Sat 2nd Jan 2021

[SELatic]

Cooper was pretty annoyed that our game was abandoned yesterday, said that with no fans there, and the fact that no one can go down the pub, or got to the Italian or visit their gran, we might as well have waited an hour or however long it took for the weather to clear.

Fair point imo, rearranging games isn't ideal atm. Hopefully refs take that into account in future and give games every chance to finish.

I’m pretty surprised at Cooper’s comments. You could hardly see a thing on iFollow from about 30 mins in. I only knew we’d scored because the commentator said so. Granted conditions might have looked worse on camera than real life but I think it gives a good indication.

As for waiting an hour, as has been mentioned already, I’m pretty sure it’s no good for the players to wait that long and then come out again in the freezing to play a further 35 mins.

Really not ideal for us to have to come down again on a Tuesday but not sure there was much of an alternative.

 

[shoddycollins]

I’m actually struggling to feel sorry for Vale aswell, because we had some embarrassing pre-season behaviour from some of the fanbase, all high and mighty.

I must admit, that performance by them on Saturday was probably even lower than Mansfield against Barrow, you could tell the players didn’t put in much effort, so it’s hard to see how they can carry on now without a new manager. They will probably instantly improve even with just a caretaker manager in, like we did when we sacked Coughlan.

When we beat them earlier in the season they were a bit angry and embarrased as the best team on paper in the division to lose at home to a bang average side who will struggle to finish in the top 15.

 

[Soz]

Issue with Askey is now he’s hint dropping and fuelling rumours, just say it how it is then?

His interview other than sounding like he was about to cry and was clearly emotional didn’t really help other than throw Carol under the bus because she’s going to have to appease the fans who are now asking what’s going on?

Not having a level playing field? Strange happenings? What does it all mean.

He’s got rid of McKirdy and Theo and sent Clark back so suggest there’s even more involved, especially if the bus incident last night is indeed true.

Imagine it may come to a head tomorrow when they are all back in.

I feel for Askey, his Dad is a Vale legend, part of the great Iron Curtain side that broke records, won the league and was robbed in the FA Cup semi final after giant killing multiple clubs. He’s got Vale in his blood and deserves huge plaudits for turning us around last season but for weeks now it’s gone off a cliff. As I posted on OVF

First 10 games PPG 1.9
Next 12 games PPG 0.5

Goals conceded:

First 10 games - 7
Next 12 games - 26

its baffling. The defence has been the least affected by injuries too, Gibbons is a huge blow but he missed the main bulk of the first 10 games as well!

The first 10 were far harder on paper the next 12 too.

I feel for him, he’s a great bloke but maybe that’s the problem, needs a Micky Adams type character to sort that dressing room.

Yesterday is one of those performances we will remember for years to come as how bad it has got. He’s pretty much admitted himself some aren’t giving it all and that was obvious in the effort we saw.

and lets face it, as far as the injuries go, it's only really been the last fortnight that has been critically bad in terms of there being a good handful of first choice players out at the same time.


for the vast majority of this run we were pretty much only missing Amoo and Gibbons as far as i can recall, and I think any Vale fan would have told you that we're happy for Clark to replace Gibbo without there being an insane drop off like we've seen.
Oyleke is no surprise, i really like him but again, but if the manager goes into this season expecting 35+ games from him then that is their fault, no one elses.


askey may well be a bit of a victim, but that doesn't change the fact that he's responsible for results and this run of results is totally appalling. he's desperate and sounds defeated now. he's fighting for his next job, not this one, which is why i think he won't step down.

 

[valefan16]

When we beat them earlier in the season they were a bit angry and embarrased as the best team on paper in the division to lose at home to a bang average side who will struggle to finish in the top 15.

In fairness most of our expectations of Carlisle was of your fans telling us religiously that your going down and part timers etc!

