Tuesday 21 Feb/ Sat 25 Feb

[valefan16]

It’s inexcusable to concede like that at the near post. I don’t think there’s a team in this league with a worse keeper situation than us. The better of the two is on loan from another mid table team in this league and he has his issues. All the evidence was there last season with Stone, countless times in the run-in he nearly cost us and that’s not to mention at Wembley where he got lucky twice.

With Morecambe they certainly started that way but once Stockton went off they were more of a threat, Gnauha (sp?) was good as was Mayor. That in itself is food for thought for any who might look at him this summer..

Stockton was dreadful, can’t believe they wanted 600k and we dodged a bullet there.

We’ve got to be better, when when they sat deep the last thirty they didn’t defend well, left huge gaps and still we’ve not done enough.

Take the inevitable slapping on Saturday now and focus on a huge game against MK in 11 days. Need Wilson back asap.

 

[leedsvaliant]

We had all the play.....again....for the umpteenth time this season. But until we can score 2 or 3 at one end and keep a clean sheet at the other, we'll continue to lose against dog shit teams.

It could be 6 on Saturday....

 

[valefan16]

We had all the play.....again....for the umpteenth time this season. But until we can score 2 or 3 at one end and keep a clean sheet at the other, we'll continue to lose against dog shit teams.

It could be 6 on Saturday....

Writing Saturday off, pre Xmas would fancy us to compete anywhere but at the moment we are so badly out of form, defensive injury crisis leaving us playing a kid who isn’t ready and still trying to get strikers fit enough to start.

Focus has to be on the MK game now.

 

[codaplenty]

A pretty dire game between 2 poor sides, still the sign of a good team is when you win playing bad. Neither side deserved to win but well done to Fleetwood for keep plugging away and getting another win and 3 points. Anymore of this we'll be threatening a play off place Ha Ha

 

[denzel ecfc]

Poorest team we've played this season, yer find ourselves 1 down. Jeezus.

Again?

 

[leedsvaliant]

Again?

When have I previously said 'the poorest team '? We've played other poor teams this season but Morecambe were particularly bad, which doesn't reflect very well on ourselves.

So frustrating this season. Honestly, there's half a dozen teams that have some clear quality and the rest are much of a muchness. We seem to have given up and wait for the summer.

 

[Andy Proctor]

When was the last time vale won a match on a Tuesday night that wasn't a Papa John's match? Clarke needs to stop chopping and changing and pick his best team. He seems to have this obsession that players can't play 2 games in a week and changes it around and leaves politic out the squad completely when at the moment he's the best goal threat we have. We are basically limping over the line. We were around 9th when we beat forest green on new years day and will probably stay up just by the skins of our teeth. No point even bothering with Bolton as that will be they can score as many as they want.

 

[valefan16]

When was the last time vale won a match on a Tuesday night that wasn't a Papa John's match? Clarke needs to stop chopping and changing and pick his best team. He seems to have this obsession that players can't play 2 games in a week and changes it around and leaves politic out the squad completely when at the moment he's the best goal threat we have. We are basically limping over the line. We were around 9th when we beat forest green on new years day and will probably stay up just by the skins of our teeth. No point even bothering with Bolton as that will be they can score as many as they want.

At home I know we haven't won a single one this season (often the pitch sapping us is blamed).

Away we haven't either! The only night match we've won is ironically Plymouth... we've been shit since that remarkable night!

Bolton game is a waste of time, wife said "guess you'll not want to do anything Saturday to keep an eye on it"

Taking the kids out.

Keep it down to 4 and I will be happy.

 

[BRFC_Gas]

We had all the play.....again....for the umpteenth time this season. But until we can score 2 or 3 at one end and keep a clean sheet at the other, we'll continue to lose against dog shit teams.

It could be 6 on Saturday....

Sounds like ourselves, usually have the majority of the possession but have problems scoring. The difference is that you still appear to be creating plenty of chances whereas we dont.
Not creating chances would be a bigger worry

 

[Dan Phillips]

When was the last time vale won a match on a Tuesday night that wasn't a Papa John's match? Clarke needs to stop chopping and changing and pick his best team. He seems to have this obsession that players can't play 2 games in a week and changes it around and leaves politic out the squad completely when at the moment he's the best goal threat we have. We are basically limping over the line. We were around 9th when we beat forest green on new years day and will probably stay up just by the skins of our teeth. No point even bothering with Bolton as that will be they can score as many as they want.

