will have more of an idea of how to budget and will have learned from their mistakes and successes

[Guitar Ray]

8 hours ago, TylerB said:

 

Grant was pants when we beat them at home. Put Oyeleke and Taylor in our midfield yesterday and Pope up top, a player who brings others into play, and it's potentially a far different game.

We deservedly beat them at home 2-0 and they beat us 3-0 yesterday. So overall 3-2 against what could well be the Champions elect is hardly the catastrophe some are making it out to be considering it wasn't our best 11 and we also lost Smith when it was 0-0 and it was a nothing game until that moment.

I beg to differ regarding Grant, he was far from “pants” that day in my opinion.  Don’t forget he ended up playing centre half for much of the game, as Swindon were affected by injuries both before and during the game.

I think losing Smith also had a big psychological effect on the team, seeing one of our best players going off, so it’ll be interesting to see how we react on Tuesday.

[The Kalamazoo Kid]

8 hours ago, TylerB said:

Grant was pants when we beat them at home.

I thought he was very good and composed, as usual, both in midfield and when he was moved to emergency centre-back.

He was excellent for us and was pivotal in League 1 so he will really stand out in this p1ss-poor division.

Towards the end of his Vale spell there were clueless idiots on here spouting that we should get rid, we didn't need him and his attitude, etc.........we fell apart and were never the same after he'd gone - and still have nowhere near such impact and influence in midfield 3 years later (bar sporadic spells from a fit Oyeleke last season).