Tuesday 1st February

[Agombar stool]

Agombar, re the ref last night. In his after match interview Yems started bemoaning how bad the ref was (for both teams) but remembered how much that hurts his wallet and changed the subject. Seems he wasn't the best.

Casey

I have to say, I quite like John Yems' 'quirkiness' (Not sure that's the accurate terminology) in his post match interviews. He was asked by the interviewer how pleased he was with the defensive performance (which was generally excellent on Tuesday) and replied 'well it can't have been that good as we conceded a goal'. What do Crawley fans think of him out of interest? Looking at the league table he's done a pretty good job.

 

[Casey]

My views on John Yems. Some will disagree. Actually it would be interesting to hear Alain's views as he goes to nearly every game.

Yems is generally well liked. Always some dissenters but he's pretty safe in his position. He is handicapped by having (just about) the smallest budget in the league so is doing better than the league position shows.

His interviews are amusing but blaming refs did get a bit tedious and turning on the interviewer was a mistake that he got away with. He doesn't actually give much away in real football terms in them.

IMHO he does love tippy tappy midfielders over strong runners, he seems to have a blind spot over full backs and never seems interested in back to goal strikers. How much of that is down to funds and how much to personal preference I dont know. Tactically he has had a problem all season with the team giving away stupid goals (his words) but he hasn't been able to fix it. He also seems to settle for 0-1 away from home a bit to early...could go for the jugular a bit more.

We like him. You can't have him.

Casey

 

[Robshep]

A lot of it is just about styles make fights really, same way we seem to hate playing against Walsall or Tranmere. Ours does well against FGR. It’s just a shame we had to play the Swindon home game when we did just coming off that break as our pressing game could have worked better against them too but we just didn’t have it in us physically then.

Been very pleased with Aaron Martin since the Orient game on a side note. He’s not had the easiest of first few months but with a run of games now he looks like what we thought we were getting. Not about how you start but how you finish and if he keeps the current level up don’t think anyone can complain.

Hopefully saturday was just a blip for us and we can return to the mostly dull low scoring games we have grown used to watching.

 

[Koumas’Right-Boot]

Can anyone explain why Bristol Rovers fans all seem to think they’re making the playoffs?Sure Bolton had a run last year but the Gas don’t have a comparable squad.

Would be surprised if anyone below Salford made the playoffs and even they would need title form for the rest of the season.

 

[Agombar stool]

My views on John Yems. Some will disagree. Actually it would be interesting to hear Alain's views as he goes to nearly every game.

Yems is generally well liked. Always some dissenters but he's pretty safe in his position. He is handicapped by having (just about) the smallest budget in the league so is doing better than the league position shows.

His interviews are amusing but blaming refs did get a bit tedious and turning on the interviewer was a mistake that he got away with. He doesn't actually give much away in real football terms in them.

IMHO he does love tippy tappy midfielders over strong runners, he seems to have a blind spot over full backs and never seems interested in back to goal strikers. How much of that is down to funds and how much to personal preference I dont know. Tactically he has had a problem all season with the team giving away stupid goals (his words) but he hasn't been able to fix it. He also seems to settle for 0-1 away from home a bit to early...could go for the jugular a bit more.

We like him. You can't have him.

Casey

I mentioned it before, but I felt like the whole of the second half you had just setup to defend deep and organised and take no chances at all. This was evident as your Centre Backs mopped everything up and just launched it down the field every time. It was only when he brought Mark Marshall on did it seem like you tried to play a counter-attacking style a bit more. I felt that if he had been braver you would have won that by 2,3,4 nil.

 

[Gassy]

Can anyone explain why Bristol Rovers fans all seem to think they’re making the playoffs?Sure Bolton had a run last year but the Gas don’t have a comparable squad.

Would be surprised if anyone below Salford made the playoffs and even they would need title form for the rest of the season.

Can you explain your statement “all Bristol rovers fans seem to think they’re making the play offs”?

That’s news to me.

I think it’s only natural when you’re in form to look up the table rather than down, well that’s how most fans work anyway.

We’re 7 points off the play offs with 2 games in hand and finally starting to get a bit better with more to come, but hey - you’re right. No team should ever hope for finishing more than 2 places than they currently are, Christ.

