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21 hours ago, darren1810 said:

He's been a superb player absolutely no doubt, legend yes .

Greatest striker ?

You never saw Martin Foyle or Tony Naylor then playing two divisions higher ? 

 

Absolutely agree. Tin Man and Naylor were top drawer footballers who could and should have played in the top tier. 
 

Pope is a league 2 striker, a good one yes, but never really proven in league 1 even. 
 

For that reason, as a footballer I don’t think he was even at a level of a Constantine or McPhee. 
 

A vale legend given his service but in terms of greatness as a player...harder to say. 

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20 hours ago, andy jones said:

Philmpv 

I don't think we should underestimate Pope's ability to cross a ball. I lost count the number of times I said during games. Great cross by Pope shame he can't be on the end of it.

Naylor's audacious goal when he 'did' the lad on the half way line Lorne Street side to then cut in and bend it past the keeper was just sublime (was that against Sunderland?)

Martin Foyle's ability to win a free kick to relieve pressure.  His surfboarding goal against the S hite

Beckford's header on to Earle for promotion to second division.

All the above amazing memories.

But only one goal has seen me celebrate so mentally that I got thrown out. That was Pope at the Ethiad and I was 70 at the time!!

Thanks Tom.

 

 

 

 

It was indeed against Sunderland. An absolute bit of genius from Naylor. If I remember rightly, received the ball, backheel nutmeg spin away from the lumbering defender, run towards the box, curled it in the top corner... 

Love that goal.

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38 minutes ago, TJHValiant said:

Absolutely agree. Tin Man and Naylor were top drawer footballers who could and should have played in the top tier. 
 

Pope is a league 2 striker, a good one yes, but never really proven in league 1 even. 
 

For that reason, as a footballer I don’t think he was even at a level of a Constantine or McPhee. 
 

A vale legend given his service but in terms of greatness as a player...harder to say. 

If you think of a player's career being about 10 seasons Pope qualifies as a legend and probably our greatest player over the last 10 years. 

If you are looking at the best forwards of the last 50 years I don't think he was as good as Jones, Beckford, Aly Brown, Futcher, Slaven, Mills, Foyle, Naylor, McPhee, Brooker or Sodje. Really this list shows how much quality we had from the mid 80s through to the mid noughties.

Pope is better than anything from the 70s and the last 10 years. If he'd had the players around him the 11 guys ahead of him on my list had maybe he would have been even better still. A bit like arguing over who is the best of all time, Pope was certainly the best of his time. The one promotion of this period was definitely largely down to him and even more importantly he kept the club in The Football League. No other players quite defined two important seasons in the clubs history quite as much as Pope did in those 2 important seasons.

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The promotion season was when Tom Pope was the man. His finishing that season was unbelievable and he scored some wonderful goals. A lot of other fans associate Pope with a target man who will get on the end of crosses but that season when I look back at the pictures he looked very fit and slim (than now) and he was very sharp in the penalty box. Age caught up with him like all of us. He’s a very good footballer. His touch is very good and he’s a clever player. He linked up play so often with clever passes. Like mentioned above, I’d have liked to see him in the side we had with guppy and McCarthy. He would have scored goals no doubt about that even in that league.  A true great for me not because of who he is, but for his goals and contribution to the teams he’s played in. he won’t be forgotten 

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1 minute ago, JohnJames said:

You forgot Sammy Morgan in the 70s NI international who was sold to Villa.  JohnJames wasn’t bad either. Pope would have loved playing in the 70s when it was proper rough and tumble

I was very young with those 2. Both were good players but neither scored the quanity of goals Pope did for Vale. I think James was more prolific after he left. Both were good players in an era, which for me was largely defined by Horton. That early 70s Vale team was certainly full of characters.

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13 minutes ago, sandyford_valiant said:

The promotion season was when Tom Pope was the man. His finishing that season was unbelievable and he scored some wonderful goals. A lot of other fans associate Pope with a target man who will get on the end of crosses but that season when I look back at the pictures he looked very fit and slim (than now) and he was very sharp in the penalty box. Age caught up with him like all of us. He’s a very good footballer. His touch is very good and he’s a clever player. He linked up play so often with clever passes. Like mentioned above, I’d have liked to see him in the side we had with guppy and McCarthy. He would have scored goals no doubt about that even in that league.  A true great for me not because of who he is, but for his goals and contribution to the teams he’s played in. he won’t be forgotten 

The fact Pope gave 100% over the last couple of seasons is much to his credit. Pope has joked about needing players to do the running for him in the past, which helps hide the fact that in his first stint he did a lot of running. He was at least a yard quicker than some credit him being. He was certainly more mobile than Marc Richards. Although in decline physically his experience and attitude on the pitch meant he continued to contribute.

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1 hour ago, manc_vale said:

It was indeed against Sunderland. An absolute bit of genius from Naylor. If I remember rightly, received the ball, backheel nutmeg spin away from the lumbering defender, run towards the box, curled it in the top corner... 

Love that goal.

I bet Jacko enjoyed it more 🙂

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1 hour ago, manc_vale said:

It was indeed against Sunderland. An absolute bit of genius from Naylor. If I remember rightly, received the ball, backheel nutmeg spin away from the lumbering defender, run towards the box, curled it in the top corner... 

Love that goal.

This goal... I literally lost it when it went in, what a team, what a performance and what a goal. 

Cant believe no one has mentioned McCarthys goal vs Everton yet either, I didn't get back to my seat for about 10 minutes after it. Bedlam.

 

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7 hours ago, JRC said:

Walker's goal against Spurs. Not only saved Rudge's job but also really marked the start of our ascent to what we know call The Championship. 

Tbh i think it was Kevin Finney?? i think scoring against non league Macclesfield to get a 1-0 win and took us to the tie with Spurs that saved Rudgies job(imagine if they had sacked him wow what we would of missed)

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1 minute ago, werstayinup said:

Tbh i think it was Kevin Finney?? i think scoring against non league Macclesfield to get a 1-0 win and took us to the tie with Spurs that saved Rudgies job(imagine if they had sacked him wow what we would of missed)

I don't think we won a league game between Macc and Spurs. We had a really awful run in the league.

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