12 minutes ago, wurzel valiant said:

Playing with no recognised strikers is not the way to go if you are a club with ambition. Will Liverpool line up next week with Salah, Nunez and Gakpo on the bench? Teams with ambition attack the opposition home and away because they play with confidence and belief that they are better. Who got promoted from league 2 last season? Stockport and Wrexham were the leading lights. And they did it by regularly winning by 2,3 or 4 goal victories. They didn't try and sneak 1 goal victories. They playrd attacking football and the crowds locked to see them. 

Maybe I’m asking for a bit too much with 2 strikers after going without any yesterday 😂

1 hour ago, JoeB2 said:

Stockport won 2 in 8 from the end of November to January last season. They then had a second run of 1 win in 7 from February to March. Overall, it was a run of 6 wins in 20. Went up as Champions.

Wrexham. 4 defeats in 6 from end of December to February. Another run of 4 wins in 10 from February to April. Overall a run of 8 wins in 18. Went up

Mansfield. 4 defeats in 7 from March to April. Went up.

We're nowhere near crisis point yet. 1 win, 2 draws, 2 defeat in 5. Of that 5:

- two was against the current 1st and 4th (and one of those we played a half with 10 men). We were minutes from beating Crewe and inches from, undeservedly, Stockley nicking us a point against Walsall

- One was a draw away at a Cheltenham side who have just draw at 3rd place Doncaster and have lost 1 in 8

- Gillingham was a bad day where we had a penalty not given and Stockley missed a tap in

Performances are bad but that was always going to happen after the run we were on - as evidenced by last season, even brilliant teams have really poor runs. This run is a lot of narrow margin stuff - if Cover closes his man down at Crewe, we get given Curtis' penalty at Gills, and if Stockley's shot goes a few inches either side, it's a very different picture. Eventually you'll face a bit of bad luck combined with iffy performances.

Byers is back. Garrity isn't far behind. January window 4 games away. We're in a position we all would have loved pre-season - this team has proven they've got something.

Youre talking about results not performances. If we lost and gave it a go, then fine. If we lost and there wasnt the bonkers decisions from the manager then fine. But we lost and the performance and selection and subs were awful. And the bigger problem is that it’s only the result thats changed. Everything else was the same as normal. The scraped wins have made things feel a lot better than the performances suggest. I think we benefit from investing in the squad, and hope thats enough, but id settle for the play offs if offered it now. 

11 minutes ago, VTID-New said:

Maybe I’m asking for a bit too much with 2 strikers after going without any yesterday 😂

In recent years when "top" sides have visited Vale Park, more often than not they show qualities that have elevated them to that position. So far this season having witnessed most of the Vale games live, I have to say that on only 3/4 occasions have I thought that about Vale. There have been exceptional moments of skill that have bailed us out and on occasions late goals have bailed us out.  Team selection, substitutions and the 'bombing-out' of certain players worries me. tactics at times are those of a side desperate for results. There will be a lot of disappointed people around Vale if this expensively assembled squad fails to deliver the objective of automatic promotion at the first opportunity, me included. I have to say that so far League Two is mediocre at best. I'll hold my thoughts for now.....A big period coming up.

18 hours ago, Biddulph_PV said:

Yes and ditch Moore whilst we’re at it. 

You could be right about the manager. This should come as a massive foot up the backside for him and he needs to change formation and style. If he’s that arrogant that he won’t then your comment will be inevitable. He’s certainly had the backing from the board. We’ve been told over the last few seasons that so many players are injured because of one thing and another, is this still the case.? Is this what is affecting the team selection. It was around the 17-12-23, that Devine and Arblaster played their last games for us. Does this mean that we’ll have to bring in some more loan players as our current ones will return to their parent clubs. 

2 minutes ago, Playa Amodores said:

It was around the 17-12-23, that Devine and Arblaster played their last games for us. 

Have we played well since then?

