Match Thread: Port Vale v Salford City

[Bycarsbill]

We're never quite the same team without Conlon on the pitch--hope his injury is not long-term?

[onestepatatime]

Whoever gave Smith MOM last night must have had far too much juice in the hospitality lounge!

Smith a warrior, yes. Smith a battler, yes. Smith a try hard player, yes. Other than that little to say. He has been around for yonks now but his passing, creative, time on the ball attributes have never improved.

All those around me last night in Lorne street had their heads in their hands every time he had the ball at his feet. He was ponderous, slow, scared stiff of venturing forward and frankly looked out of depth in a schoolboy parks team whever he was called upon to do anything other than harry their forwards or attempt to head the ball away.

I love his enthusiasm and the fact he has played for years and years for Vale but come on he is an out and out destroyer, no more than that. He has not been taught the fundamentals of passing, going forward or joining up play. 

He is a Valiant and for that I love him BUT come on MOM last night? Never in a million years. 

[For Us All]

I'm slowly starting to dislike January transfer windows.

[connor hackett]

Salford certainly rode their luck last night, but also I'd say there was some stoic defending at times. We need to be more clinical, definitely, but I'm not going along with everyone who's saying they were a poor outfit. We just made them look poor, especially first half by dominating them in midfield. Second half you could actually see our confidence draining through the nervous energy and grumbling from the stands. A bad performance second half no doubt, but the season isn't over far from it. Just one more point before I get dogs abuse for being a happy Clapper, whoever said earlier in this thread that Hussey was garbage, was watching a different game to me last night, he's a quality addition to the squad.

[1]

11 hours ago, Joe B said:

A genuine question, and this isn't based on his performance tonight - is James Wilson as good as we are thinking?

He has 4 league goals. It's him and two kids till Proctor is back. Is that going to be enough, even when fit?

He's good to have in the mix, but he's a contributor not a guy who's capable of firing us to promotion. Proctor is better imo but another player made of glass and sellotape. Let's be real, we will carry them both through their contracts going equal thirds of crocked, gearing up again and playing at full health.  

[Breadwinner]

9 hours ago, valiant_593 said:

We did play rubbish….. the 2nd half is about as bad as it gets. No idea where you’ve got 6-1 from. First half we were good and had two cleared off the line. Can’t think of any more than that 

Second half wasn't great I agree but come on do you really think we only had two chances score first half we created loads of situations score .

Two penalties in dire second half aswell which on another day would have being given .

Like I say I look at overall performance the first half performance repeated over next 23 games for the whole 90 mins   will result in win after win .

 

[1]

it seemed like we had finally ditched the 532 thing a knock the head, and played some good stuff at times, at least as good as it needed to be. Then a bit of tinkering let us slip into old ways again. The injuries have ultimately <ovf censored> us, and rather than getting back to full strength we've just replaced the returning injuries with other injuries. The amount, frequency and damage of injuries is very concerning and something DCs team pride themselves on managing, but that has cost us rhythm and consistency in the side we have never recovered from.

[Rampant Zebra]

I think Theo Vassell had a point to prove, he was responsible for a few blocks on the line and looked determined to tackle anyone who came near him with the ball. We have no passion like that, apart from Gibbo maybe. 

[valiant_593]

18 minutes ago, Rampant Zebra said:

I think Theo Vassell had a point to prove, he was responsible for a few blocks on the line and looked determined to tackle anyone who came near him with the ball. We have no passion like that, apart from Gibbo maybe. 

Garrity shows loads of passion and determination. Vassell had a good game for them

[Rocky]

9 hours ago, Santa said:

I was level with it and it was onside. As was the other call later on. In fairness there was one where the player was in an offside position, but he never became active.

A lot of people who sit near me are troubled by the laws of the game. 

I'm sat in the Paddock just past the halfway line on the Hamil Road side so I didn't have the angle at all. I think I know the one you're talking about but there was one from a goal kick, their number 9 was offside, Smith messed up with the header and their number 9 touched it and he didn't flag. Seen the goal back though and he's onside, no doubt.

Also not sure how Smith was MOM last night either, we didn't have anyone that shone but I think Garrity was really good first half, did all the hard work for that driving run into their box and fluffed it at the end and he was everywhere, made a few passing errors in the second half but I think he's been our most consistent player this season.

I actually like Walker, he's big and strong but kicking that ball out for a corner near the halfway line that lead to their goal is as Sunday League as I've seen us this season. 

The form doesn't look great, three league losses on the bounce, the first being before the COVID break, the second being down to 10 men, and last night, well, I think if you're having 3 chances cleared off the line then it isn't your night. 

I understand the benefits of having a streamlined squad but I think we are feeling the other end of it at the moment with suspensions, injuries and a recall. First half we started slowly but we should have been out of sight by half time, we dominated. But when. think about the game, the image I have in my mind is the ball being constantly passed back to Stone, Stone hoofs it, we get the ball but when its ran into the channels the delivery is lacking, when it's knocked anywhere near the middle of the park, there is no run, no movement, gets passed back to defenders, they pass back to Stone, and so on and so forth. 

I'm confident Flitcroft is working tirelessly to bring in the required players - I'd take someone who can create in the middle of the park right now.

[jjvale_03]

Pace scares teams in this league (at any level actually!) and we don't have enough of it. This is one of the reasons why we've only won 5 of 12 home games in the league, we haven't had enough to unlock teams.

So, if Rodney is finished we should be desperately trying to offload him and replacing with someone who we actually will use. Preferably a 'wildcard' - a hybrid of Rodney and Politic who can give us something different.

[onestepatatime]

38 minutes ago, Rampant Zebra said:

I think Theo Vassell had a point to prove, he was responsible for a few blocks on the line and looked determined to tackle anyone who came near him with the ball. We have no passion like that, apart from Gibbo maybe. 

And Garrity and also the newbie Hall.

[Rampant Zebra]

1 minute ago, onestepatatime said:

And Garrity and also the newbie Hall.

Fair point about Garrity, he is enthusiastic. I think Connor needs to direct his energy better, running into the goalpost wasn't a good plan, although he did use their forward as a cushion. At least we got to see John Deeres finest in action, good movement in and around the box there. 

[SFBT]

1 hour ago, connor hackett said:

Salford certainly rode their luck last night, but also I'd say there was some stoic defending at times. We need to be more clinical, definitely, but I'm not going along with everyone who's saying they were a poor outfit. We just made them look poor, especially first half by dominating them in midfield. Second half you could actually see our confidence draining through the nervous energy and grumbling from the stands. A bad performance second half no doubt, but the season isn't over far from it. Just one more point before I get dogs abuse for being a happy Clapper, whoever said earlier in this thread that Hussey was garbage, was watching a different game to me last night, he's a quality addition to the squad.

Brilliant. Well said. 👏👏

[osprey]

9 minutes ago, jjvale_03 said:

Pace scares teams in this league (at any level actually!) and we don't have enough of it. This is one of the reasons why we've only won 5 of 12 home games in the league, we haven't had enough to unlock teams.

So, if Rodney is finished we should be desperately trying to offload him and replacing with someone who we actually will use. Preferably a 'wildcard' - a hybrid of Rodney and Politic who can give us something different.

you are right, we do really lack pace. With the size of the Vale pitch it is something you would think we would look for in players but we seem so slow. Amoo you think is about to put his foot down but he stops and passes backwards and Worrell seems off the boil at the moment. Rodney - well who knows what is happening with him ??