 

[Koumas’Right-Boot]

Can you explain your statement “all Bristol rovers fans seem to think they’re making the play offs”?

That’s news to me.

I think it’s only natural when you’re in form to look up the table rather than down, well that’s how most fans work anyway.

We’re 7 points off the play offs with 2 games in hand and finally starting to get a bit better with more to come, but hey - you’re right. No team should ever hope for finishing more than 2 places than they currently are, Christ.

You’re 12th though?

You can hope for something like that to happen, but I’ve seen a lot of Gas fans even confident they will.

Just curious what reasons you think you’ll have a dramatic up turn in form? Are certain players available now, have you changed system? Etc. Looking from the outside you’re both high conceding and low scoring.

Would also say that lots of games in hand probably counts against you, we were in that situation last year albeit chasing top 3 rather than playoffs and it caused us issues with player fatigue doing Saturday / Tuesday every week.

 

[Agombar stool]

You’re 12th though?

You can hope for something like that to happen, but I’ve seen a lot of Gas fans even confident they will.

Just curious what reasons you think you’ll have a dramatic up turn in form? Are certain players available now, have you changed system? Etc. Looking from the outside you’re both high conceding and low scoring.

Would also say that lots of games in hand probably counts against you, we were in that situation last year albeit chasing top 3 rather than playoffs and it caused us issues with player fatigue doing Saturday / Tuesday every week.

As an outsider Rovers have drastically improved since our 2 games. They were terrible at the mem but at our place they seemed organised and it could be argued that they shaded it. Only based on what I have seen they shouldn't be discounted for a play-off spot. It's very very tight and I think there are a group of teams, probably down to Crawley who would feel they are in for a shout if they can put a good run together. Obviously points are more important than games in hand and there is loads of football this month. I think in a month's time we'll know definitively who is going to be in for a shot of the autos, and who is going to be involved in the play-offs. Still lots to play for.

 

[Koumas’Right-Boot]

As an outsider Rovers have drastically improved since our 2 games. They were terrible at the mem but at our place they seemed organised and it could be argued that they shaded it. Only based on what I have seen they shouldn't be discounted for a play-off spot. It's very very tight and I think there are a group of teams, probably down to Crawley who would feel they are in for a shout if they can put a good run together. Obviously points are more important than games in hand and there is loads of football this month. I think in a month's time we'll know definitively who is going to be in for a shot of the autos, and who is going to be involved in the play-offs. Still lots to play for.

Swindon’s form will have a big say in who can make a run at the top 7, whilst I personally think you’ll make top 7, you do look the most likely to drop out of it at the moment.

Points on the board is huge in a condensed schedule with generally smaller than usual squads due to covid financial restraints on clubs. For that reason we might see Sutton and Northampton tail off a bit, though I’ve been expecting Sutton to for weeks now and they keep getting results.

 

[Agombar stool]

Swindon’s form will have a big say in who can make a run at the top 7, whilst I personally think you’ll make top 7, you do look the most likely to drop out of it at the moment.

Points on the board is huge in a condensed schedule with generally smaller than usual squads due to covid financial restraints on clubs. For that reason we might see Sutton and Northampton tail off a bit, though I’ve been expecting Sutton to for weeks now and they keep getting results.

I concur with your comments about Sutton, we beat them fairly easily at their place, but the table doesn't lie and they are having a tremendous season.

Re us, well we've been kind of inconsistent all season really, never quite putting anything consistent together. We did have the spell of unbeaten away wins but that was coupled with terribleness at home. The transfer window hasn't helped with our main stiker and wing back recalled and both were key to how we play. I think we have recruited quite well to replace them but that might take a while to get them to gel and so we probably won't hit our straps for a few weeks, which will hopefully be good enough for us to get into the play-offs.

 

[kieran_vale]

Just from what I saw of Rovers they competed hard against us but were incredibly ill-disciplined at the same time, if they have ironed that out a bit then no reason they can’t compete for top 7. I wouldn’t rule out anyone down to about 14th though. This league in the past is littered with clubs who have gone on a mad run out of nowhere.

In the next few weeks we should finally be able to play a first choice XI again so am pretty confident we can force our way into the top 7 and maybe top 3.

