17 hours ago, WV said:

Not a bad half. We are playing some good stuff but these look dangerous on the break. Reckon we can get something out of it if we can improve our ball into the box. We have looked lively down the right side. 

They were very quick on the break( I do like to see that in teams),the obvious problem and we all know it is putting chances away,so far this season I think our football has been really good(far better than we have been used to) in the majority of games,we create chances galore and none of us can deny that.

I still strongly believe that it will come but how long can we keep saying that for,what happens tomorrow is massive and could really define our season.

45 minutes ago, Freddie the Dog said:

I'll ask a question to all the OVF members who read this thread. If we sign by tomorrow a proven goalscorer by spending £1m by tomorrow, would you be confident that this would solve our lack of goal scoring? After all, football is a team game so we score and not concede as a team.

I feel Freddie ,like I said earlier, that overall the team is playing well enough to win games. We have made the odd mistake just as the opposition have.Teams that have beaten us haven't had 3 times as many chances as us just that they have converted some of the ones they have had. We are just missing the final piece of the Jigsaw, the goalscorer, and I feel once it's in place the picture will look fine. Appreciate goals can come from all over the pitch but it's the strikers primary function to stick the ball in the net. That's what they exist for and that's what we are currently lacking.

18 hours ago, JohnDoe said:

Walter’s looks excellent. As does the keeper. Faal is looking poor though. We have 6 strikers and still need another one. 

I have said before that i have a good friend who watches a lot of players and Faal was one of them and he really rates him BUT as you say I thought he was poor yesterday,there were a few others also tbf,I am prepared to give him a chance because to rubbish him now would be a bit silly(I agree he is yet to impress though),for a big lad though he needs to be a lot stronger and lets be honest after yesterday Brown would get in the team in front of him imo

Stand outs as you say were the keeper and Walters(oozed class again),surely some sort of bid will be in for him tomorrow but we are under no pressure to sell him so lets bulk up his value over this season

2 hours ago, Freddie the Dog said:

Moore and Bowers/Sproson on Radio Stoke commentary are bemoaning and blaming our poor position on lapses of concentration in games. Yes of course these occur in games and are an issue. However are these the main reason why we only have two points from 6 games? Bradford fans for example yesterday would say they had two lapses of concentration that cost them two goals against Wimbledon. However they overcame this by scoring three. Because we can't score, every error we make if punished by opposition is costing us the game because we can't score. That is the reason why we are in the position we are in.

It seems though that opposition teams don't seem to suffer from lapses of concentration, or if they do they seldom lead to Vale taking advantage.

How often to opposition teams score with their first effort on goal (especially it seems at Vale Park) ) ?

Other teams seem to be 'gifted' goals by the Vale whereas we have to works bloody hard to get a goal, why is this ? or is it just my imagination ?

 

1 hour ago, Freddie the Dog said:

I'll ask a question to all the OVF members who read this thread. If we sign by tomorrow a proven goalscorer by spending £1m by tomorrow, would you be confident that this would solve our lack of goal scoring? After all, football is a team game so we score and not concede as a team.

No, because it will most be likely a signing made out of desperation. We should have been planning ad short listed strikers up to £1m for many weeks, I don’t believe we have. Biggest problem is our defensive approach.

14 hours ago, NW9Valiant said:

I think the miles better is in reference to when we were last in League 1 to be honest. Which is correct. We couldn't defend our way out of a paper bag then. 

He said miles better than both, which i just cant agree with. 

14 hours ago, MBE said:

Can we please stop with DM’s overall record with us in L1.

Yes it’s crap but that relegation team is one of the worst in the last 20 years. It was pitiful.

How about you look at DM’s overall record in L1? Tells you a different story.
 

He knows what he’s doing.

 

To be fair, including his league 1 record with us when he started was being kind as thats where the two wins come from. 

A couple of positives so far are that we have been playing very well and our defence hasn't conceded many goals and looks pretty solid to me(would still like another defender in though),the goals we concede have tended to be from silly mistakes...... we all know the big problem and what a difference being able to score a couple of goals a game would make to our season

So as I said it's a massive day for Vale and the recruitment team tomorrow......lets just go and get it done or as others have said and i agree it could be a long season 

3 hours ago, valefan16 said:

In regard to the Orient game they’ve only had one call up so will go ahead.

Yep, the only call up was the goalkeeper who is their first choice and is on loan from Stoke.

2 hours ago, valiant_593 said:

Ripley got slated when he came out apologising now it’s Jesse it’s all good. 

 

Ripley was a bit of a James Blunt that was in love with himself.

2 hours ago, valiant_593 said:

Ripley got slated when he came out apologising now it’s Jesse it’s all good. 
Stay out of the media and sort it out. That’s not aimed at him in particular but the whole group. 
 

 

Faal wasn’t trying yesterday imo. 

M8 that's <ovf censored>. Faal was trying he just got it wrong. Very bad day at the office for him. 

And yes people come on here insisting the club apologised. Regularly 

Defensive mistakes aren't generally silly, they are just mistakes. With every goal that is conceded, by any team, you could point to a mistake leading up to it. You're never going to eradicate mistakes and hence we have to expect to concede goals. The key to winning games is obviously to score more than the opposition and the only way to do that on a consistent basis is to have strikers with a knack of putting chances away. We don't have one of those on our books at the moment. 

Trouble is Vale fans have historically had little patience with goalscorers who's contribution in general play is limited, Constantine comes to mind, but what we'd give for one now.

Edited August 31, 2025Aug 31 by Stockleys_socks

4 minutes ago, Osh said:

M8 that's <ovf censored>. Faal was trying he just got it wrong. Very bad day at the office for him. 

And yes people come on here insisting the club apologised. Regularly 

There were multiple instances yesterday where Faal wasn’t pressing when the rest of the team were. I can recall two occasions early 2nd half where Curtis was getting visibly frustrated with him. 

4 minutes ago, Stockleys_socks said:

Defensive mistakes aren't generally silly, they are just mistakes. With every goal that is conceded, by any team, you could point to a mistake leading up to it. You're never going to eradicate mistakes and hence we have to expect to concede goals. The key to winning games is obviously to score more than the opposition and the only way to do that on a consistent basis is to have strikers with a knack of putting chances away. We don't have one of those on our books at the moment.

Conceding 1 goal per game shouldn’t really be a problem, you’d take that over the course of the season. As much as I think we’re a defender short the problem really is at the other end of the pitch like you say

2 hours ago, Dol Boy said:

But he didn't make the bench even yesterday. 

I was surprised that he didn't make the bench either but I presume seeing as he has only just come back from a tweaked hip muscle injury we are carefully managing his minutes so I imagine he will probably play on Tuesday night in the EFL trophy game against Leeds u21s. 

16 minutes ago, valiant_593 said:

There were multiple instances yesterday where Faal wasn’t pressing when the rest of the team were. I can recall two occasions early 2nd half where Curtis was getting visibly frustrated with him. 

Curtis is always getting visibly frustrated with something...