2 hours ago, Old School said:

I would guess you are referencing my post and the answer would be that I believe we would have accumulated many more points by playing front foot football than we have with the absolute tripe served up so far. If along the way there are a couple of disappointing results but we still have more points on the board, it's a no brainer. More points and far more enjoyable football, what's not to like?

Well said old chap 😁👍

9 hours ago, darren1810 said:

Don't see John playing tomorrow looked to be struggling at the end when he came over to the fans.

I've always been an advocate of right footed players on the right and left footed on  the left. 

However I'm not liking Hart at all. One decent game in a blue moon.

So Clark and John fitness permitting as wingbacks. 

Headley a huge loss. 

The threat we have had in this last good run has come from our wingbacks. The signing of Headley being a massive difference to our attacking play. He is a BIG miss. We desperately need Clarke and John playing as wing backs for many games to come , to give us a chance of the number of wins we need. Hart and Shorrock - not good enough.

Dont see enough threat through the middle, no real spark or class up front, nothing from the back three at corners etc

Agree with your earlier post about Sang back in for Debra. Think the days are gone when you play three big center backs in a team. Need more football coming out from the back. Hall is an exception in that role

Dont expect Byers to be playing. He has been back for a few games, always on the ball, a nice touch but cant wait to see some telling passes / creating goal chances. Chis or Rico may not be the ideal attacking midfielder but we definately need a threat from this position.

DM also expects our attacking midfielder, in a three, to do the defensive duties too. Garrity great at the defensive duties but he has not been the spark for the goals and that is what we are missing.

How about looking at this match from the Harrogate perspective - They are 20th in the division having lost 18 and have a goal difference of -17. In 34 matches they have conceded 45 and scored 28 - yes 28 .  They will be playing away to a team who hasn't lost in the last 9 and has a PLUS 8 Goal Difference ?   How could they be more up for it than we should be ? What sort of manager is able to get them to pizz petrol and walk on water for this match . Surely to God our gaffer can raise the enthusiasm in our players to go for more than a tricky 1-0 win ?   I just dont believe  the b8llocks statements that we have to treat every team as if they were the Brazil of the 1960s. 

Harrogate defended quite well against us in the reverse fixture, put plenty of good blocks in and got plenty of men behind the ball. We only scored despite dominating most of the game from a very well taken free kick from Paton. Also there keeper belshaw made a very good save in the match from a corner, think it was from heneghan. Think they may try come here and do the exact same defend well have everybody behind the ball time waste dive ect and try nick a goal on the break. Think we may fall behind before coming back in the second half to win 2 or 3 1. 

9 hours ago, Granville said:

Given Moore's caution with players, injuries, and the fact he's publicly said he wants now to make as few changes as possible, I see something like this:

Amos

Debrah Smith Hall

John Harper Croasdale Chislett Hart 

Curtis Tolaj 

I dont think John will be playing,i think Clark will take his place 

3-2 v Newport 

2-1 v Accrington 

1 -0 v Notts County

2-1 v Salford 

Harrogate?

Bradfords won 9 in a row at home .

Home could be where it happens the surge that is .

No reason why Vale who are a better team than Bradford (queenbantam be on now lol)can not match this sequence.

Soon see tomoz evening .

 

Edited March 3, 20251 yr by Dipepa delight

2 hours ago, Andy Proctor said:

Harrogate defended quite well against us in the reverse fixture, put plenty of good blocks in and got plenty of men behind the ball. We only scored despite dominating most of the game from a very well taken free kick from Paton. Also there keeper belshaw made a very good save in the match from a corner, think it was from heneghan. Think they may try come here and do the exact same defend well have everybody behind the ball time waste dive ect and try nick a goal on the break. Think we may fall behind before coming back in the second half to win 2 or 3 1. 

Anthony O'Connor and Toby Sims are two of the top three League Two defenders in Fantasy EFL. Jasper Moon isn't far behind either.

Harrogate don't keep a huge amount of clean sheets but their defenders win more than their fair share of blocks, tackles, clearances, etc.

Edited March 3, 20251 yr by Santa

5 hours ago, pensioner said:

How about looking at this match from the Harrogate perspective - They are 20th in the division having lost 18 and have a goal difference of -17. In 34 matches they have conceded 45 and scored 28 - yes 28 .  They will be playing away to a team who hasn't lost in the last 9 and has a PLUS 8 Goal Difference ?   How could they be more up for it than we should be ? What sort of manager is able to get them to pizz petrol and walk on water for this match . Surely to God our gaffer can raise the enthusiasm in our players to go for more than a tricky 1-0 win ?   I just dont believe  the b8llocks statements that we have to treat every team as if they were the Brazil of the 1960s. 

So you're not a fan of Moore then? 😅

I'd agree with a few others on the thread whilst I'm loathed to say it's an "issue" with Moore he does seem to prefer a solid workman like display/win to a flowing polished performance.  Some will call it negative at times and yep when it doesn't work it's frustrating.  Moore does seem to give a little too much respect to the poorer sides in the division imo as well but we're 6th and in there pitching so to speak.

It's a tactic that's generally worked well against the better sides in the division but on the other hand we rarely look like beating a side by more than 1 goal. I think we've only beaten 3 teams by a wider margin this season(Salford, Newport away and Fleetwood at home?)  Whilst on the face of it we may get to promotion with enough 1-0 and 2-1 wins and that's great it also means mistakes or bad decisions against us are magnified and we may draw a few games we ought to win.  We don't exactly bury the opposition or score quite enough goals that perhaps the quality in our squad deserves.  We could end up in the playoffs if it backfire on us a few times when I honestly think this squad ought to have enough to go up automatically.

Harrogate like the majority of the sides we play at home in the run in are avg-poor based on the league table.  The question is will we have enough guile and patience to break them down if like others have said they dig in, block a lot of shots and try and frustrate us. Time will tell of course but we will probably see this from a number of sides who visit VP in the coming weeks.

Edited March 4, 20251 yr by Shropshire_Valiant

I'll take a boring hard fought 1-0 win any day of the week over an exciting footballing loss or draw. 

It's all about winning 3 points now and not losing if we possibly can.

Matchday! ⚽️ Under the lights 💥 Let’s keep this year’s impressive run going & bag those all important & much needed 3 points! Come on Vale 💪🏻 

Edited March 4, 20251 yr by VTID-New

On 02/03/2025 at 09:47, valiant_593 said:

Have to win. The reverse fixture was the one time this season I thought we actually dominated and looked a like a certain promotion side. Dominated the ball but a little toothless. I’d like to see us dominate the same way and at home I fully expect us to win this. 2-0 vale, don’t see us scoring many with how Moore likes to manage but I think it will be a comfortable win. If Byers is fit, I’d make 3 changes. Clark for Hart who I think has been dreadful and just isn’t at the races. Tolaj for Hackford and Chislett for Harper. 

I feel we have to score some goals rather than passing back to the goalkeeper as our goal difference is poor but this is not our manager’s style sadly 

7 hours ago, Paul6754 said:

I'll take a boring hard fought 1-0 win any day of the week over an exciting footballing loss or draw. 

It's all about winning 3 points now and not losing if we possibly can.

 

Well yes, of course but I do think there are some well reasoned arguments made here against this one goal margin game approach we've ended up with, intentionally or not.

This should not be one of them...

Walsall,Bradford,Donny all dropping points tonight.

Table going to league good for us at 10 pm.

 

No excuses for not winning this. Any chance of automatic then we need a statement win.

A draw, meh. I think 72 points would make the play offs, so we need at least 16 more. 

I will go 1-0 Vale, scorer could be absolutely anybody.