Front 2 were poor today but they are getting no support from the midfield and the quality of balls into them is woeful.  For the goal Sproson made valid points about John and Headley. However,  the ball got rolled through the D where our holding midfield player should have been. Byers was loitering doing nothing 5 metres further forward. Curtis can't pass a ball and some of his crossing for someone supposedly a winger just isn't good enough. I like Clark but his crossing let's him down. 

Ojo passed the ball better than any Vale player all day when he came on. Crucially he also passed it forward. Brown looked more dangerous than any other forward. Heneghan looks good when he's playing against a two with the wide centrehalves playing the striker but can get exposed when he's marking a solitary central striker. When we pressed today it was only one forward but more crucially nobody in midfield took responsibility to be the third man. 

Whilst its a fair comment there was little in the game we can keep on losing close games all season. Quality in the final third must be better from midfield, wingbacks and the front 2 or 3.

3 minutes ago, fuzzyvalefan said:

But we have just had a 1 million pound boost to the budget which we have been told will all be put back into the playing squad. When are we going to do that? In January when we will be deep in relegation trouble at this rate, or on the summer when we're already relegated?

I've heard that we've had a bid which was more than the Tolaj fee turned down for a striker. The problem isn't that we won't spend money, but finding the proven goalscorer that we need, who another side are willing to sell & who will want to join a side that look relegation candidates in L1 & not wanting a wage that will blow our wage structure.

It's going to be a tough season if we can't bring in a 15+ goal striker, or we are hoping & praying that one of the two young lads we have on loan can do that which is a big ask.

A couple of days left for the club to prove they have actually learnt from our last relegation and stock the squad properly. 

6 minutes ago, RayWalkers40yarder said:

no goals in this side

 

sinking faster than the titanic.

 

but to coin a phrase from our CEO - at least were " competitive " 🙄

 

no lessons learned from the relegation season at all.

roll on january

 

 

What's happening in January is Chris Wilder gonna be unveiled as our new manager 🤔

Edited August 30, 2025Aug 30 by Nippy Naylor

1 minute ago, osprey said:

Port Vale Nil is starting to have a familiar ring about it

surely we will get a striker in on Monday. Would be criminal if we don’t 

Anyone decent is gonna have second thoughts after seeing how we started the season, should have done it before the season started.

Vale were struggling for goals this season even with Tolaj in the side.
Surely, surely, there is no chance in hell that Moore and Carol think that the past 180+ minutes of league football with Faal, Waine and Curtis as strikers is the answer until January, let alone May. Even with Brown in the side, it would be neglect of the highest order.
Also, where is Rico Richards?

Who on earth signed waine. If we don't sign too proven goalscorers on Monday we're doomed.

6 minutes ago, Sandyford_Lion said:

Some comments from you WV have proved laughable

Conner reason with happy 👋s unfortunately 

2 minutes ago, Lornelounger said:

Struggling to find much positive to say after that.  If you had told me at the start of the season we would only have conceded 6 goals in our first 8 games, and the defence looked fairly solid, I would have been pleased to hear it.  But we still switch off and make mistakes, and lose games on the back of it.  And if you had told me after 8 games we would no longer have Tolaj, and have only scored 4 goals in the first 8 games, I would suggest we buy a proven striker to sort that out.  We haven't scored twice in any game yet, and are looking toothless up front. I'm not panicking yet, but we need to see more chances being taken when we've created them if we are to start climbing the league.  That result has taken the edge of the previous game and put a dampener on the week as a whole. 

Hopefully we will hear news on Monday of a possible solution to our scoring one goal every 2 games on average so far. We just need somebody to put it in the net and tip the balance of games our way.

WOW.

Full of positives for the season not too long ago, possibly everything was positive.....

Watch the games, look at defensive performances and the goals we concede. Look at our performances creating chances and scoring goals. Look at our results.

Now you say " struggling to find positives "

Is it a valid point to make that sitting 23rd reduces our attractiveness?

Hopefully we dangle the wage carrot to get somebody in .

Just now, rob1983 said:

7 minutes ago, Denry Machin said:

Vale were struggling for goals this season even with Tolaj in the side.
Surely, surely, there is no chance in hell that Moore and Carol think that the past 180+ minutes of league football with Faal, Waine and Curtis as strikers is the answer until January, let alone May. Even with Brown in the side, it would be neglect of the highest order.
Also, where is Rico Richards?

Who on earth signed waine. If we don't sign too proven goalscorers on Monday we're doomed.

Was <ovf censored> at Mansfield but your not a vale fan if your criticised the signing. Same as Ryan loft. I remember getting pelted on here for saying he was a poor signing. 

Played Headley further up on Tuesday and it’s got us a goal.

Today reverted to 352 just to accommodate Byers. That went well. None of that midfield 3 will create you anything other than Croas on a rare bomb forward.

Faal is just another Uche. Woeful today. Curtis is no centre forward and looked far more effective when we went 3 up top.

 

5 minutes ago, osprey said:

Port Vale Nil is starting to have a familiar ring about it

surely we will get a striker in on Monday. Would be criminal if we don’t 

Chill , Darren knows what he's doing 🙈😆

1 minute ago, Nippy Naylor said:

Conner reason with happy 👋s unfortunately 

I’d rather be happy than be you. 

I still think we’ll be okay, But the lack of goals is concerning.

We’ve got 2 days to get a goalscorer, squeaky bum time. UTV 

1 minute ago, darren1810 said:

Is it a valid point to make that sitting 23rd reduces our attractiveness?

Hopefully we dangle the wage carrot to get somebody in .

I think 23rd after 6 with only 2 scored will concern potential strikers. Unless we’re going to give them a large wage increase which I doubt