Port Vale 2-0 Blackpool

[darren gregory]

Can we finally end the Tuesday League game jinx almost stretching to double figures. Blackpool deservedly won in JPT with a weakened side so this is no gimmee. Were we to win then 4 in a row would be an incredible turnaround after the Burton debacle. I guess we Vale fans are always pessimistic, i said on sat 4 points from the 2 homes and i,d snap your hand off, so lets see what materialises tomorrow. Our crowds are downright awful not sure what more can do to get bums on seats than winning all the time. Presume same side with Neal for Alnwick, but really hope Purkiss is back. 1-1 ( 4032 )

 

[Bartonyellow]

Your crowds would be bigger if you was not one of the dearest teams to watch in one of the most economically depressed areas of the country. If you charged 15 quid then you would get more I'm sure. Although Tuesday night games in winter are notoriously low crowds at any level bar the prem

 

[valefan16]

Great chance to make it four wins in the league in a row and five wins and a draw in the last six overall since the Burton debacle. We haven't won a Tuesday night home league game since April 2014 though and Blackpool are in awful form which usually means a Vale balls up on the cards! Page for me has to be careful as tiredness will be a factor after two games in the previous five days so would make a couple of changes, Purkiss for Yates, Occy if fit back in for Moore or Kelly.

Win this and we could go to Rochdale with a chance of hitting the top six!

 

[Fuzzyvalefan]

Your crowds would be bigger if you was not one of the dearest teams to watch in one of the most economically depressed areas of the country. If you charged 15 quid then you would get more I'm sure. Although Tuesday night games in winter are notoriously low crowds at any level bar the prem

Jesus Christ! Being lectured on poor attendances by a Burton fan is akin to being given a masterclass on how to make love to woman by Dale Winton.

 

[Bartonyellow]

Jesus Christ! Being lectured on poor attendances by a Burton fan is akin to being given a masterclass on how to make love to woman by Dale Winton.

If you read it again I'm not lecturing I'm defending why your crowds are low due to the high admission costs. Our crowds are low as we have a small fanbase. You don't have that excuse. It's not a dig

 

[IanPVFC]

The problem with making it £15 is we would make even less than we do now, we suddenly wouldn't gain an extra ~1500/2000 fans to make up the difference in takings.

 

[mozzavale]

I get what you're saying Barton, but our fans are really hard to predict when it comes to attendances. Having said that, you can usually gauge our attendances based on the feeling around the club at the time. Right now, we're on a mini run, but we've done this before and come crashing down, so fans refuse to get optimistic as we're expecting the same again. In Sept 2010 we went on a similar small run but because of the time of year it was, we were top. We played Shrewsbury on a Tuesday night, 1st v 2nd and managed to get over 7k home fans paying full price. A couple of seasons later we played Torquay on a Friday night and charged £5. We weren't playing great at the time, and only got around 4-5k. The season we got promoted we were on fire just after xmas. Played Wimbledon at home in a rearranged fixture, charged £5 and only managed between 5 and 6k. Same season we played you lot on a Friday night, charged £9 and got over 10k home fans.

We can't simply set a future date for reducing prices and hope attendances increase. At Vale we have to gauge the level of optimism around the club and take it from there. Tonight, it wouldn't be worth the reduction as I don't think fans truly feel as though we're likely to achieve anything this season yet. If this run continues a bit longer and we can sustain some degree of consistency, then maybe the fans will start to return.

 

[darren gregory]

Mozza has hit nail on head Barton, you are right you weren,t having a pop at our gates. We aren,t as expensive as people think for example £22 to go Rochdale this weekend and £25 to go to Bradfud. There is a lot of apathy around Vale at the minute, myself included, the fact we took identical numbers to Barnsley and Southend epitomises it. I have been every single game but decided to give Barnsley a miss as i am fed up to the back teeth of abysmal performances like at your place last month. Lo and behold i don,t go and we fluke a win. The club has also tried 'double header ' offers like for sat and tonight to no avail on the gates. Also not excusing our awful gates but this season Doncaster bought 370 Oldham 250 Shrews 550 and incredibly Chesterfielfd 350 on sat. Shrews and Chesterfield always bought 700 upwards so perhaps the apathy not just at our club.

 

[leedsvaliant]

Perhaps it's also the case that football is only affordable to those in the 30-60 year old bracket and much of this age bracket have kids, houses and other things that they have to prioritise. I have to pick and choose my away matches these days whereas in my early 20's it was affordable to go a lot more and I had less responsibilities.

Anyway on to the game....

This is a prime candidate for a typical Vale loss. The key parameters are:

1) Team comes to Vale having lost their last few games
2) Team comes to Vale from near the bottom of the league
3) Team comes to Vale when Vale are on a good run
4) Team comes to Vale when Vale have a chance of pushing towards playoff places
5) Team comes to Vale with complete apathy amongst their fanbase
6) Team plays Vale at home on a Tuesday night

When all of the above apply it is almost certain to be a Vale loss - I'd put your mortgage on it.

Having said that, we really really should win this one but we all know that we won't.

The team should be Yates out as Purkiss is far superior and Kelly out as although he scored and set one up on the weekend he looked so far out of his depth - O'Connor back in.

 

[valefan16]

Another big three points! 4 wins in 4 in the league and 5 wins and a draw in all competitions. Somehow AJLS has become a goal machine!

 

[Bartonyellow]

On a roll! Your defeat at our place did something to you...

 

[valefan16]

On a roll! Your defeat at our place did something to you...

Got Uche dropped and although at the time seemed a powder puff attack of Dodds and AJLS it was proved far more effective as a unit going forward.

 

[IanPVFC]

That was a bit of a smash and grab to be honest. Especially second half where we let Blackpool have far too much of the ball. However Page's substitutions made the difference and it was a credit to the players that, having played 3 games in less than 6 days, we were able to score twice in the last 10 minutes.

A very satisfying week!

 

[markpvfc]

If the sign of a good team is winning when playing badly then we must be awesome. For 80mins we were awful, Blackpool should've had 2 or 3 goals whilst we barely had an attack of note.

 

[TomPNE94]

Is Page a God again now?

 

[valefan16]

Is Page a God again now?

Fans are split still, he sums up the form of our club, were either in great form or dire form this season and no inbetween. If he can sort the away form out we could surprise a lot of people.

 

[markpvfc]

Is Page a God again now?

Not at all. We might have won 4 in a row but we couldn't have hand picked the opposition any better. All 4 were poor teams there for the taking, yet how we got wins out of the Barnsley and Blackpool games is almost a miracle, they both battered us.

 

[darren gregory]

Is Page a God again now?

never has been never will be, needs P45 , negative in the extreme, though we have got twice the amount of away wins as Garner has goals

 

[SF_]

never has been never will be, needs P45 , negative in the extreme, though we have got twice the amount of away wins as Garner has goals

That's one more Championship goal than Port Vale have had in 15 years.