This mess needs sorting out. Wake up Port Vale.

Just woke up after lovely sleep .

All ill say is this 

Port Vale Football Club players Moore etc etc 

You want folk come the games,give you there hard earned .

You got play 100 times better than yesterday offensively. 

I go be entertained 

It was as boring as there seemed little enthusiasm in the Vale players to entertain .

About the only good thing was the noise generated by the away support

I'll never be accepting of what I'm seeing offensively v Crewe/Walsall it's poor where's the bravery ,where's the desire ,where's the thrusting Worrall like runs 

Why are players hiding 

UTV 

 

18 hours ago, MBE said:

I watched the highlights video on YouTube. Dreadful. Looks like his spiking the ball in volleyball. It’s yet another corner conceded. 
 

If we keep playing how we have done we won’t finish above them. 

Very poor goal keeping and no attacking threat whatsoever; this manager hasn’t got a clue 

1 hour ago, JoeB2 said:

I also remember the days under Adams, in that very season, when we won 2 in 9 from Oct-Dec and then 1 in 8. We had to draw 4 of our last 5 to go up. We won 4 of our last 16. Limped to promotion despite the big-spending on Hughes and Purse. A younger me lost his head and, like you, just couldn't fathom why we didn't just win loads of games.

I'm going to say it again.

Every team, including Champions, in the 4th tier will have probably 2 poor runs of around 6-10 games a season. 

Joe, I get that you are being the voice of reason. And I get that may be I overreact but yesterday was so freaking obvious that we were sleepwalking to defeat that I actually had Walsall in my acca once I saw the teams sheet.

You cannot go through 90+ mins and not expect the 2nd placed team scoring lots of goals not to fashion a couple of chances or there being a mistake given the conditions. So it proved, they have something to fight for, big away following gets up for it, we make a load of panic subs, and the game just peters out. Seen it time & again.

We will not finish above Walsall this season. I also think others will challenge strongly. I see MK Dons - who are already on a charge with a very good manager - splashing the cash from their new owners in January and they would be my favourites for the title at this point; Wimbledon are also looking strong; Chesterfield & Notts will be there or thereabouts; Grimsby are also on a run; and I wouldn’t be surprised if a Bradford or even Tranmere went on a run to put themselves in contention. I genuinely think that once things “even themselves out” we’ll drop more points and Moore will become even more cautious, if that’s possible. Plus we’ll lose some loan players in January let’s not forget. And before anyone says “we’ll replace them with better”, if you were a forward looking for minutes would you come to Vale???

I actually think we’ll do well to make the play-offs at this point. Garrity has perhaps been a surprising miss as I was struggling to see where he fitted in tbh, so maybe that will help, but can we rely on Byers?? Seems a bit injury prone to me these days.

So going back to Micky Adams. I’ll say one thing, the result may well have been the same, but put him in charge yesterday and Walsall would know they’d been in a game, and their goalie would definitely have gotten his gloves dirty. And this isn’t just rose-tinted nostalgia, remember the energy from the Burton game and how that played out??

Edited December 8, 20241 yr by Biddulph_PV

I have waited till today to comment, let things sink in.

Firstly it was Walsall, older fans like myself know our history with them .

I feel for Carol Shanahan again, she has given Moore one of the biggest budgets in the league and in my opinion, he hasn’t spent that money wisely.

We have a very big but unbalanced squad, top heavy in places and light in others.

Midfield we obviously have missed Garrity and Byers, I like Croasdale, in my opinion, Moore’s best signing regarding value for money.

We would never have signed Byers, if it wasn’t for his injury record, he would have been a lot higher up the leagues, so we expected to be without him for periods of the season.

We have one of the largest squads but do we have a top six team, that can be argued.

The manager is in my opinion, overrated and his type of football isn’t the most entertaining.

Look at teams like Grimsby, as one example, they are only 4 points behind us at the moment and looking at their team, how many of their players would Vale fans want in our team ? or would they want Dave Artell.

