Cue the over reaction

[Jacko51]

Bob Delgardo ?

 

Colin Miles??

[born_late58]

Just having a strong drink after watching my team bring in the New Year.

Despite the decent crowd,I sensed from the beginning that neither the fans or the team were up for it.Gillingham had won at Southend to go back on top so we had everything to play for but Fleetwood wanted it more and were sharper and more determined.

Goals from two set pieces in the first half sealed our fate and we seem incapable of fighting back if we go two goals down.This is totally opposite to when we go two goals up and we end up hanging on for a point.Is it five games we have lost this season and they've all been 2-0,we lack fighters in this team and have too many who drop their heads and go missing when we concede a second goal.They could learn a lot from watching our neighbours from down the road on how to fight back when going behind.

Happy New Year.

 

Like today at Man City;)

[vale on toower]

Ray Deakin proved to me he was sheeyite after a couple of minutes, does that make him pretty quick??? As a footballer that is

[Simcity47]

ill just say one thing... if you went to say watch a band play and they were **** or to the theatre and its **** then doesnt it put u off going for a wile or even ever again? i rest my case

 

Not the same. This is an emotional attachment..I go pretty much unconditionally. Not when they are top or its warm and sunny.

 

And it is while, not wile.

[Jacko51]

ill just say one thing... if you went to say watch a band play and they were **** or to the theatre and its **** then doesnt it put u off going for a wile or even ever again? i rest my case

 

You don't have a case. We aren't talking about bands. What if your missus cooked a lot of decent meals for you then served up an absolute dog of a meal. Would you leave her?

[TWIGGY]

ill just say one thing... if you went to say watch a band play and they were **** or to the theatre and its **** then doesnt it put u off going for a wile or even ever again? i rest my case

 

but this is football...its impossible to win every game.if a band is crap its because they are crap.end of.football matches are won and lost, its just a fact

[Tenement Funster]

I don't really post big long rants anymore but feel I need to say something after today. I've been every home game this season and a lot of away games and I do fear for us at the moment. Bar the odd explosive moment we've been quite poor at home this year and it'll come and bite us on the backside sooner rather than later now. Our style suits being away from home when teams come on to us but at home we seem to struggle to have a plan B and find breaking defensive minded teams down difficult. However Chesterfield to some degree didn't do this and beat us, Bradford the same (despite our second string line up) and today Fleetwood came at us and we had no answer to them. It concerns me that we don't have an alternative tactics. I know we don't have a massive squad but Micky is very set on this 4-4-2 at home and it doesn't seem to be working at the moment at all.

 

Firstly the defence is an issue. It hasn't hurt us too much when we're firing in goals at the other end but on the most part we aren't as free scoring as we were due to teams snuffing out our wingers in particular but I'll come to that in a minute. Chris Neal is arguably becoming one of the strongest keepers in this division but the four in front of him concern me. Duffy is very good defensively on the whole (though not so great today after his yellow) but the centre half partnerships are poor and we seriously do lack pace. Chilvers seems to get turned easy, makes silly mistakes and generally is too similar to McCombe in other departments to make him a good partner to him. McCombe is good, not perhaps as strong as he has been in other seasons but is doing ok however his pace is an issue at times too. McDonald had a great start to the season but pace is another issue for him. Finally Yates is steady and I do find myself warming to him however he still gets tatered by good wingers and his delivery when he gets forward is poor (much like Duffy). As we have slow full backs we struggle to cover the slow centre halves and it is an issue particularly as we are a very attack minded side and do not cover the defence too well.

 

The midfield is awkward one. When you play with two wingers like we do it exposes the centre midfielders so often we get overrun a little in there. Morsy does the dirty work reasonably well but he's not an enforcer like Griff was, yet he has similar failings like Griff. He can be cumbersome and inconsistent with his distribution, often seeming like he's worried about giving it away so the whole play slows down. Burge I like a lot, I think he's one of the more complete midfielders we've had in many a year and can only get better but we need to work through him a little more as it seemed like today in particular we didn't get him into the game. Then there is the golden wingers. I think Williams and Vincent have both slowed up over the last month. I wouldn't swap them for many in the division but they've got to start digging in a little more as Jennison in particular sometimes has the CBA look about him when we lose the ball. I'm not sure their cutting in style is working anymore either as at home in particular they have struggled to get into games and perhaps a proper run for either on the alternate wing could help. I do wonder whether it could be worth a look at a proper 4-3-3 at home when Loft is fit to give the wingers that bit more freedom they now seem to lack as we have been figured out. Somehow we could do with ditching Murphy and Shuker and bring in a couple of alternative players in there, Birchall would be a major asset but dunno what the status is with him now.

