2 hours ago, kevin_struggles said:

Ojo and walters are not what I would call defensive midfielders, if they are they aren't very good at it. I know what you mean but in my opinion they are short side and back passers whose contribution to a game is mostly insignificant in both attack and defence. Possibly useful in possession based teams with better players around them but neither are capable of controlling a game or providing assists or goals and their stats prove that. Ojo looks up and I know that he sees people making runs but he checks back 90+% of the time because he doesn't back himself to make the pass, the result is as the game goes on players get frustrated and stop making runs. Walters either passes it back to whoever passed it to him, runs with the ball until he trips over it, runs into trouble and loses it or turns and passes it further back than he started. As a midfield pairing they are a disaster.

 

Every other league one team we have played has midfielders who play balls over the top and through our lines and they do it time and again throughout the match forcing us back until its one way traffic with balls peppering our box. We hardly ever do that because our midfielders dont take responsibility they mostly play the ball back for our centre backs to hit long.

 

Walters and ojo shouldn't be a thing it is Walters, garrity OR ojo with shipley or byers because for all his faults shipley is a more productive midfielder than either ojo or walters.

 

Personally at this moment I would prefer garrity or ojo and shipley as a pairing in midfield because garrity is doing nothing higher up and I really don't understand the hype around walters. I think he has a lot to learn and I'm not seeing many signs that he is learning it.

 

Walters was the only player who showed against Chelsea.

On 05/04/2026 at 10:57, onestepatatime said:

In the cold light of day we got what we expected. Fans were outstanding. Money made for the Club. Our season has been an absolute roller coaster. Us oldies have experienced every emotion, every bad game, every good game and zillions of ups and downs both on and off the pitch over many years, yet we still support OUR Club. Think what you like about the Owners, players or management we will no doubt vent our spleens time and again BUT come next season we will be there(the vast majority of us) to again support the Vale. There have been lots and lots of posts suggesting individuals will no longer support the Club again but come on we are football fans, knowing full well we have it in our blood. Perhaps, just perhaps next season will give us all the high we crave again. We will be there, all as one, Port Vale til we die.

 

Money made for the club?

Cup runs this season will cover c. 20% of the losses this season. Not much point in a windfall if it is immediately swallowed up via mismanaged finances. The 'club' is the Shanahan family and they'll just spend it on a lick of paint for the Lorne Street.

Walters was the only player who showed against Chelsea.

Would have to disagree there. Yes I too thought Walters had a reasonable game. But thought John and Ojo were actually quite impressive considering what was going on around them. G Hall when he came on did well. I thought Waine was unlucky as he had little service or support up front.
But the joy of the game is our diverging opinions [emoji846]

20 minutes ago, jjvale_03 said:

Money made for the club?

Cup runs this season will cover c. 20% of the losses this season. Not much point in a windfall if it is immediately swallowed up via mismanaged finances. The 'club' is the Shanahan family and they'll just spend it on a lick of paint for the Lorne Street.

Or a new million pound pitch?  

3 hours ago, Alfie1962 said:

Walters was the only player who showed against Chelsea.

I would have said Gabriel.

3 hours ago, Alfie1962 said:

Walters was the only player who showed against Chelsea.

showed what? What exactly did he do in 90 minutes apart from run into a blind alley then fall over when there was a pass out to his right that would have set us off on an attack if he had released it earlier but like always he didn't play the pass he just ran into trouble. He didn't defend well either. Whatever it is you are seeing im not seeing it. There is no end product one goal and zero assists in 44 league games, not for me thanks.

1 hour ago, Jacko51 said:

Or a new million pound pitch?  

Couldn't even get that right (albeit unintentionally the only reason we got to the 1/4 finals in the first place). 

38 minutes ago, jjvale_03 said:

Couldn't even get that right (albeit unintentionally the only reason we got to the 1/4 finals in the first place). 

So Vale laid the pitch did they. Missed that. 

1 hour ago, kevin_struggles said:

showed what? What exactly did he do in 90 minutes apart from run into a blind alley then fall over when there was a pass out to his right that would have set us off on an attack if he had released it earlier but like always he didn't play the pass he just ran into trouble. He didn't defend well either. Whatever it is you are seeing im not seeing it. There is no end product one goal and zero assists in 44 league games, not for me thanks.

He was voted MOM on The Valiant by fellow Vale fans, each to there own i suppose.

He was voted MOM on The Valiant by fellow Vale fans, each to there own i suppose.

A low bar! Walters will only get better with a decent midfielder next to him. At the moment he doesn't know when to pass and when to run with the ball. He gives the ball away for too often.

55 minutes ago, Alfie1962 said:

He was voted MOM on The Valiant by fellow Vale fans, each to there own i suppose.

mom in a game where they were, to a man, very poor.

Seems we will do almost anything to write off our own players no matter what if the team doesn’t win. 

14 hours ago, kevin_struggles said:

showed what? What exactly did he do in 90 minutes apart from run into a blind alley then fall over when there was a pass out to his right that would have set us off on an attack if he had released it earlier but like always he didn't play the pass he just ran into trouble. He didn't defend well either. Whatever it is you are seeing im not seeing it. There is no end product one goal and zero assists in 44 league games, not for me thanks.

Your thoughts directly contradict that of the commentators and pundits at the game, together with several professionals all watching at the time, who all were enquiring after Walters and who he was. Oh, and me. Thought Walters was one of our better players. 

Edited April 8Apr 8 by Osh

Walters was good against Chelsea, Ojo was ok and Gabriel was decent. The rest were tripe. Walters was our best player by a distance in my view although a low bar 

3 hours ago, NW9Valiant said:

Seems we will do almost anything to write off our own players no matter what if the team doesn’t win. 

Its not writing players off, its giving an opion based on what we see. I hear fans applauding everything Walters does even if just a 10 yard forward pass into someone's feet. I don't hear that for any other players. Too many observe through 'one of our own' glasses.