Match Thread: Forest Green Rovers v Port Vale

[Doha]

3 minutes ago, valiant_593 said:

I know proctor hasn’t scored a load in his career, more of a target man type forward, but he looks a really goal scorer at this level to me. Always in that right position waiting for a tap in, I think he will score a fair few this season. Linked up excellently with Wilson who had his best game in a vale shirt by a mile. Garrity looked quality and Jones was again excellent. Such a brilliant away performance  against a free scoring side 

I thought Wilsons positioning was excellent on the highlights as well, knows where to be and if you watch his running when we break he can shift too. Just needs a goal to get the monkey off his back and he's away hopefully. 

 

[Doha]

Look, I know a few have a complex over the manager and DOF but I think this is a really likeable squad. They all graft, there's some characters in there, I think they responded really well to the support from the away following. Lots of genuine passion at FT when they walked over as getting the win was clearly a relief. 

Cov had a good game, he's more comfortable than Brown at commanding his area and coming out to catch, but has been the target of derision this season, as has Johnson despite only playing two halves in 5 league games.

If we don't jump out of the blocks against Rochdale or there's some early individual mistakes I hope the crowd doesn't slide into "after the lord mayors show" mode and start getting on their cases again like at Northampton.

It's a talented squad who I think would benefit from the confidence boost of us getting behind and staying behind them all season, in a similar way to the 'relationship' we had with the 12/13 promotion squad as they were playing without being paid. Cov in particular has had his confidence visibly knocked, if he's getting battered or jeered by the crowd he'll only make more mistakes. 

I just think the fans backing could earn us goals and points this season. It makes a difference, we were saying that all last year when there was no fans in to encourage them when a goal down with time left. 

[philpvfc]

Thought we played really well, thoroughly deserved to win by at least 2 goals and not one player had a poor game. I thought we were a lot better in the 2nd half at retaining possession as we gave it away a lot in the first half. Wilson and Proctor worked a lot better together in the 2nd half but  need to work more on their partnership as there was a lot of balls played forward which were flicked on of headed across the pitch no way near to their playing partner, that will only improve as both had decent games, also, there was a few players who looked knackered after 60 minutes or so which is a slight concern as I didn’t see the same for any FGR player so fitness may need to be worked on a few of our players but overall it was a great performance, very solid and other than the first minute when the FGR player should have scored I cannot remember them threatening to score once. I was particularly impressed with Proctor who led the front line well and helped the defence when needed, Worrall who despite injury concerns did not stop running for 90 minutes and hassled their defence in to a lot of errors, Martin who was solid as a rock, not giving anything away and Pett who second half took the mick out of them.

Terrible ground though, when they first came up I thought it was a very good none league set up but all the money that has been ploughed in to the team and not a penny on the ground, all these promises of a new ground being built, is that still happening?, I understand not letting away fans in the supporters club (always been allowed in before), but not to have some sort of drinking facilities for away fans was a joke, 40 minute round trip to the pub and not lay anything on is crazy, Mickey Mouse set up.

[PV1973]

28 minutes ago, Boslem's Brazil said:

One thing that did strike me yesterday. Out of all the games so far, we used the least amount of players in the starting eleven who were contracted from last season, only Smith and Worrall. Make of that what you will 😉

Well 6 of them are just working their way back from injury or are currently injured -  Gibbo, Conlon, legge, hurst, amoo & Taylor. 

[Emile]

11 hours ago, Sam Kelly's Left Boot said:

Mating season.

Glad I'm not a zebra.

[Boslem's Brazil]

I 

21 minutes ago, PV1973 said:

Well 6 of them are just working their way back from injury or are currently injured -  Gibbo, Conlon, legge, hurst, amoo & Taylor. 

I suppose what I’m getting at (playing devil’s advocate) is that we put in our best display of the season with the least amount of players from last year. Just something to consider. 

[darren1810]

11 hours ago, PVFC_4_EVA said:

Fantastic result. In complete control throughout the whole game.

The biggest shock of the day was that we actually had a very good referee performance

I thought it was Rob Page 😃

[darren1810]

Useless fact of the day 

Dan Jones dad and younger brother were on the terrace roaring Vale on. 

 

[CambridgeDon]

1 hour ago, Iron Curtain said:

League table if games were decided on xG… shows we are creating more and better chances than the teams we are playing.

Overly defensive my @rse. 

Well played DC.

Rochdale up next!

[Doha]

Excellent pull back from Wilson. Watch his burst of speed when he realises Worralls dragged it back, defender lost at sea.

 

 

[Biddulph_PV]

Sounded like a great all-round performance from the lads yesterday, with starring roles for Garrity and Proctor. Still no big advocate of 3-5-2 but you can’t argue with the management or players yesterday. It does throw up some very interesting questions, like getting the best out of our best players. You can’t drop Garrity or Proctor, so how does he get Rodney and Conlon in? Gibbons is nearing a return, so what does that mean for Worrall? What Taylor, who would surely flourish in a midfield where he has licence to go forward? Will 3-5-2 work at home, because every time we’ve played it we’ve always surrendered the lions share of possession, and chasing the ball will not be any easy game to play when the pitches get heavier and legs more weary? 

[Beech]

 

While it would be nice to see us keep possession better at times than we seem to, I'm sure that will come, but it's not the be all and end all. Tranmere had 70% possession yesterday away from home in a game they ended up losing, and they had one shot on target all game. I'd rather give the ball away at times but still create chances than to pass, pass, pass along the backline and in midfield without any purpose.

Forest Green knocked the ball around nicely at times but they were absolutely toothless with it.

[Guppys left peg]

8 minutes ago, Beech said:

 

While it would be nice to see us keep possession better at times than we seem to, I'm sure that will come, but it's not the be all and end all. Tranmere had 70% possession yesterday away from home in a game they ended up losing, and they had one shot on target all game. I'd rather give the ball away at times but still create chances than to pass, pass, pass along the backline and in midfield without any purpose.

Forest Green knocked the ball around nicely at times but they were absolutely toothless with it.

This is the thing. Dominating possession is about as worthless a stat as you can get for me. Remember Morecambe away last season where they set up to allow us to keep the ball in non-threatening areas knowing that slow tempo was playing right into their hands and won the game without us even coming close to scoring. 

[Beech]

2 minutes ago, Guppys left peg said:

This is the thing. Dominating possession is about as worthless a stat as you can get for me. Remember Morecambe away last season where they set up to allow us to keep the ball in non-threatening areas knowing that slow tempo was playing right into their hands and won the game without us even coming close to scoring. 

 

I'd only worry about our low possession in most games if we weren't having shots on goal. But that's not the case, and we could easily have a handful of more goals than we currently do. More than happy for the other team to <ovf censored> around with it if it's not in areas that can hurt us.

[philmpv]

Lovely to come onto a match thread on a Sunday morning and see its not 700 posts long, 650 of which is the usual bile and vitriol. The usual suspects who have dominated the last few match threads notable by their absence!