 

[valefan16]

and lets face it, as far as the injuries go, it's only really been the last fortnight that has been critically bad in terms of there being a good handful of first choice players out at the same time.


for the vast majority of this run we were pretty much only missing Amoo and Gibbons as far as i can recall, and I think any Vale fan would have told you that we're happy for Clark to replace Gibbo without there being an insane drop off like we've seen.
Oyleke is no surprise, i really like him but again, but if the manager goes into this season expecting 35+ games from him then that is their fault, no one elses.


askey may well be a bit of a victim, but that doesn't change the fact that he's responsible for results and this run of results is totally appalling. he's desperate and sounds defeated now. he's fighting for his next job, not this one, which is why i think he won't step down.

No I agree although we pasted Bolton and performed very well against Colchester and FGR before injuries really took a toll. Hopefully the glimmer if he doesn’t go is the returnees this week.

 

[Si Robin]

It requires the agreement of both clubs and usually the other club will request that the return fixture also have an early kick off. Each of our home games which have kicked off early has been at the request of the away side after they agreed that we could kick off the return fixture early as well, and we've also kicked off some away games early after we requested it and offered an early kick off at Brunton Park in return. Could be that some clubs just want to stick to 3pm regardless and so turn down requests for early kick offs or it could be that clubs are hoping they'll have fans in for the return fixture so don't want to change the kick off time away from 3pm.

Oldham v FGR is on the last day of the season (as will be the case for a lot of the games played at this time of the year) so possibly Oldham don't want to move the kick-off time for a game that could see a decent attendance if fans are allowed, or possibly the league won't allow games on the last day to have different kick-off times, and therefore an agreement can't be reached.

I imagine a request for an early kick-off would be more likely to come from Oldham, so that they can get home at a reasonable time but FGR may have said no, given that they can't have the match at Boundary Park also kick off early.

Given the likelihood of Oldham driving down on the day as well, you'd imagine they wouldn't necessarily want a 1pm kick-off, instead wanting plenty of time to get down without having to leave too early in the morning. With a 5pm finish, they're not getting back to Greater Manchester later than 9pm.

 

[Carver]

In fairness most of our expectations of Carlisle was of your fans telling us religiously that your going down and part timers etc!

Well we did lose the first game of the season 3-0 so that put us in such a negative mindset, it was wondering who would finish bottom between us and Southend.

 

[shoddycollins]

Given the likelihood of Oldham driving down on the day as well, you'd imagine they wouldn't necessarily want a 1pm kick-off, instead wanting plenty of time to get down without having to leave too early in the morning. With a 5pm finish, they're not getting back to Greater Manchester later than 9pm.

Depends where the players actually live too. Maybe kick off times not so important for Oldham then. For ourselves we'd be staying the night before at all of these long distance games so can happily kick off early.

 

[Si Robin]

And that would make sense for getting back to Carlisle as well (assuming players are local).

Either way, the abandonment was clearly understandable and, given the conditions yesterday (the snow around 4pm in Tewkesbury was almost blizzard like at one point and we're not that far away from Nailsworth, and closer to sea level) then even getting to 58 mins seems like an achievement in itself.

 

[Chris FGR]

I’m pretty surprised at Cooper’s comments. You could hardly see a thing on iFollow from about 30 mins in. I only knew we’d scored because the commentator said so. Granted conditions might have looked worse on camera than real life but I think it gives a good indication.

As for waiting an hour, as has been mentioned already, I’m pretty sure it’s no good for the players to wait that long and then come out again in the freezing to play a further 35 mins.

Really not ideal for us to have to come down again on a Tuesday but not sure there was much of an alternative.

I think the players could have warmed up again, plus your players were getting changed in the gym changing rooms in the main stand so could have jumped on the bikes etc if need be.

No arguments about stopping when we did, at that point it was getting difficult to see. But restarting an hour later was definitely feasible.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1346100987426189315

 

[PVFCdyl]

About time! Thank god for that. Nothing but respect to John but it had to happen! Things were getting out of control

 

[chipmunx]

no point in doing a separate thread for one game;-

Mansfield currently 2-0 up against Salford (just before half-time)

 

[Conker]

Lapslie scoring again, he’s gotta be in the ‘best in division bracket’ with Rhys Bennett

 

[shoddycollins]

Lapslie scoring again, he’s gotta be in the ‘best in division bracket’ with Rhys Bennett

What position does he play?

