Scunthorpe v Vale

[leedsvaliant]

Following 3 months of absolute crud, we've steadied the ship a little being unbeaten in 3 league games (albeit against 3 poor sides). Every neutral punter should view this as a banker home win, we've only won once on the road all season and have had a few stinkers losing by 3 goals or more on a number of occasions. Scunthorpe have picked back up again after a little dip and so basically everything points to a home win. However, we all know with football that it's never that easy.

We'll at least have a bit more fire power and should play a bit quicker and more direct. Forrester scored 3 in the reserves this week and so might well find himself starting. He's a good player when fit but he hasn't played enough. Des Walker's son scored a great debut goal and also offers a threat. The new midfielder from Derby also looks to be a good footballer and so things are looking up on that front.

I'm surprised at Scunthorpe if I'm honest. Even though they had a good end to last season, I didn't see them threatening the top places and after being easily beaten at our place under Bruno, I could only see play offs at best. I believe though that they have got plenty of money splashing round and are really investing to get back to the Championship - time will tell but it's looking good for them at the moment.

Michael Brown probably hasn't had enough time to make his mark yet and so I think this game will come too soon to get anything out of. I do feel a bit more confident that we will get enough points to survive though.
3-1 Scunthorpe.

 

[valefan16]

As I alluded to in the match day thread would be typical football if we ended our awful away form at a side who are unbeaten at home since 2015 i believe.

As much as our half fit mess of a side under Bruno swept them aside at Vale Park this will be a huge ask... any result should secure Browny the job and I feel much more confident than I did a month ago about the capabilities of this side.

First away game for our new look squad with its recently discovered fitness issues resolved so as with Friday I am unsure what to expect... i was surprised at how improved we were Friday and if we can take that to North Lincolnshire with the renewed optimism then you never know. Its a bit of a free hit as I dare say Scunthorpe and their fans will expect a comfortable win so the lads are under far less pressure and hopefully express themselves like they did against Bury.

Alnwick

Purkiss
Streete
Smith
Kiko

Thomas
Guy
Grant
Eagles

Forrester
Walker

Assume Taylor is gone/wont renew before Saturday and Foley wont be quite ready for a return yet so would go with that. Plenty of attacking power there which we've lacked for months and Kiko is way better than Knopps. A balanced team with a threat as well as defensive cover... how I dreamt of that a month ago...

 

[MJA]

As much as our half fit mess of a side under Bruno

You seem to be hanging on to this comment from Brown regarding the teams fitness levels but lets not forget that Michael Brown was part of the coaching staff under Bruno and therefore would have played his part in allowing the fitness levels to drop. That is of course if they are actually that bad and it's not just a case of a new manager giving himself a bit of time in the early days - lets face it, this is not the first time a new manager has arrived at a club and questioned the fitness of professional athletes.

Anyway, on to the game........home win. That is all

 

[valefan16]

You seem to be hanging on to this comment from Brown regarding the teams fitness levels but lets not forget that Michael Brown was part of the coaching staff under Bruno and therefore would have played his part in allowing the fitness levels to drop. That is of course if they are actually that bad and it's not just a case of a new manager giving himself a bit of time in the early days - lets face it, this is not the first time a new manager has arrived at a club and questioned the fitness of professional athletes.

Anyway, on to the game........home win. That is all

Come off it! Brown was on the periphery in Bruno's spell that has been well documented! Based on the amount of late goals we conceded and the half arsed effort we saw at times it is obvious fitness was an issue.

We went St George's to work on it two weeks ago and the improvement in chasing down and pressure was evident on Friday.

 

[darren gregory]

Surely a requisite of a professional footballer irrespective of the management is to be fit and at it . Brown could easily have had a word in a few ears whilst Bruno was here if he felt they were so unfit.
Onto tomorrow, i am afraid i don,t subscribe to the Brown is the messiah that a lot of our fans suggest. 5 points from Chesterfield home, Oldham Away, Bury Home is a dire return given we are now 6 points from relegation.
Scunthorpe will be way too good i'd imagine, 3-0 possibly but we can cling to the fact Footy has a remarkable knack of shocking us all, hence i never win on the fixed odds coupon.
February looks really hard month and maybe by 4-50 pm we may only be 3 points off the drop.
And before people start saying well we are improving and unbeaten etc it is just my opinion.
Oldham away a side with worst goals for in the country, Alnwick saved us from a defeat and 0-0 was deemed acceptable , hardly any goal attempts ourselves.
Bury let the most goals in our league yet we still contrived to throw the lead away twice with catastrophic defending.
Finally, Alexander is a smug smarmy Cnut .

 

[valefan16]

Brown cant be judged on Oldham and Chesterfield to be honest, they were days into the job (4 points isn't a bad haul from them after 3 defeats and no wins in 11 though).

I don't know if you went Friday Darren, Bury were far from a poor side (think they'd had a lot of injuries) and we should of won bar a nervous debut from our youth keeper (Alnwick is back tomorrow). I don't think anyone is saying Brown is the messiah, at the moment a messiah isn't required just someone to stop the rot and improve us enough to not get dragged in. He has addressed the attacking problems so far with new signings and the return of Anton and JJ and had us playing a far higher tempo Friday.

I don't think we will go down (6 points above with 2 games in hand). I don't expect a win tomorrow regardless of the improvement but the difference now is we have a chance whereas under Bruno since Millwall at home we have had bugger all chance in games as we've had zero outlet or goal threat.