Yesterday Walsall’s manager managed to get his players to adapt to the conditions, had Moore done the same ?

I would like to be proved wrong and hope I am but there’s more questions than answers at the moment and I feel the play offs might be our limit.

I know certain posters will have a go at me and some might get insulting towards me but it is only a game and a game of opinions, there are more important things in  life.

Come on Darren, prove me wrong and make me eat humble pie. UTV

 

 

8 minutes ago, Biddulph_PV said:

Joe, I get that you are being the voice of reason. And I get that may be I overreact but yesterday was so freaking obvious that we were sleepwalking to defeat that I actually had Walsall in my acca once I saw the teams sheet.

You cannot go through 90+ mins and not expect the 2nd placed team scoring lots of goals not to fashion a couple of chances or there being a mistake given the conditions. So it proved, they have something to fight for, big away following gets up for it, we make a load of panic subs, and the game just peters out. Seen it time & again.

We will not finish above Walsall this season. I also think others will challenge strongly. I see MK Dons - who are already on a charge with a very good manager - splashing the cash from their new owners in January and they would be my favourites for the title at this point; Wimbledon are also looking strong; Chesterfield & Notts will be there or thereabouts; Grimsby are also on a run; and I wouldn’t be surprised if a Bradford or even Tranmere went on a run to put themselves in contention. I genuinely think that once things “even themselves out” we’ll drop more points and Moore will become even more cautious, if that’s possible. Plus we’ll lose some loan players in January let’s not forget. And before anyone says “we’ll replace them with better”, if you were a forward looking for minutes would you come to Vale???

I actually think we’ll do well to make the play-offs at this point. Garrity has perhaps been a surprising miss as I was struggling to see where he fitted in tbh, so maybe that will help, but can we rely on Byers?? Seems a bit injury prone to me these days.

So going back to Micky Adams. I’ll say one thing, the result may well have been the same, but put him in charge yesterday and Walsall would know they’d been in a game, and their goalie would definitely have gotten his gloves dirty. And this isn’t just rose-tinted nostalgia, remember the energy from the Burton game and how that played out??

Well said mate, I totally agree with everything you said, apart from maybe Tranmere ? 
Moore was made to look like he is  yesterday, overrated and yesterday wasn’t the first time.

He is very good at certain aspects of the game but certainly isn’t in others.

 

1 hour ago, JoeB2 said:

I thought they were really good without the ball and the reason we spent so much time faffing about with it between the centre halves wasn't through design, but because their shape was good and organised. They didn't press high until after they scored, but sat off and congested the middle. Second half they went more aggressive and pinned us.

There was nothing on, but we couldn't go long due to the conditions, hence Debrah passing to Hall. I don't for a second think that was the plan.

A well-coached, young team. They weren't brilliant but no one was going to be yesterday.

Going long 2nd half is exactly what we should have done, diagonal balls to the channels.  Turn them around and then push up, use the wind to pen them in and wait for the inevitable mistake.  The Walsall goal came after we gave the ball away faffing about instead of clipping it down the line.  That's the only tactic that was possible and yet our manager was unable to see it.  We come across as thick individually and collectively at times.  Towards the end there keeper just played it to a lad totally unmarked on the Railway side whilst everyone else was waiting for the long punt on the other side despite knowing that the wind had picked up so much the long punt wasn't really an option...  just mentally inept.

It’s nice to be top, but it’s a lot of pressure and we’re not even half way. No team is going to be top from game 18 - 46. Get through Christmas in the top 3 and re-jig in January. 

I think coming in on a stumbling streak, which taking out wonder goals has been a bit worrying, meant this game was always going to be a very big ask.

Bromley then Carlisle. 6 points please.

Just now, 1 said:

Bromley then Carlisle. 6 points please.

I’ll take 4 mate. Happily be in the autos still then 👍🏻