 

Finally the strikers. Pope is a major asset to us and we cannot afford to let him go. His work rate alone causes defences issues and although he looked a bit out of sorts today he was our only consistent goal threat. As for the other options they aren't good enough for me. Dodds is an enigma, at Dagenham he was arguably one of the best players on the pitch whereas today I felt we were playing with 10 men a lot of the time as he failed to do anything apart from a few cameo runs here and there. He is the best partner for Pope for now but that is what he is, a support striker and I hate seeing him elsewhere because he is not a winger and is pretty useless out there. Williamson is a decent impact sub but not sure he'll ever be good enough to be a first teamer and Andrew doesn't look like he has much in his locker at all.

 

I know that seems a lot of negatives for a team in the top 3 consistently all season and it may be nit picking to some degree but we've seen our deficiencies at home in particular and I have a feeling we'll struggle to stay right up there if we can't sort the home form out as there are some very good sides below us in this division. We need 3 bodies in, one in each area of the pitch I would say if we are to ensure we stay in the top 3. It's not panic stations yet by any means but the signs have been there for a while and 3 away games have masked the fact we struggle at home for whatever reason.

 

We are a good side, solid throughout the first 11 and I'm sure we'll consistently pick up points between now and the season's end to keep us up there somewhere. I just fear that without strengthening we'll slip into the play off mix as we need a couple of new options to freshen things up.

 

This is our season and we have to make sure it is as you can't be top at year end and throw it away now, it'd be criminal. Come on boys, this is our chance. Don't mess it up.

[Andyregs]

4-3-3 is what we need for the midfield and strikers to function properly.

 

---------------------Neal---------------

 

Duffy-----mccombe---Davis---Yates--

 

-------------Burge-----------Loft---------

 

Vincent----------Dodds-----------JMW

 

--------------------Pope----------------------

 

A centre half is a must along with a centre midfielder. Then a striker and left back if possible.

 

Or perhaps

 

 

 

---------------------Neal---------------

 

Duffy-----mccombe---Davis---Yates--

 

--------Burge-----Morsy--------Loft---------

 

Vincent---------- Pope------------Dodds

[For Us All]

Like today at Man City;)

 

I was referring to their home form,we lack a fighting spirit at Vale Park.

[journal]

Dont blame the fans the players let us down today after getting 2 excellent results away and building us up they don't perform at home Mickey says he does not need to bring players in he needs to think again we be lucky to get 4000 fans on saturday rant overn

[pensioner]

You don't have a case. We aren't talking about bands. What if your missus cooked a lot of decent meals for you then served up an absolute dog of a meal. Would you leave her?

 

No ! She would leave as she let her standards down. In these financial times you cant be expected to carry someone who is not pulling her weight every week. I know its a lot to carry but she has to. Simples

[andy jones]

TF

 

Hope you feel better after that!

 

We play well at home when its a hard surface - once the ground turns into the soggy, energy sapping, pitch it becomes in winter it is a pitch perfect for a team to come, sit back, and soak up (sorry for the pun) pressure then hit us on the break.

 

At the minute its the worst pitch we could have for two speedy wingers - you watch as soon as the pitch hardens up again our wingers will be flying again. Until then we have to grind out results at home and crap defending isn't helping.

[old sage]

You don't have a case. We aren't talking about bands. What if your missus cooked a lot of decent meals for you then served up an absolute dog of a meal. Would you leave her?

No Jean but I'd leave the meal and tell her what I thought of it!.

 

Yesterday we were dire and it is happening all too often at home. One bad day at the office (Vale Park) is acceptable but when did we last enjoy a good one???

[fairportnick]

TF

 

Hope you feel better after that!

 

We play well at home when its a hard surface - once the ground turns into the soggy, energy sapping, pitch it becomes in winter it is a pitch perfect for a team to come, sit back, and soak up (sorry for the pun) pressure then hit us on the break.

 

At the minute its the worst pitch we could have for two speedy wingers - you watch as soon as the pitch hardens up again our wingers will be flying again. Until then we have to grind out results at home and crap defending isn't helping.

 

I dont feel any better.

 

Surely a manager who is on the ball would pick a side to suit the PITCH and the OPPOSITION? The substitutions also remain baffling the replacing of McCombe with Mac Donut having had plenty of time to assess the way the opposition were playing was one of the worst decisions I have ever seen. It could only have been worse if he had replaced Neal with Shuker.

[fairportnick]

No Jean but I'd leave the meal and tell her what I thought of it!.

 

Yesterday we were dire and it is happening all too often at home. One bad day at the office (Vale Park) is acceptable but when did we last enjoy a good one???

 

Something has to be done and soon as it will take at least 1000 off the gate, work the sums out.