Match Thread: Port Vale v Bolton Wanderers

[MBE]

4 hours ago, Breadwinner said:

What I mean by GUTLESS is a player in the team who drives past players gets brought down for a pen ,a player who when he picks the ball up believes in his own ability to get a goal or goals for the Vale .

What you mean is lacking confidence. No-one can argue with that.

[Andy Proctor]

I wish Rob would start showing some of the vale games he has from the 80s and 90s again as its fair better than watching this garbage.

[osprey]

It’s a good thing for the players that crowds aren’t allowed in this season- I suspect their ears would be ringing and they really would find out what vale fans think about the dross they are serving up

[SuperHuman]

Everything about the last few weeks reminds me of our League One relegation season under Brown.

We never looked like scoring then and we decided to play Turner upfront. Our attacking options are just as bad now.

We gave Reeves a run of games in midfield then, just like we are now playing Hurst. 

[pete vale]

10 hours ago, Breadwinner said:

Spot on ,what a GUTLESS showing again ,wouldnt mind so much but we didnt even look interested in scoring ,it was a damn awful display ,positives we only let them score one ,negatives at work with not a happy bone in me body after witnessing a nothing display again ,we are abject .

Play To  Win and whoevers bright idea it was play Conlon in midfield wants shooting ,wheres Burgess a miles better footballer than him also Rodney up front he is atrocious in 7 games I can count on one hand how many good things he as done .

Hurry up back Pope and even then he may have the heart but not the legs ,most of them who played for us yesterday need showing the door there heart isnt with us you can see it in there body language there mugging every single one of us supporters off .

 

I think it's me, being a Vale fan fearing the worst but always finding any glimmer of hope from some media. This time it was attending the virtual meeting - 230 of us on, thousands more now get the vibe (or shall I say got).

Tuning in again yesterday to an attrocious iFollow stream, most of the first half buffered, It was so poor I nodded off and missed their goal, then to watch the rest in disbelief, struggling to link the <ovf censored> on the pitch to all the talk in the meeting. Was this Port Vale in disguise, was this the team and club so gloriously talked about by Carol, Flitcroft and Clarke? Was it hell as like. So in summary, I'm confused. Are Flitcroft (who incidentally didn't show the same exhuberance and mannerisms on Thursday as he did in his 'wonderful' youtube initial interview) and Clarke the 'real deal' or chancers as some would say? Is Carol with all the best intentions in the world being ripped off. She's much more astute and intelligent for that but as I have witnessed first hand, there are many chancers, crooks and <ovf censored> in football, many false promises are made, look at Man Utd for example, the problem is, that because of Covid, we cannot support her and the club in the way we would have normally. And at the end of the day 4,000 fans won't all be wrong in their assessment.

 

For me, yesterday was such an anti-climax and let down to the point of anger, tears and the realisation that a team lacking so much in desire and cutting edge is heading only one way - something that the oaf Mr Smurthwaite was never achieved despite all his best efforts.

I do hope that Carol, the board and the 'dream team' read this but probably not and if Smurthwaite does and he gloats - well, man - you should hang your money grabbing fat head in shame,

[The man in the pub]

Theo had his chance to impress either us or another club and strolled around as if he was on holiday. He will be lucky in  that next season Amazon will still be recruiting drivers.

[fraggle]

Too many passengers yet again, gutless performance... living in hope that Tom pope comes back into the side soon, to breed some true Vale fan fight into some of those spineless players.

I really can’t believe that they can play like that, they are playing got their livelihoods and no player surely wants a ‘relegation to non-league’ on their CV?

I wouldn’t pay any of them after yesterday.

Why is the captain of the club, not playing his guts out? He was given the armband for the way he plays.... simply looks like he’s going through the motions, does not deserve the armband at present!

Get a grip Clarke, this is disgraceful!

[fraggle]

Legge is in his twilight years and been sitting on his hands for weeks for whatever reason. He’s come back in, suddenly playing twice a week, and his fitness, commitment and consistency is putting others to shame. Players 10 years younger huffing and puffing like pensioners.

Couldn’t agree more!

[Doha]

I have to say I was really surprised by the intensity and rifeness of the wrist cutting yesterday.

It was as if some people were poised and just waiting to start the wailing the minute the final whistle went.

We were playing one of the most in form teams in English football off the back of about 7 wins, with lots of people predicting a heavy loss, and would have held them to a quiet 0-0 draw had Hurst not lost his man for a centre half to fumble one in off his shin. Crap goal - but we were not well beaten, we deserved more out of the game, and more than competed with then. 

I find the attacks on Clarke a bit mental. He's been here less than 4 weeks. Please tell me what you would do to get a response out of Donkey Robinson? Donkey Guthrie? Donkey Cullen? Multiple players have muscle injuries, your best forward had his shoulder destroyed by some lumbering <ovf censored> in a tinpot trophy game and yet was nails enough to see the match out with his deltoid muscle torn from the bone. Your best wing back snapped his hamstring two games after being out for months after doing it previously. You came in off the back of 1 win in 13 courtesy of a DREADFUL, unbalanced, incompetent squad because of the unbelievable recruitment failings of the previous manager. 

