Port Vale the great entertainers 

Port Vale 1 Crewe 1  Port Vale 0 Walsall 1 Port Vale 0 Carlisle 0 Port Vale 0 Cheltenham 0 .

The last four home games .

Crikey what a great watch we are NOT .

That's me done after 35 years I cannot watch any more of that 

It's boring as 

All the best to the long suffering Vale support 

They will need a miracle to enjoy home games ever again under that boring twerp.

Edited January 1, 20251 yr by Dipepa delight

56 minutes ago, Portvale4 said:

What do we achieve with sacking Moore now?

Promotion 🥳

40 minutes ago, Portvale4 said:

You can’t argue that a fully fit Byers, as well as Harper, Stockley and BBB, who all being well should return within 3-4 weeks wouldn’t add positively to this squad. 

I’m struggling to think of a manager who would come in now and make such a big impact on this squad? 

Moore isn’t faultless. His substitution of Tolaj was baffling. Let’s be honest, he wouldn’t be at Vale if he wasn’t prone to errors, let’s not forget DC made plenty. For me, he has proven in the first few months of the season, with a fully fit squad, which includes a competent midfield, he has all of the attributes to mount a decent promotion push. Barring the Bradford and Grimsby debacles, Moore has made us a hard outfit to beat. There is a good chunk of football left to play. 

 

 

BBB apparently has already gone. The season will be over before the others are all fit. I’d love to see PortVale 4. Can’t see it happening with our current master technician, in charge.

5 minutes ago, darren1810 said:

1 of the 4 you quoted. 

So you're just as puzzled as everyone else as to the cause of this loss of form of the Vale apart from the obvious failure to score goals.

Today DM made his usual starting changes (7), I didn't get the Tolaj substitution and often scratch my head at some of the tactics/substitutions he employs but they are by and large the same things that he's been doing that got Vale to the top of the table.

I also think Harper, BBB,  Stockley and Byers are key players and Vale will be better when they're back, BBB gives DM options particularly with Richards and Stockley  provides a focus when he's on the pitch etc.

The current squad needs freshening up not the risk of removing the manager.

2 minutes ago, Dipepa delight said:

That's me done after 35 years I cannot watch any more of that 

You’ll be back on side for Donny. I feel the pain I really do. My decision to keep supporting the team came about 3 hours after I said I’m done. I can’t just give up on this club it’s my life. Your no different mate you love the Vale. Looking forward to your line up in a few days & your post match ratings & rants after a Port Vale 0 and a heavy defeat 😳 UTV

2 minutes ago, Playa Amodores said:

BBB apparently has already gone. The season will be over before the others are all fit. I’d love to see PortVale 4. Can’t see it happening with our current master technician, in charge.

Where you hearing this? Surely Vale or Brighton would have announced it 🤔 

Just now, VTID-New said:

Where you hearing this? Surely Vale or Brighton would have announced it 🤔 

I heard it after the Carlisle game.

Just now, Playa Amodores said:

I heard it after the Carlisle game.

From who though? 

BBB is too attackive for Moore, I doubt very much he’s been injured. Bit like Smith not playing because of family issues. 

14 minutes ago, Nippy Naylor said:

My point is our performances have fallen off a cliff the last month and a half the football in offer is dog shyte and we've got no hope of getting promoted and you don't think there's an issue perhaps you should take off those rose tinted glasses and look at what happened recently,Thanks 

We literally haven’t had a midfield for the past couple of months? We’ve relied on Croasdale, whilst hoping a semi-fit Harper could cut the mustard in Garrity and Byers absence. 

No rose tinted glasses here, Nippy. We haven’t been good enough, I completely agree. However, we’ve been plagued by midfield injuries, along with the odd injury elsewhere to our better players which have absolutely stuffed us. 

If these problems carry on with a competent midfield, and our performances and results don’t pick up, I’ll eat my bloody hat. 

2 hours ago, darren1810 said:

I watched the darts. Saw the team news and thought I might walk up , darts got exciting so thought stuff it. 

Wise decision in the end. 

Yep at least the darts is entertaining 😁👍

Edited January 1, 20251 yr by Nippy Naylor

2 minutes ago, Portvale4 said:

We literally haven’t had a midfield for the past couple of months? We’ve relied on Croasdale, whilst hoping a semi-fit Harper could cut the mustard in Garrity and Byers absence. 

No rose tinted glasses here, Nippy. We haven’t been good enough, I completely agree. However, we’ve been plagued by midfield injuries, along with the odd injury elsewhere to our better players which have absolutely stuffed us. 

If these problems carry on with a competent midfield, and our performances and results don’t pick up, I’ll eat my bloody hat. 

Make sure you stick some 

salt and pepper on that hat of yours 

1 hour ago, MBE said:

How can you keep a settled team when the players have performed <ovf censored> when given the chance?

I agree I would like to see a back 4 and 2 wingers playing. We lack pace to play like that though which is why I would like to see a winger come in January and we haven’t had enough fit midfielders to play that way, certainly not for the last few matches.

I think we got back to what our style was in that 1st half today. Some nice passing play from back to front got us is not some good situations. Players look anxious in and around the box and the lack of goals is taking its toll.

