Match Thread: Lincoln City v Port Vale

[SuperHuman]

The biggest thing that has disappointed me is that I thought we’d actually have a go this season. On the whole we’ve been so boring and gone in to games not expecting to win. We’ve been resigned to so many defeats. Even in the post match interviews it’s as if anything other than a loss is a bonus. 

Yes, we are a league higher than last season and survival is the main objective. However, half of this league is bang average and it’s not as if we are a plucky non league team punching above our weight. 

[mbycars]

21 hours ago, Vale Ball said:

A disturbing result obviously, if this shambles of a second half results in a must win game against Plymouth this team of bottlers will throw the towel in.

Pope was right there's no battlers, no characters in this squad.

If this run of results is down to individuals or individual then that needs addressing at 5.15pm after the Plymouth game.


.

Sent from my SM-A217F using onevalefan mobile app
 

Pope may be right, but he was part of the squad that was in a similar collapse of form and attitude when Askey was in charge.

[valiant_593]

5 minutes ago, mbycars said:

Pope may be right, but he was part of the squad that was in a similar collapse of form and attitude when Askey was in charge.

He was more than part, he was the issue 

[Biddulph_PV]

17 minutes ago, SuperHuman said:

The biggest thing that has disappointed me is that I thought we’d actually have a go this season. On the whole we’ve been so boring and gone in to games not expecting to win. We’ve been resigned to so many defeats. Even in the post match interviews it’s as if anything other than a loss is a bonus. 

Yes, we are a league higher than last season and survival is the main objective. However, half of this league is bang average and it’s not as if we are a plucky non league team punching above our weight. 

I also thought we’d have a go, we were very handily placed going into January.

However, I get the financial aspect, and if people had come out and actually said ‘look, things are a bit tight, we need to just consolidate this season then go again’ I think that would have been fine.

But to actually say that we exited the January window in better shape than we entered it is one from Smurf’s playbook IMO. 

Also I can’t believe, given how badly we were decimated by injuries at the same stage as last year and we largely the same players, we told underestimated the potential for it to happen again especially when 1) we might as well play home games on Southport beach 2) we’re signed even more players with questionable injury records (e g. Harrison) and 3) we are in a more demanding league. 

Finally, I hope we’re learned a very important lesson around the length of managerial contract i.e. longer contracts are pointless. I suspect we’ve held out for too much compo and now none of us are where we want to be in that we’ve left with a manager who doesn’t want to be here and we can’t afford to change.

[Bycarsbill]

Trying to take some heat out of the DC/DF debate and attempting a bit of analysis and to look objectively at the run in to season's end, we know that FGR have gone and I reckon that Accrington and Morecambe are almost certainly going to join them. 

That means the the one further club to go down will more than likely come from Oxford, MK or PV. Burton has 2 games in hand of us and also on Cheltenham and Cheltenham have a better GD than us, so I am assuming that those two will survive. Oxford also have played a game less than us but are six points behind.  However, both their and MK's goal differences are better than ours--and that's before Tuesday's game v Ipswich who only managed to put 6 past Charlton yesterday! 

Whichever way you look at it, there's no doubt going to be some squeaky bum moments between now and the 46th games and, dependant upon results between now and then, that day in May could yet be the squeakiest of all!! 

The fact that it's got to this state of affairs is in itself an obvious indictment of DF, DC and (with a couple of exemptions), the whole first team squad. Time is fast running  (has run?) out, for all  our sakes, please get your act together guys!

[1]

To be fair Butterworth’s goal was pick of the bunch. 

[CambridgeDon]

4 hours ago, mr.hobblesworth said:

Match Thread: Lincoln City v Port Vale | Page 13 | Vital Football

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The whole dugout for Vale yesterday was bizarre. Darryl Clarke, the manager, was sat on his chair 5 yards away and hardly stood up. Carlo Nash, Andy Crosby and David Dunn, all ex pro players, were on their feet screaming instructions and abusing the officials constantly 5 yards out of their area. The 4th official gave up trying to control them after they told him to F*ck off for about the 5th time. David Flitcroft, their Director of Football, was sat up in the stands watching. That’s a hell of a coaching staff and would cost a small fortune.

What on earth does anyone make of this? At face value, it tells me that Clarke has given up and is leaving it to his coaches who, by their behaviour, seem to have lost their composure. Now is the time for fight and cool heads and we seem to have neither, which does not bode well.

Ask yourself the question: if we stay up would you want Clarke to manage us through next season in L1? If we go down, would you want him to try and bring us back up?

On our performances since January, with the grand tally of three wins in 20 games, my answer is No to both questions. So, logically, why would I want him to stay any longer? 

It is still in our own hands but, on that display, he is going to be an impediment to staying up. So, imho, enough is enough. It is going to be a brave man - or more to the point - woman who is going to make that decision at this stage.

But it has its merits.