Salford last season?

 

[valefan16]

Salford last season?

Got to be hasn't it, wish I hadn't bothered with the 4 midweek home games the past few weeks! At least with iFollow I don't have the 130 mile round trip and going to work tired and miserable the next morning!

Only one Tuesday left, notably Ipswich away so not winning that one!

 

[leedsvaliant]

Sounds like ourselves, usually have the majority of the possession but have problems scoring. The difference is that you still appear to be creating plenty of chances whereas we dont.
Not creating chances would be a bigger worry

We do a lot of huffing and puffing in and around the box but we rarely take shots from outside the box. Yet every other team that comes to us are happy to take shots from outside the box...and invariably score. We've become too predictable, too easy to play against and rely on wingbacks who aren't really wingbacks.

The frustration is that we're not even that far away from the boys at the top. We've only lost narrowly in general and even beat a couple. We're around 3 to 4 quality players short but these are the ones that cost top dollar. We need to get rid of this wage cap thing we have. Pay the better players good money and they will come, trim the squad size down. We keep missing out on targets due to our inflexible approach.

 

[valefan16]

We do a lot of huffing and puffing in and around the box but we rarely take shots from outside the box. Yet every other team that comes to us are happy to take shots from outside the box...and invariably score. We've become too predictable, too easy to play against and rely on wingbacks who aren't really wingbacks.

The frustration is that we're not even that far away from the boys at the top. We've only lost narrowly in general and even beat a couple. We're around 3 to 4 quality players short but these are the ones that cost top dollar. We need to get rid of this wage cap thing we have. Pay the better players good money and they will come, trim the squad size down. We keep missing out on targets due to our inflexible approach.

Big issue is we have two poor goalkeepers as well, stats dont paint them very well. Stone has conceded over 50% of shots faced and so has Stevens!

Stone for example has faced 37 shots on target of which 21 ended up in the net. Awful stats.

We needed to address the keeper issue in January 2022 when Covolan booted McKirdy and was clearly no longer in our plans...

2 years later we still haven't sorted it! We'd be better off had we recalled Cov in January!

 

[denzel ecfc]

We do a lot of huffing and puffing in and around the box but we rarely take shots from outside the box. Yet every other team that comes to us are happy to take shots from outside the box...and invariably score. We've become too predictable, too easy to play against and rely on wingbacks who aren't really wingbacks.

The frustration is that we're not even that far away from the boys at the top. We've only lost narrowly in general and even beat a couple. We're around 3 to 4 quality players short but these are the ones that cost top dollar. We need to get rid of this wage cap thing we have. Pay the better players good money and they will come, trim the squad size down. We keep missing out on targets due to our inflexible approach.

I must have missed the bit where we had lots of shots and scored on Saturday!

 

[BarrieOwl]

We do a lot of huffing and puffing in and around the box but we rarely take shots from outside the box. Yet every other team that comes to us are happy to take shots from outside the box...and invariably score. We've become too predictable, too easy to play against and rely on wingbacks who aren't really wingbacks.

The frustration is that we're not even that far away from the boys at the top. We've only lost narrowly in general and even beat a couple. We're around 3 to 4 quality players short but these are the ones that cost top dollar. We need to get rid of this wage cap thing we have. Pay the better players good money and they will come, trim the squad size down. We keep missing out on targets due to our inflexible approach.

So around a third of your starting XI

 

[valefan16]

I must have missed the bit where we had lots of shots and scored on Saturday!

Thats why we won for a change! You didnt have a pop as it would probably have flew in past our keepers!

 

[HutchECFC]

We needed to address the keeper issue in January 2022 when Covolan booted McKirdy and was clearly no longer in our plans...

Surely this should have been enough reasoning to give him a new contract?

 

[masi51]

We had all the play.....again....for the umpteenth time this season. But until we can score 2 or 3 at one end and keep a clean sheet at the other, we'll continue to lose against dog shit teams.

It could be 6 on Saturday....

cannot see you getting that many!!


I am sure if you get at Santos you will get a hatful because you keep saying he is no good

 

[leedsvaliant]

So around a third of your starting XI

Yep. Need around 3 to 4 replacements of superior quality but I'm unsure whether we have the financial clout.

 

[leedsvaliant]

cannot see you getting that many!!