 

[Koumas’Right-Boot]

Up until Saturday, in terms of an individual performance I thought Harrogate were the best we’d played followed by Northampton. But in this league consistency always seems to count for more than upper potential.

At the other end I wouldn’t be surprised to see Scunthorpe go on a run of sorts, but it’d still require one of teams above them to nose dive.

Going to be an exciting few weeks..

 

[BRFC_Gas]

Can anyone explain why Bristol Rovers fans all seem to think they’re making the playoffs?Sure Bolton had a run last year but the Gas don’t have a comparable squad.

Would be surprised if anyone below Salford made the playoffs and even they would need title form for the rest of the season.

Most gasheads have said we are in with an outside chance of reaching the play -offs.
You are always going to get the odd ones shouting promotion after a few wins, but most can see they were against poor opposition and the test is yet to come.
We had a lot of injuries and most of them have returned which coincided with our upturn in form. I think a lot of league 2 sides will see a different Rovers team for the return games.
Apart from Taylor our defence is pretty average and that's why I think we will be playing L2 football again next season.
The rest of our squad is pretty decent actually with players who wouldnt be out of place in L1, hope that helps!

 

[Koumas’Right-Boot]

Most gasheads have said we are in with an outside chance of reaching the play -offs.
You are always going to get the odd ones shouting promotion after a few wins, but most can see they were against poor opposition and the test is yet to come.
We had a lot of injuries and most of them have returned which coincided with our upturn in form. I think a lot of league 2 sides will see a different Rovers team for the return games.
Apart from Taylor our defence is pretty average and that's why I think we will be playing L2 football again next season.
The rest of our squad is pretty decent actually with players who wouldnt be out of place in L1, hope that helps!

That’s fair.

It’s possible that 7th place might be a really low points tally this season like 69/70 which would open the door to more teams.

Whereas there might not be a huge difference between 2nd and 6th. 83 for 2nd down to 77 for 6th maybe.

 

[Alain]

As Casey said l go to most games - I wasn’t their Tuesday as isolating due to COVID - watched the game on iFollow - John Yems is Crawley through and through - and doesn’t like losing or stupid questions from the media - he is very honest with his summary of games - this season has been horrendous for us with injuries and we have never been able to get our strongest team on the pitch- we have conceded some poor goals of late but that can be said for all teams in this league - In terms of formation nobody can second guess what the line up will be - and we get no information about players coming back from injuries which means our opponents can’t use to their advantage against us - I‘d expect us to be hovering around the play-play off positions but have to improve our home form which we have 4 on the trot coming soon - winning all those will make it interesting.

What I find amusing is that we get the same comments when we win against the so called big sides - how can we loose to Crawley, or the worst team we have played - sometimes it would good to be given some credit. But saying that we are all blinkered towards our own team.

edit - One thing I should have said is that John Yems could be at Crawley for a few more years yet - gets on well with supporters - always willing to talk to us, he also does have good contacts in the higher leagues which is why we do get some every good youngsters on loan - and then all the players seem to like playing under him and when you get players like Tom Nichols, Nick Tsaroulla, Glenn Morris, Joel Lynch signing extended contracts when they could get more money elsewhere speaks volumes.

 

[Gassy]

You’re 12th though?

You can hope for something like that to happen, but I’ve seen a lot of Gas fans even confident they will.

Just curious what reasons you think you’ll have a dramatic up turn in form? Are certain players available now, have you changed system? Etc. Looking from the outside you’re both high conceding and low scoring.

Would also say that lots of games in hand probably counts against you, we were in that situation last year albeit chasing top 3 rather than playoffs and it caused us issues with player fatigue doing Saturday / Tuesday every week.

I'm not really sure whats so confusing? Our form is 3rd best in the division right now, taking 13/15 points. If we were doing nothing then I would agree with you, but we've finally got our squad back from injuries, we're playing better football and we're one of the inform teams in the division - but we shouldn't look up?

Fair point on the games in hand, but name me one fan who's never looked at the games in hand as an opportunity?