Clarke revealed there was no training data on what the players got up to in their 5 months off. No data on who had covid. No signing medicals, that's insane, how the frigging hell is that compliant with insurance requirements or FL rules I'll never know. Under Pugh, the stupid <ovf censored> <ovf censored> were allegedly playing rugby in training and several got injured. If that's true he needs sacking. If you want some teambuilding take them frigging paintballing, not have them speartackling Dino Visser. 

I put it to all of you that the culprit of the frequency of these muscle injuries is the 5 month lockdown period and then the very short pre-season. They didn't train properly, they weren't monitored properly, Askey was blase about it all, kept no records, treated it like a PE teacher managing an after school team of kids. They went straight into 2 games a week without being sufficiently prepared for it and the resultant muscle injuries are going to keep happening until the season's over. Clarke's sacked the conditioning and fitness guy and replaced him, good, as the previous guy was clearly utterly incompetent. See I actually have some direct evidence of that from his statements and from the revolving door of 5+ injured players at any one time, unlike the manic screamers who go on about Sinclair sabotaging Askey and inciting the players to launch a coup d'etat, making insinuations as if they're going to pull a Travis Bickle on Frank Sinclair despite the lack of a single scrap of evidence in his culpability for any of this. Change my mind, he's a wrong un, prove it. No one has. Not a single shred of actual evidence has ever been posted on here or published in the news or alleged in a public statement. Some people just can't admit they were wrong, and Askey was a non-league manager with non-league recruitment and non-league game management. 

[Doha]

14 minutes ago, The man in the pub said:

Theo had his chance to impress either us or another club and strolled around as if he was on holiday. He will be lucky in  that next season Amazon will still be recruiting drivers.

If he was just crap, I could tolerate it a bit more.

But unlike the other crap up front we've had to soul destroyingly endure over the last 10 years, Robinson also puts in zero effort. Even Cecilia at least tried. 

That's unforgivable. If fans were in he'd be getting it from all four stands and he'd frankly deserve it. Jogging around like it's the last reserve match of the season is going to infuriate people enough to hammer you all game, at any club. He'd be getting it and I'd be joining in as he slowly meanders into the wrong position and misses out on an easy second ball for the 5th time that half. 

The bloke can't even motivate himself enough to even put himself in the shop window for another club.

Terrible attitude, terrible player, dog <ovf censored> the first time around and dog <ovf censored> now. I was moaned at for being disappointed in his signing. That thread was full of comments talking him up as the second coming. He's one of the worst Vale signings of all time. Cheers for that Askey, phenomenal recruitment work as ever. 

[Fosse69]

14 minutes ago, fraggle said:

Why is the captain of the club, not playing his guts out? He was given the armband for the way he plays.... simply looks like he’s going through the motions, does not deserve the armband at present!

Get a grip Clarke, this is disgraceful!

Conlon was given the captain`s armband as an attacking midfielder when the availability of Legge was uncertain. Under DC Conlon is employed defensively and Legge is now available and playing at his previous standard. Would it be better to restore Legge as captain and take the pressure off Conlon and  let him concentrate on his previous attacking role?

[darren1810]

33 minutes ago, The man in the pub said:

Theo had his chance to impress either us or another club and strolled around as if he was on holiday. He will be lucky in  that next season Amazon will still be recruiting drivers.

Yes but sadly mate he's holding all the aces. 

Guaranteed a pay off or a guaranteed wage for another 12 months. 

What a situation. Theo would you like 40k to feck off or Theo you won't be playing but your 4k a month will still be deposited in your bank account. 

Unbelievable you literally can't make it up 

[Wrex]

22 minutes ago, Doha said:

Please tell me what you would do to get a response out of Donkey Robinson? Donkey Guthrie? Donkey Cullen?

Those donkeys have scored 204 goals between them at League Two level and above. A poor craftsman blames his tools.

Chris Wilder took Sheffield United from League One to a top ten Premier League finish with <ovf censored> David McGoldrick leading the line.

Sorry but the whole "what more can I do" mantra from Clarke is pathetic. He's very good at talking, deflecting blame, coming up with excuses and shirking responsibly. I don't think he needs help from fans in that department.

[Jacko51]

2 hours ago, Eddie Ford said:

And if my Aunt was born with a set of balls she would have been my uncle instead

 

Not interested in the bizarre sex changes in your family mate. 

[Wrex]

26 minutes ago, Fosse69 said:

Conlon was given the captain`s armband as an attacking midfielder when the availability of Legge was uncertain. Under DC Conlon is employed defensively and Legge is now available and playing at his previous standard. Would it be better to restore Legge as captain and take the pressure off Conlon and  let him concentrate on his previous attacking role?

What is it with this captain's armband? We gave it to Legge and he went crap, took it off him and he's reborn. Gave it Conlon and he's gone crap. I wouldn't want to give it back to Legge and risk him getting sent off again.