 

[hellogregory]

Lapslie scoring again, he’s gotta be in the ‘best in division bracket’ with Rhys Bennett

What the fuck has happened to the Field Mill pitch. Have the owners been farming on it?

 

[Spanishstag]

Stags absolutely taking salford apart 2 0 half time could have been 5

 

[Conker]

What the fuck has happened to the Field Mill pitch. Have the owners been farming on it?

Dunno what’s happened but it’s wank I know that.

 

[denzel ecfc]

Come on Mansfield!

 

[chipmunx]

Dunno what’s happened but it’s wank I know that.

it looked decent when we played there....

 

[chipmunx]

Stags absolutely taking salford apart 2 0 half time could have been 5

What's happened with Jordan Bowery - he was getting slagged off earlier in the season and now he's turned into Watters....
(p.s he was rubbish when we had him on loan years ago)

 

[Conker]

What's happened with Jordan Bowery - he was getting slagged off earlier in the season and now he's turned into Watters....
(p.s he was rubbish when we had him on loan years ago)

Clough put him in a upfront role but out wide and he started playing well, but now he’s adding goals too, something he’s never done in his career.

 

[shoddycollins]

Clough put him in a upfront role but out wide and he started playing well, but now he’s adding goals too, something he’s never done in his career.

Always thought of him as one of those players like Ollie Palmer, who was never bad exactly, but always got a built up as a target man and struggled to live up to it.

 

[Conker]

Always thought of him as one of those players like Ollie Palmer, who was never bad exactly, but always got a built up as a target man and struggled to live up to it.

Our squad is lacking pace so badly, so Bowery is probably our fastest player, and he’s adapted to being wide really well.

Fair play to Clough for managing to get some form out of this side, he’s doing a good job considering the mess it was.

2-1 now, pls hold on!

 

[AdamStag]

What's happened with Jordan Bowery - he was getting slagged off earlier in the season and now he's turned into Watters....
(p.s he was rubbish when we had him on loan years ago)

I wasn’t keen to start with (to put it politely) however, like most coughlan wasn’t playing him the best he could end now he’s coming out with goals right left and centre, it’s madness!

Hopefully the lad can continue.

A BIG win tonight against salford though, 2-1 wasn’t a fair reflection on the game and we were far better throughout.

323 days without a home win then we get 2 in 4 days haha

 

[Luke Imp]

Mansfield's pitch is looking a bit worse for wear already?

 

[Conker]

Mansfield's pitch is looking a bit worse for wear already?

Yeah something gone wrong with it, dunno what or who to blame but it's in a unacceptable state considering the money spent on it when Evans was manager, it was very good for a few season only recently.

 

[valefan16]

The Mansfield pitch was awful on Saturday, almost as bad as us! The area to the left on the far side to the camera was really bad, did chuckle at the referee slipping on it though.

Recall it was terrible Boxing Day last year also.

 

[Casey]

We had problems with our pitch a few seasons ago. It started like a carpet but then some snow fell and the turf wouldn't stick to the ground. We had a few games called off because it got dangerous near one penalty area and had to pay out a lot of money mid season to get it fixed.

Strange how they can go from good to bad in a couple of weeks.

Any groundkeepers on here care to give an idiots guide on pitch maintenance?

Casey

 

[Monkey Tennis]

Maybe someone with a grievance put a brick in the drainage system, like what happened at Fylde last season. A fantastic way to screw over your ex employer.

 

[Conker]

“Because of the effects of the pandemic in the close season, we weren’t able this year to prepare the pitch to its full capacity. There is therefore a drainage issue, which is causing a problem with water getting through the surface and into the drain, as will have been noticeable in our last home game against Southend United.”



This is a quote from the postponed Salford game from the head groundsman.