I am sure if you get at Santos you will get a hatful because you keep saying he is no good

Unfortunately we're not in a good place at the minute . If we were I'd be telling our players to run at him because he has consistently shown against us that he's a liability. Unfortunately, we won't expose this on Saturday.

 

[stevowanderer]

Unfortunately we're not in a good place at the minute . If we were I'd be telling our players to run at him because he has consistently shown against us that he's a liability. Unfortunately, we won't expose this on Saturday.

You’ve never been in a good place to be fair… you are based in Burslem.

 

[valefan16]

Unfortunately we're not in a good place at the minute . If we were I'd be telling our players to run at him because he has consistently shown against us that he's a liability. Unfortunately, we won't expose this on Saturday.

Even if we do we will probably miss the chances!

As I said write Saturday off then we’ve only 2 of the top 9 left to play and most of the bottom half. Get the 6-8 points needed and that will have been a solid enough season and have a rebuild in the summer.

I’m knackered with the stress of it now, last seasons late finish and this early start mean it’s been constant for 18 months now pretty much so looking forward to three months off from it all! Ideally if we can beat MK and Fleetwood I can maybe even have 4-5 months without the stress of it all!

 

[Laker]

You’ve never been in a good place to be fair… you are based in Burslem.

23 days a season they go somewhere better, must be like heaven!

 

[stevowanderer]

Even if we do we will probably miss the chances!

As I said write Saturday off then we’ve only 2 of the top 9 left to play and most of the bottom half. Get the 6-8 points needed and that will have been a solid enough season and have a rebuild in the summer.

I’m knackered with the stress of it now, last seasons late finish and this early start mean it’s been constant for 18 months now pretty much so looking forward to three months off from it all! Ideally if we can beat MK and Fleetwood I can maybe even have 4-5 months without the stress of it all!

To be fair having only come up last season after finishing 5th in the league below what were your expectations? You are 12th in the league. Maybe not on the best run at the moment but surely that’s as good as could have been expected. No way you were targeting playoffs this season surely? I don’t think you’ve had a bad season at all. A good foundation for you to build on for next season.

 

[Andy Proctor]

Neither stone or Stevens save shots like a good goalie should do. If Bolton have 6 or 7 shots on target on Saturday then there scoring 5 goals at least. I'm glad I'm not going Saturday as it will be the most embarrassing result ever I'm not joking when I'm saying it could be 8 nil.

 

[Dan Phillips]

Neither stone or Stevens save shots like a good goalie should do. If Bolton have 6 or 7 shots on target on Saturday then there scoring 5 goals at least. I'm glad I'm not going Saturday as it will be the most embarrassing result ever I'm not joking when I'm saying it could be 8 nil.

Don't be stupid mate ffs. Man City wouldn't beat us 8-0.

 

[Andy Proctor]

Don't be stupid mate ffs. Man City wouldn't beat us 8-0.

How do you know we won't lose 8 nil if they have enough shots on target they will as these keepers make no saves. It also only takes a red card or a penalty to help them along aswell for that to happen. As soon as we concede a goal like against Wycombe or Peterborough we just fell apart. The better sides in this division will embarrass us.

 

[leedsvaliant]

23 days a season they go somewhere better, must be like heaven!

Woah there lads! I live in the Staffordshire Moorlands don't you know. Some of the finest countryside in the UK on my doorstep. It's not all kilns and disused coal mines!

 

[leedsvaliant]

To be fair having only come up last season after finishing 5th in the league below what were your expectations? You are 12th in the league. Maybe not on the best run at the moment but surely that’s as good as could have been expected. No way you were targeting playoffs this season surely? I don’t think you’ve had a bad season at all. A good foundation for you to build on for next season.

I'm with you. Some of our fans got carried away when we were a couple of points outside the playoffs (including me for a little bit). I'm not exaggerating when I say that we haven't played really well this season in many games....possibly Plymouth away but even then we were hanging on a bit. I think there was a bit of hope because the quality of the division is much lower than many of us expected.

We just look like we've hit a bit of a wall with this squad. It needs a refresh now after 2 seasons of relative success to try and get to the next level.

 

[Laker]

Woah there lads! I live in the Staffordshire Moorlands don't you know. Some of the finest countryside in the UK on my doorstep. It's not all kilns and disused coal mines!

It’s all in jest haha. My wife went to Keele uni back in the day, lived in Newcastle. I enjoyed Stoke and it was so ludicrously cheap compared to here. It was great, nothing wrong with the Potteries at all.