League 2 Relegation fight

[Iron Curtain]

18 minutes ago, darren1810 said:

People ?

You mean motormouth Pope 

Southend have won at Newport and the Vegans. You also dismiss them as having less fans than on your street. Just remind me how many times we've beaten the Vegans this season. 

I'm afraid you have buried your head in the sand. Momentum is huge in football. 

We are in trouble unless we get our act together

By “people” I think @1 means the posters on here who continually said how incredibly poor Southend were when Pugh’s record as Caretaker manager was being discussed.

It was made VERY clear that he should be given no credit whatsoever for that result as Southend were so bad.

A few posters insisted that Portly Vale would beat them. And I’m sure one said he could do it all on their own. 

[valefan16]

Southend were extremely bad to be fair against us both times...

There is one positive from that tonight, if they can win away at FGR there’s no reason we can’t win at home to Cambridge.

[Iron Curtain]

43 minutes ago, darren1810 said:

People ?

You mean motormouth Pope 

Southend have won at Newport and the Vegans. You also dismiss them as having less fans than on your street. Just remind me how many times we've beaten the Vegans this season. 

I'm afraid you have buried your head in the sand. Momentum is huge in football. 

We are in trouble unless we get our act together

You yourself called them “horrendous”

To be really clear, I’m not saying we are not in danger of being sucked in... but we don’t need to worry that Southend are suddenly Man City.

[dishydave]

Southend were quite good tonight a lot more organised than when we played them

[Wrex]

Well we've not had a new manager bounce with Pugh or Clarke. It really looks like we're reliant on those points we put on the board right at the start of the season. They should prove enough in addition to the odd win here or there but it won't be pretty, particularly going off last night

[Sandyford_Lion]

1 hour ago, Iron Curtain said:

By “people” I think @1 means the posters on here who continually said how incredibly poor Southend were when Pugh’s record as Caretaker manager was being discussed.

It was made VERY clear that he should be given no credit whatsoever for that result as Southend were so bad.

A few posters insisted that Portly Vale would beat them. And I’m sure one said he could do it all on their own. 

You did watch the game. Southend were shocking AND it was a game where the ball dropped for us far more than in any game recently.

We had the run of the ball and took our chances. In games when we have struggled the ball never seems to drop for us. We need our fair share of luck.

Another bearing on safety or not is in our own hands. We have to keep our players fit and on the pitch. How do you do that with Manny. Joyce andd Worrall could both be a doubt. Monty and Gibbo just have to stay fit. Cullen has played 25 mins so he is due another injury i suppose.

Not sure how we address the fitness issue. We seem to have struggled all season in the second half. Perhaps we need to use the five subs rule more.

With injuries,fitness,systems,lack of goals oh and poor players we have a battle on our hands. We need fighters on the pitch now who want to do it for the Vale

 

[valefan16]

Our recent form is improving slightly, since Askey left we’ve won 2, drew 3 lost 3... not great but a point a game average which would see us likely comfortably safe if we can maintain it (ideally improve it).

Grimsby has a lucky win by the sounds of it and are ten behind. That was their first in 2 months. Barrow seem to get the odd win here and there.

Southend is an odd one. We battered them and they were so bad... think they’ve barely conceded and picked up so good results against high flying sides since, point at Cambridge, beat Newport and FGR.

We’ve got to worry about us though. It’s a wide gap still so we must tick the points over.

We’ve lost once in 4 so being harder to beat hopefully. Does feel like the first Aspin season a bit though. Great spell (just before Xmas in this case) then didn’t win for months but rattled off a load of draws.

[Powerline]

It’s a real shame we can’t have fans in the ground imo. When Askey saved us from relegation and the black and gold protests were going on I think the crowds had a huge effect on galvanising the players. I remember being at Notts County away with around 700 others for a hugely important game, and the atmosphere was great. We took a point and played them off the park, and that was the start of our run that led us to safety.

[1]

Also, if Southend are relying on goals like the one they scored last night to stay up, I am not worried. 

[valiant_593]

22 minutes ago, 1 said:

Also, if Southend are relying on goals like the one they scored last night to stay up, I am not worried. 

Goal of the season I think 

[darren1810]

11 hours ago, Iron Curtain said:

You yourself called them “horrendous”

To be really clear, I’m not saying we are not in danger of being sucked in... but we don’t need to worry that Southend are suddenly Man City.

I did mate, I also described Bolton as horrific. 

What I'm saying is since we beat Southend we have 2 points and they have 7 albeit from one more game.

You only have to look at Fulham. Newcastle and Brighton were safe( ish ) now after 7 in 9 they are both crapping themselves. 

Southend have gained 5 on us in no time. I don't like the look of our fixtures for the next 5 games at all. 

Would I swap places with Southend no I wouldn't, am I worried , yes I am. 

Successive wins would solve everything as per when we beat Mansfield and Yeovil the other season. 

We need a win. I'm all for Clarke realising we need to shore things up as we were leaking goals, the counter argument is that if you aren't really taking the game to Stevenage then who will you. 

Clarke has a massive rebuild on here and I do think we'll muddle a few wins to stay up but we are in for a nervous road to safety. 

[darren1810]

1 hour ago, 1 said:

Also, if Southend are relying on goals like the one they scored last night to stay up, I am not worried. 

But they won 3-1. 

You can't use that as an argument mate look at Conlon goal against Yeovil. 

[valefan16]

It can change quickly. Mansfield were on about the play offs... Bradford and Bolton were in big trouble below us three weeks later both in a play off challenge.

We just need a good week, maybe at some point in the next three weeks where we rattle of 7 or 9 points then the complexion changes and we look safe.

[For Us All]

1 hour ago, valefan16 said:

It can change quickly. Mansfield were on about the play offs... Bradford and Bolton were in big trouble below us three weeks later both in a play off challenge.

We just need a good week, maybe at some point in the next three weeks where we rattle of 7 or 9 points then the complexion changes and we look safe.

I agree,we are looking pretty solid at the back but need to create more chances.Wozza is instrumental in that as proven in his top number of assists.

[Jacko51]

19 hours ago, vale@rocks said:

It has suddenly just come to my attention what Clarke has said. We are effectively a one horse pony. His comments were aimed at our inability to play anything other than 443 formation with the use of wingers. We now find ourselves in a very vulnerable position just 8 points out of the bottom two. Is this the time to use a strategy that Clarke believes in that produced the performance last night? Surely now we need to play the best players we have in an attempt to get results not toy with systems and gamble on the basis of his beliefs. Next season all well and good. Worrying glad i'm not the manager.

What I’m a little surprised about is Clarke saying we only have one defensive midfielder. I can’t believe that professional footballers can’t adapt their game to the position they are asked to play. Why can only Joyce play that position?  Why have we not got another player in our large squad that could put in a shift there?