Our defence has mistakes them for sure - but in recent games we've seemed to turn a real corner. However, IMO the next 3/4 games will define our season: Sutton (a), Oldham (a), Mansfield (h) & Sutton (h). Take 7 points from that and I think play offs could be on, but tough. Any above and I'd feel confident, anything less and it won't be enough IMO.

 

[Agombar stool]

What I find amusing is that we get the same comments when we win against the so called big sides - how can we loose to Crawley, or the worst team we have played - sometimes it would good to be given some credit. But saying that we are all blinkered towards our own team.

Not sure if you actually read any of the comments after Tuesday night's game, or your comment was actually generic but I don't think any of our fans said such a thing. If you took your own blinkers off for a second you would see I actually kind of paid you a compliment as you looked a decent counter-attacking side for parts of the first half and had you continued in that vein, would have taken all the points back to Sussex.

 

[Agombar stool]

I'm not really sure whats so confusing? Our form is 3rd best in the division right now, taking 13/15 points. If we were doing nothing then I would agree with you, but we've finally got our squad back from injuries, we're playing better football and we're one of the inform teams in the division - but we shouldn't look up?

Fair point on the games in hand, but name me one fan who's never looked at the games in hand as an opportunity?

Our defence has mistakes them for sure - but in recent games we've seemed to turn a real corner. However, IMO the next 3/4 games will define our season: Sutton (a), Oldham (a), Mansfield (h) & Sutton (h). Take 7 points from that and I think play offs could be on, but tough. Any above and I'd feel confident, anything less and it won't be enough IMO.

I have to agree with Gassy here. I don't think any teams that are hovering about mid-table can be discounted. It just takes a run of form (similar to Mansfield) and you shoot up the table. Aside from the bizarreness of FGR running away with things (which I still don't really get, but of course applaud) I think the rest of the league is much of a muchness really. We've yet to have our run yet, not sure if it's going to happen to be honest, we look very much like a play-off side at best currently.

 

[FGR Stroud]

It has been been brought up on the FGR Facebook page that security at Port Vale is OTT.
Away fans are bodily frisked.
My mate who is 83 and has trouble standing had the indignity of security feeling all over his body.
I'm also an OAP and same happened to me.
Did they find anything - did they f#ck.
I suppose the security firm can brag to the club they are doing a good job and nothing untoward gets passed them.
But the fact of the matter is that generally football fans don't bring flares or such like to grounds, especially with CCTV in all stadiums.
And in Port Vale's case the seating area is so far from pitch side that even if someone wanted to lob a grenade onto pitch if would fall short.
Port Vale management need to tell their security to adopt a more common sense approach.

 

[Alain]

Not sure if you actually read any of the comments after Tuesday night's game, or your comment was actually generic but I don't think any of our fans said such a thing. If you took your own blinkers off for a second you would see I actually kind of paid you a compliment as you looked a decent counter-attacking side for parts of the first half and had you continued in that vein, would have taken all the points back to Sussex.

Sorry l wasn’t having a pop at you at all - this was referring to comments made by supporters over the years - but saying that we also do get unbiased comments about our performances on occasions, so I should have word it better than I did

 

[Agombar stool]

Sorry l wasn’t having a pop at you at all - this was referring to comments made by supporters over the years - but saying that we also do get unbiased comments about our performances on occasions, so I should have word it better than I did

re-reading my reply and I appear overly arsey as well, so apologies for that Alain. Fair play, I have read a lot of comments from opposition fans that do completely back up what you say. Losing to 'little' Crawley is obviously frustrating but I think it's a stick that does beat your side a lot unfairly.

Think you have a good shot at the play-offs, and a tidy side, so we may meet again this season!

 

[valefan16]

It has been been brought up on the FGR Facebook page that security at Port Vale is OTT.
Away fans are bodily frisked.
My mate who is 83 and has trouble standing had the indignity of security feeling all over his body.
I'm also an OAP and same happened to me.
Did they find anything - did they f#ck.
I suppose the security firm can brag to the club they are doing a good job and nothing untoward gets passed them.
But the fact of the matter is that generally football fans don't bring flares or such like to grounds, especially with CCTV in all stadiums.
And in Port Vale's case the seating area is so far from pitch side that even if someone wanted to lob a grenade onto pitch if would fall short.
Port Vale management need to tell their security to adopt a more common sense approach.

