Match Thread: Port Vale v Sheffield Wednesday

[Powerline]

That was a disgraceful refereeing performance. Was so biased it was unreal and totally lost control of the game.

[vallyunt]

Don't forget the linesman on the paddock side. Didn't see a thing all match. If the assistants don't help the ref then the ref runs the game.

[Bobnewtonian]

It was similar to the Portsmouth game for me they are by quite some way the best 2 teams I ve seen.

Wednesday s strength is off the ball they are very good at closing people down and hunting in packs. If a team does go long against them then they have a powerhouse of a centre half and enough competent defenders to cope with that basically making it really hard to get any attacking momentum against them. Unspectacular but if done correctly in the lower leagues is very effective. When you combine that with a little bit of nouse up front it makes it difficult for us. Couldn’t find any room and we didn’t force a save all match. I suspect if we had gone ahead we would have seen a much more expansive Wednesday team but alas we didn’t get chance to test that hypothesis.

great to see the ground nice and full.

get the derby game over and then we need some points

utv

 

[soothsayer]

I thought I was watching the Olympic diving final in the second half! 
Well played Vale, the only way they could beat you was with an outstanding strike and biased officials. 

[Biddulph_PV]

25 minutes ago, PV1973 said:

They are a good team and hardly got out of second gear and did enough to see it out. They’ll be promoted this season and there’s no shame in losing to them. But we didn’t really have much of a go today, maybe that’s down to how good they are? Some better performances this week than last and that’s the only positive we can take from it I think. 
 

Barry Bannan stealing a living? Lol. A player with experience in both divisions above and in international football. He’s one of the best midfielders in the division. He will run games. 

Agree with most of that. Were they in 2nd gear or just not that good….not sure personally. If it was the former, then really not sure why they had to resort to time wasting (their goalie was an embarrassment) and trying to get players booked by conning the ref, but I guess that’s modern day football for you.

But the really really frustrating thing for me is I think we’ve paid them too much respect and not had a go 2nd half at all. In fact, we played right into their hands by just aimlessly launching long balls once Mipo was on which they dealt with easily. We have little creativity, no plan B and look very poor in midfield no matter what the combination. I hope to God that Ojo is back next week as he was missed today.

Thought Jones and Forrester were great today which really are the only positives I can see. It was even disappointing that we couldn’t muster 8,000 Vale supporters for the game.

[Bobnewtonian]

Was the ref that bad? Think he could have sent off a vale player today but he resisted. Think Jones was very fortunate to be honest he struggled with their number 7. He kept getting muscled round onto the wrong side.

though fozz was excellent though

[Jacko51]

3 minutes ago, Bobnewtonian said:

Was the ref that bad? Think he could have sent off a vale player today but he resisted. Think Jones was very fortunate to be honest he struggled with their number 7. He kept getting muscled round onto the wrong side.

though fozz was excellent though

Yes the ref was that bad. His yellow cards were a joke - identical fouls got a booking for us but not for them. Their No 7 was a disgrace to his profession. 

[PV1973]

9 minutes ago, Biddulph_PV said:

Agree with most of that. Were they in 2nd gear or just not that good….not sure personally. If it was the former, then really not sure why they had to resort to time wasting (their goalie was an embarrassment) and trying to get players booked by conning the ref, but I guess that’s modern day football for you.

But the really really frustrating thing for me is I think we’ve paid them too much respect and not had a go 2nd half at all. In fact, we played right into their hands by just aimlessly launching long balls once Mipo was on which they dealt with easily. We have little creativity, no plan B and look very poor in midfield no matter what the combination. I hope to God that Ojo is back next week as he was missed today.

Thought Jones and Forrester were great today which really are the only positives I can see. It was even disappointing that we couldn’t muster 8,000 Vale supporters for the game.

They are third in the league for a reason and I think coasted through most of today with a proper shlthouse away performance at times. They’re a good team IMO and bear in mind a lot of the time when we see a team here we are seeing a different beast to that which plays at their own ground, away performances and tactics are sometimes totally different. 
 

Agree with everything you say about us as an attacking force.  We have no creativity and our main outlet from last season (wingbacks linking with midfielders and a forward) has been disappointing at best this season. Maybe that’s down to the fact that we have built a squad where the midfield is just too similar and that our wingbacks aren’t playing that great this season either? I actually think that DC doesn’t even know his best side yet. 

[knapperm]

Was the ref that bad? Think he could have sent off a vale player today but he resisted. Think Jones was very fortunate to be honest he struggled with their number 7. He kept getting muscled round onto the wrong side.
though fozz was excellent though

He only got booked because No 7 kept throwing himself to the floor. He threw himself to the floor at three times in front of the ref for no reason.

[Bobnewtonian]

7 minutes ago, soothsayer said:

I thought I was watching the Olympic diving final in the second half! 
Well played Vale, the only way they could beat you was with an outstanding strike and biased officials. 

Unfortunately time wasting is inherent in professional football teams. 

anyone remembers Bradford away with stones antics or the regular hamstring issues from Lucas will agree we are as bad as anyone when we are in front.

hopefully the refs can get a grip on this somehow

utv

[PV1973]

Let’s be honest if we went away and won 1-0 with the same tactics we’d be purring about what a great away performance that was. 

[Bobnewtonian]

2 minutes ago, knapperm said:

He only got booked because No 7 kept throwing himself to the floor. He threw himself to the floor at three times in front of the ref for no reason.

Disagree.. he got muscled out on the wrong side and impeded him as he would have had a clear run through. Only thing saved him was how far from goal he was.

then he commuted a similar foul second half again after being out muscled.

I think he was lucky myself 

[Bobnewtonian]

1 minute ago, PV1973 said:

Let’s be honest if we went away and won 1-0 with the same tactics we’d be purring about what a great away performance that was. 

Correct… perfect away performance

[TJHValiant]

33 minutes ago, Valiiant said:

 

That's mad. On that salary you would think he would win games on his own in League One.

Indeed. The fact is Bannan is not a Championship player and what will happen is Wednesday may go back up, but will come back down again as they can’t sustain paying half a dozen guys that sort of money. 

[Dr Delgado]

23 minutes ago, corbanlovesvale said:

Deserved a draw poor ref who seemed to give a foul every time one of their players went down.  But proves to me we can be competitive against the top teams.  So bring on Derby UTV 

I hate it when we lose and then start to blame the ref but I have to agree with all my fellow Vale fans when they say the officiating was abysmal. There was one incident that particularly made my blood boil and it was when their player went down trying to make out that Conlon had elbowed him or something. This was right under the refs nose. Now had the ref bought that shameless play acting then the consequence for Conlon would have been a red card. Why was that player just told to get up, he should at the very least received a booking. Having had no penalty since 24th April 2021 I think we are justified in being the most disgruntled fans in the country when it comes to referees.