Having watched that there were obvious positives and negatives. If the manager really wants to play a front 3 it can't include Stockley! I suspect a front 3 of Waine, Tolaj and Curtis would work. Not with Shipley in midfield though. Nice footballer but not convinced he is someone who can play in 2. Keeper grew into the game. There was criticism for what happened with a back pass from Ojo in the second half, which caused a mix up between him and Hall. Watching the stream I thought the ref could well have called a back pass. In the end we probably deserved a point.

Some big decisions to make prior to Cardiff.  Does he stick with 3 4 3? Does he stick with Stockley as I thought his lack of mobility was an issue today? What is his best midfield?

What a dreadful self-inflicted defeat. Dazza got it wrong from the start and I hope he knows it, which he should from that much improved second half performance. If we start again on Thursday with that opening line-up, it will be curtains.

Great gritty come back in that second half when we were easily the better team and deserved at least a point. 

Midfield is where games are won and lost, so no more fiddling about - we need to start as we finished today. 
 

 

Great effort second half and a lick of paint away from taking a deserved point.

Moore’s tactics and starting XI cost us the game - a midfield three and front two from the start and you would fancy us to win that comfortably. 

Fair chance, on that evidence, that Rotherham will be bottom 8 so plenty to work on.

Edited August 2, 2025Aug 2 by saintvaliant

Can’t remember being this upbeat after a loss before. The game of two halves cliche couldn’t be any more true today. From 2-0 and a man down to being a crossbar off equalising after running the second half with the tactical changes. We also had at least another two free headers at goal we put straight at the keeper that we really should have done better with. 

We need to be honest with ourselves about Headley and Debrah’s performances though, and what our options in the remaining window might be.

Much better second half. Deserved to get something from that. Positive for Thursday now

3 minutes ago, JRC said:

Some big decisions to make prior to Cardiff.  Does he stick with 3 4 3?

NO

Well, the club says "if we don't win, we learn". So I hope we learn today not to do that again first half. We were better than them even with 10 v 11 in the second half, and when we scored, you could see Rotherham getting very nervous. Such a one sided second half towards SVA - I thought we deserved a point. We have the players for this league, and need to play them in their right positions. And I thought Ojo did well - perhaps he has silenced a few critics.  The experience we had on the pitch when our subs came on was reassuring - and we need to play these players again next game.  Still not sure about Marosi in goal - he needs to save a couple of penalties to win me over. 

4 minutes ago, saintvaliant said:

Fair chance, on that evidence, that Rotherham will be bottom 8 so plenty to work on.

Tbh I see Rotherham finishing in the bottom 5 and the fact that couldn't cope with us 2nd half has to raise some alarm bells.

Edited August 2, 2025Aug 2 by ValiantHan

On calmer reflection, my over-riding feeling is of being encouraged by the performance overall.

Of course there is a much tougher test coming on Thursday, against one of the promotion favourites, and we'll gain a clear impression of how EFL1-ready we actually are.

Can't understand why DM started with a 3-4-3, Vale didn't do well with this formation last season from the beginning of a game.

Excellent performance by Vale 2nd half, deserved to get on level terms and will have done Vale's confidence the world of good.

Mitch, Tolaj and Croasdale were superb.

Hard luck Vale, better times ahead though !! UTV !!

I wouldn’t say there are big decisions before Cardiff. I’d say there are easy decisions. 
Play like we did 2nd half, personnel and formation and we won’t go far wrong. 

3 minutes ago, Baldy said:

Got to find a way to get Curtis in formation from start. He plays as though if he loses he will be shot.

Agree this league is a lot faster. Based on today Curtis should play ahead of Stockley.  Stockley is exceptional at what he does. What he can't do is press defenders or run the channels. If the press doesn't work defenders at this level are able to pass through the midfield. 

7 minutes ago, CambridgeDon said:

If we start again on Thursday with that opening line-up, it will be curtains.

If we start like that against Cardiff we will be hammered. 

2 minutes ago, Alan Vit said:

On calmer reflection, my over-riding feeling is of being encouraged by the performance overall.

Of course there is a much tougher test coming on Thursday, against one of the promotion favourites, and we'll gain a clear impression of how EFL1-ready we actually are.

Well, we will if we don’t get any more daft set-up’s by Dazza. The clear evidence of today is that 343 just doesn’t work for us. Looked to me that the players don’t believe in it either - as soon as we changed, we were a different side with strength, control and skill in midfield.

So 352 on Thursday Dazza and dunner mess it up like today.