Match Thread: Walsall v Port Vale

[Joe B]

1 minute ago, Brian said:

Great Away day yesterday. Good to see so many families there with children too.

Our Away fans are also a lot more considerate than they used to be: we all jump up at moments of excitement, but need to remember that whenever we stand up, small people behind cannot see the game.

One minor moan: a few people seem to want to blame the referee for not giving us every decision.  there were a couple of marginal calls towards the end of the game(keeper’s ‘handball’ and thePope wrestling match), but not really helpful to chant ‘cheat’ at the referee.

Glad I’ve got that off my chest.

 

Again, I'm in the minority, but I thought the ref was reasonable yesterday.

I thought Pope was giving as much as he gave, and despite me making a bit of noise over the keeper's handball, only one foot left the area so it wasn't handball.

[Regal Beagle]

Ref lost the plot a bit in the last 30 for me, all the small niggly fouls were going one way only. Though I don't think it was a pen and I don't think the keeper had the ball outside of the box.

 

I do think we need to play Gibbo and/or Clark (if he's back). Smith is a fantastic player and he'll give it his absolute best at full back but Gibbo has been a stand out performer this season and partly for his threat going forward.

 

Definitely a point gained in the end, but the goals we conceded were awful.

[philpvfc]

Ref was decent up until the last 20 minutes once Walsall started diving and conning the ref.

[Coyney Valiant]

They were doing that from the first minute 

[PV1973]

1 hour ago, Regal Beagle said:

Ref lost the plot a bit in the last 30 for me, all the small niggly fouls were going one way only. Though I don't think it was a pen and I don't think the keeper had the ball outside of the box.

 

I do think we need to play Gibbo and/or Clark (if he's back). Smith is a fantastic player and he'll give it his absolute best at full back but Gibbo has been a stand out performer this season and partly for his threat going forward.

 

Definitely a point gained in the end, but the goals we conceded were awful.

We should be playing both Clark and Gibbo when they’re both available. 2 of the best prospects in the league and the best full backs at the club too. I’m not saying either of them would have made a difference yesterday but at least we’d be playing players comfortable in the right positions instead of making do with a centre half and a winger. Both monty and smith will give their all, but you can see in their positional play that’s it’s not a natural position for them to be in. 

[philpvfc]

Although Smith is a cracking player he is clearly not a full back. Gibbons should start next match. 

[DistantVale]

1 hour ago, Brian said:

Great Away day yesterday. Good to see so many families there with children too.

Our Away fans are also a lot more considerate than they used to be: we all jump up at moments of excitement, but need to remember that whenever we stand up, small people behind cannot see the game.

One minor moan: a few people seem to want to blame the referee for not giving us every decision.  there were a couple of marginal calls towards the end of the game(keeper’s ‘handball’ and thePope wrestling match), but not really helpful to chant ‘cheat’ at the referee.

Glad I’ve got that off my chest.

 

The ref was a good ref yesterday, if there were any mistakes it certainly didn't affect the result.

    

[PVFCSVA]

1 hour ago, Brian said:

Great Away day yesterday. Good to see so many families there with children too.

Our Away fans are also a lot more considerate than they used to be: we all jump up at moments of excitement, but need to remember that whenever we stand up, small people behind cannot see the game.

One minor moan: a few people seem to want to blame the referee for not giving us every decision.  there were a couple of marginal calls towards the end of the game(keeper’s ‘handball’ and thePope wrestling match), but not really helpful to chant ‘cheat’ at the referee.

Glad I’ve got that off my chest.

 

Unfortunately this wasn't the case in the first half to the right of the goal. A few families walked out with children in tears due to a group of idiots who wouldn't sit down getting almost physical with a man who had asked them to. This happened until the stewards finally came to sort it out and remove some of said idiots. 

[PV1973]

6 minutes ago, PVFCSVA said:

Unfortunately this wasn't the case in the first half to the right of the goal. A few families walked out with children in tears due to a group of idiots who wouldn't sit down getting almost physical with a man who had asked them to. This happened until the stewards finally came to sort it out and remove some of said idiots. 

They got shifted in to the side stand by me and then started to have a go at other fans around them. Weird behaviour. 

[Joe B]

10 minutes ago, PV1973 said:

They got shifted in to the side stand by me and then started to have a go at other fans around them. Weird behaviour. 

One lad got moved from the stand behind the goal to the stand to the side, and promptly punched a bloke in the jaw.

[PV1973]

6 minutes ago, Joe B said:

One lad got moved from the stand behind the goal to the stand to the side, and promptly punched a bloke in the jaw.

Absolutely crazy, they didn’t give a <ovf censored> about the kids or women around. I don’t get why fans want to have a go at each other. 

[Joe B]

1 minute ago, PV1973 said:

Absolutely crazy, they didn’t give a <ovf censored> about the kids or women around. I don’t get why fans want to have a go at each other. 

I get the desire for a 'lively' away end, but if there's kids/elderly behind you its just basic decency to take a seat. To kick off to the level where kids are in tears is a joke, and unfortunately is a situation I've encountered personally on more than one occassion following Vale.

[Andy Proctor]

First thing I will say is it's a decent point away from home. Walsall played really well and put us under alot of pressure in the 2nd half we still had a couple of chances ourselves though where we could have won it. 

Second thing I would say is well done to the 2307 that attended not really any major incidents of any trouble like this game would have had a few years ago perhaps most of our hooligans are banned because of the grimsby game. 

Cheltenham oldham carlise cambridge and plymouth are our remaining away games. I know some of them are long distance games but Cheltenham and plymouth could be big games so hopefully we will take decent followings there. 

[Paul6754]

Valuable, well fought for away point, the spectre of Alan Buckley always surrounds the fixture.

From the highlights their 2nd goal looks very tight to being offside. The scorer, Gorgon, looks to be beyond Monty at the far post as the ball is kickedpassed by Adebayo but Brisley may be just playing the scorer onside. From the camera angle can't see the liner to tell whether he's up with play.

[Shropshire_Valiant]

Good point when all is said and done. Despite their average position Walsall are probably one of the better sides I've seen us play at least attacking wise(obviously they must be inconsistent and I don't see them every week but based on yesterday they have some good attacking players). 

Looking at the run in, it would appear we need to finish above 1 of Cheltenham, Northampton and Colchester putting it simplistically. The former 2 play Tuesday which will make things a bit clearer with the games in hand situ, not sure what result would be best there but what will be will be! Bring on Scunthorpe! 😊

Interestingly Cheltenham play all 3 of their rivals in the next 4 games!  Also I guess we shouldnt be cocky and rule any of the sides below us out of it, can any of themcome with a run to get back in it? We have a 4 point start at least on those. A win over Bradford in that game maybe be crucial to rule them out of it? 

Great to be talking about these things though instead of a relegation battle or drawing up potential retained lists in our heads as a previous poster mentioned.