Hi FGR Stroud, oddly this was brought up by the club ahead of Scunthorpe which we assumed was down to intelligence but maybe not. In
the home ends it is bag checks but usually not much else.

Might be worth mentioning the experience to enquiries@port-vale.co.uk the club is far more receptive than it used to be and sure it would be looked into and taken on board.

 

[kieran_vale]

Does seem rather OTT by the club on the face of it to be honest. The Scunny game they had warned people ahead of time there would be additional searches but a midweek fixture against FGR appears to be overkill.

 

[FGR Stroud]

Might be worth mentioning the experience to enquiries@port-vale.co.uk the club is far more receptive than it used to be and sure it would be looked into and taken on board.

Thanks. Done.

 

[Chris FGR]

Rarely happens with us tbh, and when it does it’s usually selective. Surprised Vale stewards decided to do that to oap’s.

For some reason I’m normally one of the lucky ones to get picked for a search. Had lighters taken off me at a few places - ‘you won’t need that inside the ground anyway’

 

[Gassy]

I have to agree with Gassy here. I don't think any teams that are hovering about mid-table can be discounted. It just takes a run of form (similar to Mansfield) and you shoot up the table. Aside from the bizarreness of FGR running away with things (which I still don't really get, but of course applaud) I think the rest of the league is much of a muchness really. We've yet to have our run yet, not sure if it's going to happen to be honest, we look very much like a play-off side at best currently.

I actually think the league is pretty close on standards bar the obvious with Scunthorpes and FGR.

As you say, anyone can put a little run together and they’ll challenge this year.

Didn’t your run happen fairly early though?

 

[Agombar stool]

I actually think the league is pretty close on standards bar the obvious with Scunthorpes and FGR.

As you say, anyone can put a little run together and they’ll challenge this year.

Didn’t your run happen fairly early though?

We had a run of form away from home earlier in the season, but it was coupled with losses and defeats at home so I'm not sure it could be classed as a run as such. We really need to go on a 7,8,9 game unbeaten run to really cement any play-off ambitions.

 

[kieran_vale]

I actually think the league is pretty close on standards bar the obvious with Scunthorpes and FGR.

As you say, anyone can put a little run together and they’ll challenge this year.

Didn’t your run happen fairly early though?

Correct and to be honest in FGR's case I think their fans would agree they've been well served by the injury gods this season overall otherwise I daresay that would be closer. Looking at the table I think you could go down as far as Orient (even if they are struggling to get back up to speed similar to what we faced) as clubs who any decent sort of run and they are right back in it. Shaping up to be a typical L2 season where a whole host of clubs will be in the mix right to the end, one of the more interesting aspects of this division compared to any of the others I think.

 

[BRFC_Gas]

We had a run of form away from home earlier in the season, but it was coupled with losses and defeats at home so I'm not sure it could be classed as a run as such. We really need to go on a 7,8,9 game unbeaten run to really cement any play-off ambitions.

You have done bloody well though considering you had to put together a new squad on year contracts or loans.

 

[Agombar stool]

You have done bloody well though considering you had to put together a new squad on year contracts or loans.

Very true. Bearing in mind how late in the day we had to put together a squad I'm really pleased with what we have had to play with. 2 decent keepers as well as players of the calibre of Jonny Williams, Ben Gladwin and Louis Reed that I'm sure could have got league 1 clubs. Also Jack Payne committing was huge after Brett Pitman decided it wasn't for him, Payne showed huge loyalty and I think it's paid dividends both for him individually and the club. I think we probably over achieved with our loans, Simpson was brilliant and Kessler-Hayden also showed why Villa gave him a 5 year deal. Unfortunately that cost us as they were both recalled (for different reasons but that's the gamble with loans) Ben Chorley as chief scout has to be applauded for who we've been able to attract and the type of football we play means that clubs higher up the leagues are willing to send players to us as we can actually improve them. Off the field we have invested massively in sports science, better gym and behind the scenes staff and this has paid off as our injury list has been better than it has been in years.

In some ways this season is a free hit as we are under the embargo but I think it's a pretty good effort by all at the club. I know many fans will be hacked off if we don't even get into the play-offs but I'm enjoying the season whatever happens.