Friday night we had three times more attempts on goal than in games in the last few months which was far more pleasing and gave us half the chances we had been conceding... that's the improvement which gives us a fighting chance of recovering our situation if we sustain it.

 

[Buxton Vale]

I was hopeful of a hard earned point, but cant see it now with the uncertainty over our keeper.

 

[valefan16]

I was hopeful of a hard earned point, but cant see it now with the uncertainty over our keeper.

Yeah optimism battered this evening...

Alnwick maybe off
Grant resubmitted request to leave
Taylor apparently gone (expected and not too arsed but experienced)

Not a great prep for the game to be honest!

 

[Buxton Vale]

........and now it looks as though he may be staying as Rangers don't have a pot to pee in. Hardly good preparation for an important game though.

 

[darren gregory]

i did go to the Bury game VF16, yes we attacked more and looked more threatening, however they had was it 5 points from 16 games? a fellow struggler, they are the games you simply have to win.
Just feel if we are basically relying on our home form we are in trouble, Posh, Bradford, Bolton, Sheff Utd all to come.
Makes the games v likes of Swindon, Bris Rov, Wimbledon, Shrews absolute 100 % must win games as we will not get enough points away from home.
Football is played on grass not paper and is so unpredictable but our next 5 aways are Scunny, Gills, Millwall, Rochdale, Southend.......ouch....potentially 1 point ...on paper........hope i am proved wrong.

 

[codaplenty]

Comon Vale get in there and do 'em

 

[MJA]

Comon Vale get in there and do 'em

There is more chance of me actually winning a Saturday accumulator I'm afraid

 

[valefan16]

i did go to the Bury game VF16, yes we attacked more and looked more threatening, however they had was it 5 points from 16 games? a fellow struggler, they are the games you simply have to win.
Just feel if we are basically relying on our home form we are in trouble, Posh, Bradford, Bolton, Sheff Utd all to come.
Makes the games v likes of Swindon, Bris Rov, Wimbledon, Shrews absolute 100 % must win games as we will not get enough points away from home.
Football is played on grass not paper and is so unpredictable but our next 5 aways are Scunny, Gills, Millwall, Rochdale, Southend.......ouch....potentially 1 point ...on paper........hope i am proved wrong.

In fairness we have taken 15 from 15 points against those five this season so far! It depends on how much Brown can improve us away from home now he's getting his own players in etc. Today may show a sign of that or not although most of my optimism went in three hours yesterday evening!

 

[valefan16]

Alnwick starts!

 

[valefan16]

Sounds like we've deserved the lead at half time. Walker again.

First away goal since Halloween and first time leading away from home since October 9th. Long way to go but positive signs.

 

[valefan16]

Farcical penalty decision according to radio. Ffs Davies kicks Streetes foot and ref gives it. Need to show character now.

 

[valefan16]

Smith now injured, huge loss and seems to be unravelling for us here.

 

[valefan16]

JJ Hooper 2-1!!!

 

[valefan16]

2-2

 

[valefan16]

Losing 3-2 what a throw away. Massively need to get a centre half in before Tuesday.

 

[valefan16]

Really disappointing and sounds like defensive lapses cost us big time today but a massive improvement by sounds of it and plenty of effort. Need a centre half as lose one like today and the affect is there for all to see.

Hopefully we can bounce back against a Posh side haemorrhaging goals next week.

 

[Buxton Vale]

Sounds like we gave it a go and were unlucky. Easier games coming up - we'll be ok.

 

[valefan16]

Sounds like we gave it a go and were unlucky. Easier games coming up - we'll be ok.

Huge one next week but as with last week sounds like we switched off for their goals, although tweet feed was spitting blood over the penalty so will have to see that on highlights.

Keep Grant and Alnwick, sign a centre half and we won't be far off. Just frustrating as to be ahead twice and not get anything is really sloppy from our point of view.

 

[Bottega Don]

Huge win for us that. Credit to Port Vale, they made it difficult for us. We were very poor first half, Port Vale deserved the lead. Thankfully we played much better in the 2nd half. Not sure about the penalty, I couldn't really see it but if it was a penalty, it's the stupidest decision I've ever seen a defender make considering the ball was about to go out. Our 2nd goal was stupidly bad goalkeeping, he was off his line for no reason and then he looked like he could've saved it when it lobbed him. Once we got it back to 2-2, the game was only going one way. Big win.

 

[markpvfc]

At least the football is starting to sound interesting again after the dross of the last 18 months. Unfortunately whilst we now try to score goals and win games our defence has turned into complete and utter dog turd.

 

[MJA]

Unfortunately you don't get any bonus points for being better than recent weeks/months

Interestingly though, the Michael Brown hokey cokey appears to be currently at..........IN despite the defeat.

 

[kieran_vale]

At least we're trying to have attempts on goal now. Shame to lose but to run a good opponent close away from home no real complaints. Well done Scunthorpe and good luck rest of the way.

 

[valefan16]

At least the football is starting to sound interesting again after the dross of the last 18 months. Unfortunately whilst we now try to score goals and win games our defence has turned into complete and utter dog turd.

Said for weeks we need an experienced centre half. It's such a young back line and keeper and if as today and at Huddersfield we lose one of Streete/Smith then we cave in.

Think we will survive and improve results wise now but a massive few days up to Tuesday night.

 

[Leo]

Great result for me....had over 2.5 goals. respect to both teams.....

 

[MJA]

Great result for me....had over 2.5 goals. respect to both teams.....

Well done Leo