Tolaj was a weird sub today.

There’s making tweaks when players have underperformed but thats not what we are talking about. And if youre thinking it’s that, then I feel you are purposely lying to yourself in order to keep supporting the rubbish hes churning out. He’s randomly dropping players who played well for no reason, in and out of the whole squad never mind to the bench. Even today, id argue Clarke was one of the better players last weekend, but he was dropped. Why? he did it even when we were winning. Who were the better players today? The likes of smith and tolaj? Are you confident they will pay at the weekend? Im not. 

DM said he was building a squad that could adapt to a back 3 or 4. And i think we do have the players to pay a 4-2-3-1. 

The point is though, that yes, it could have been different today, and challenging people as though there wasnt any other option for DM today is wrong.

5 minutes ago, Portvale4 said:

We literally haven’t had a midfield for the past couple of months? We’ve relied on Croasdale, whilst hoping a semi-fit Harper could cut the mustard in Garrity and Byers absence. 

No rose tinted glasses here, Nippy. We haven’t been good enough, I completely agree. However, we’ve been plagued by midfield injuries, along with the odd injury elsewhere to our better players which have absolutely stuffed us. 

If these problems carry on with a competent midfield, and our performances and results don’t pick up, I’ll eat my bloody hat. 

Byers broke his leg you cant plan for that, Harper i saw him play for West Brom against Chesterfield in FA cup 3rd round get him fit and he his head and shoulders above anything in this division and the one above, Garrity they are 3 massive players what cant be replaced for long periods

58 minutes ago, MBE said:

Honestly I don’t get Hackford. Feels like we play with 10 men when he comes on.

Midfield had gone once Garrity goes off, Chizzy is a fanny. His performances this season have been rubbish. I posted way back in September I would sell him in January.

Passing was better today but agree confidence is very very low.

Smudge,John,Garrity gives a bit more aggression in the team and I’d put Clarke back in at RWB as well. Think that just makes us a better team.

I will lose my <ovf censored> if he drops any of those and Tolaj for the next game. 

I thought Amos played well today.

Yes to all of that MBE.  I am left wondering if there was a clause in the loan player's contracts that insisted win a certain number of games being played, otherwise they get taken back in January? I can't understand the selection of some players if not.

And if the loan players did get taken back, then at least Paton and Tolaj might play more often. And that would allow us to see if they really can do it at this level. Someone talked earlier about Walsall going for non league players and it paying off - well Tolaj and Patton are from that level (sorry Queens Park fans, but it's true). It would make Darrens' job easier to have fewer players to pick from, I'm sure - I reckon he's overthinking his options.

I'm quite conflicted at present as to how to feel about the manager.  He did so well for us this season until November, and he's assembled a squad that should be able to achieve promotion. But we don't have a creative midfield unfortunately, so the strike force we have available are left feeding on scraps.  What I love about Tolaj is that he got stuck in today, and looked as if he really wanted to play for this club. Not everyone has done that of late. But most of all, I would like Moore to stop rotating the squad.  There is a logic to rotation in a high flying team full of confidence where key players are carrying a knock or just need resting, but we are moving away from being high flying after this recent run.  

Darren, please give Tolaj a run in the team, and don't sub him off.  He's young and fit enough to last 90 minutes, and he is a handful for League 2 defenders.  He can only learn by being on the pitch. Richards and Hackford may have that touch and swivel to give themselves an extra second on the ball, but they are just not physical enough for this league it seems. One heavy challenge, and that's them done. Tolaj gets up and gets stuck in again if he's bundled off the ball - there's a bit of Robin van der Laan about him I think, and he needs a run in the team. Yes, his first touch isn't always the best, but he keeps going, and I really want him to be successful at our club. And he's our player, not a loanee.

For the first 15 minutes today, we looked like our old selves, and the players were moving off each other well. But we lost momentum very quickly, and it was so boring in the second half, bar one or two moments.  I would love to have the stat for the percentage of time the ball spends out of play during our recent games. And when it does go off for a goal kick, throw in or corner, it seems to take an eternity to get it back into play.  We're paying for this. 90 minutes of football becomes 70 minutes of football - can we have a refund for all the time when the ball gets hoofed off?  That's where Amos is better than Ripley - no tarting about rolling it to a defender who gives it him back, before giving it to another defender who gives it him back - Amos just takes a quick look forward to see who is available, and then got the ball out there to put the oppo under pressure and make them make a decision. We need more of that. 

Would we be worse off if Richards, Hackford, BBB and Edwards returned to their clubs in January? Smaller squad, but more games for Tolaj, Paton, and Curtis, so they get to know each other's games better by playing in the team? 

One last thing - Carol doesn't deserve this after her commitment to putting things right on the pitch. She's paying for a squad that is too large in my view and allows too much rotation. She must be absolutely fed up too. She's put the money in and must be wondering why it's all going wrong with he same manager and players that took us top briefly. But I bet she'll put her hand in her wallet if a dynamic goal scoring midfielder is asked for in the window.  She is Vale through and through and wants to see the park bouncing, not moaning, at full time. Hopefully we'll see some movement this month to give us optimism. 

UTV and Happy New year.