[TJHValiant]

1 hour ago, Vale 1971 said:

Oh my that is bad however I enjoyed some parts of that season .
2 nil down to Oxford Reggie getting equaliser.
We were poor though and had a run similar to this season once Grant and Alnwick were sold .
Took me years get over how bad that side was.
Smith was a beginner in the game and he got young player of the year .
Who would have thought that he still be here and we be doing it all over again .
On the back of Wembley excellence aswell .
Deary me how to move a football club which was flying along to standing still and then heading back to where they come from disgracefully

Anyone remember the home win under Millwall early in that season that pushed us up to 4th? People were getting really excited and thought we would end up getting promoted. The wheels soon fell off. Post TV MK Dons win it all died off. 
 

Selling Grant and Alnwick was a tragedy but this season there have been no such suicidal decisions except letting Hall leave. Which really should not have the impact it appears to have had. 
 

The thing with that season is, we were wildly unpredictable and clubs had no idea how to play us and fans didn’t have a clue how all the obscure players would do. 
 

This season we all know what will happen. Rigid, restrictive set ups of the same old players with no real gambles. This consistency would be being celebrated if we were still 9th…but that’s long gone and more experimentation was needed.

[1]

If the Pompey rumours are true, then I’m interested to know how much people would let Clarke go for ... obviously at that time his stock was a lot higher.

[valeparklife]

1 hour ago, mr.hobblesworth said:

We should have never have had to resort to Stevens in the first place. I don't give a <ovf censored> about mealy-mouthed excuses regarding a short pre-season, it was clear that we needed a new keeper after Covolan's dismissal against Swindon and options should have been identified well before August. DF conducting zoom interviews sitting on his arse in Spain won't have helped the process either. I said all this at the start of the season and was slated by the usuals on here, @Iron Curtain repeatedly called me "disrespectful" for stating the obvious. And I bet we haven't identified any targets even now. 

People tied themselves up in knots trying to defend the shambles of the pre-season and us having to play games without a striker. "Oh, we always go out of the league cup early, it's fine basically throwing the game.", "Oh, DC's clubs always start slow, it's fine." "Actually, you'll find Thierry Small can play up front, it doesn't matter that we haven't got any fit forwards." <ovf censored> idiots.

Unfortunately, Flitcroft seems embedded in the club now and his extravagances are having a massively detrimental effect on the whole club. 

I'd forgotten about that - not starting the season with a striker and playing a 17 year old midfielder in Tommy McDermott up front.

Wow, our recruitment has been an absolute shambles across the summer and January hasn't it. 

[valefan79]

9 minutes ago, TJHValiant said:

Anyone remember the home win under Millwall early in that season that pushed us up to 4th? People were getting really excited and thought we would end up getting promoted. The wheels soon fell off. Post TV MK Dons win it all died off. 
 

Selling Grant and Alnwick was a tragedy but this season there have been no such suicidal decisions except letting Hall leave. Which really should not have the impact it appears to have had. 
 

The thing with that season is, we were wildly unpredictable and clubs had no idea how to play us and fans didn’t have a clue how all the obscure players would do. 
 

This season we all know what will happen. Rigid, restrictive set ups of the same old players with no real gambles. This consistency would be being celebrated if we were still 9th…but that’s long gone and more experimentation was needed.

Very similar to the season we went down to me, in that season we were getting results when playing not well just like we had this season.  Aside from Derby and Plymouth wins, I can't recall another win where we played well and thought I really enjoyed that game.  Under Bruno, most of the wins apart from Millwall and Scunthorpe were very scrappy and always had he feel they could go the other way.  Back then we had an awful January and I don't care what anyone says, this current window just gone was a disaster and could potenitally cost us.

[worldsendvalefan]

He was more than part, he was the issue 

How exactly was Pope the issue. Not saying he wasn't. But if he was, exactly how. What do you know for certain happened, to cause that collapse.

[Trumpingtonvale]

1 hour ago, Bycarsbill said:

Trying to take some heat out of the DC/DF debate and attempting a bit of analysis and to look objectively at the run in to season's end, we know that FGR have gone and I reckon that Accrington and Morecambe are almost certainly going to join them. 

That means the the one further club to go down will more than likely come from Oxford, MK or PV. Burton has 2 games in hand of us and also on Cheltenham and Cheltenham have a better GD than us, so I am assuming that those two will survive. Oxford also have played a game less than us but are six points behind.  However, both their and MK's goal differences are better than ours--and that's before Tuesday's game v Ipswich who only managed to put 6 past Charlton yesterday! 

Whichever way you look at it, there's no doubt going to be some squeaky bum moments between now and the 46th games and, dependant upon results between now and then, that day in May could yet be the squeakiest of all!! 

The fact that it's got to this state of affairs is in itself an obvious indictment of DF, DC and (with a couple of exemptions), the whole first team squad. Time is fast running  (has run?) out, for all  our sakes, please get your act together guys!

How do Cambridge fit into your thoughts?

[mbycars]

21 hours ago, valiant_593 said:

Similar situation as well in that we have  a lack of midfielders for the game. Remember last season Taylor having to play a complete alien role and being crucified on here. Biggest game of the season. 

 

Ojo will be back for Bristol as will Robinson. Not sure whether Conlon has a 3 match ban or 1 depending what he was sent off for.

[valeblue]

43 minutes ago, mbycars said:

Ojo will be back for Bristol as will Robinson. Not sure whether Conlon has a 3 match ban or 1 depending what he was sent off for.

Let’s hope it’s 3!!!