Tuesday 24th Nov Fixtures

[SVH]

Since we realised that we can score a lot of goals from that way of playing.

I think we're playing a game of needs must at the moment. The number of games is catching up with the players now, so fancy football is not necessarily going to be the order of the day.

Are you expecting the towels and long throws to disappear when you’re not so tired? Thought you were a team who played good football so a real shame to see that tonight.

 

[BarraMatt]

Changing manager isn't gonna solve anything now - who is going to come in and do better?

I mean, two poor performances in the past month and people are saying "get that c*** out of my club" etc. It's the default position of the entitled football fan nowadays.

Would I have picked Dunn? Almost certainly not, but I also can't see who else would have us playing better. We're bloody Barrow - we should be bottom of this league, yet we've held our own in just about every game.

All I'm saying is that if we're going to sack a manager for that, then we're never going to succeed - most of those fans would have had Evatt out after 10 games last season and the season before.

The comments you mention certainly don't help. To play devil's advocate, I feel the difference will have been recruitment, from what you have seen so far has anyone he has brought in been a major improvement on what we already had?

Many folk were saying that at our peak last season we wouldn't have looked out of place in League 2. These are the same players that Evatt had.

And before anyone says it, I am grateful to be debating our performances in League 2, rather than mulling over a mundane one-all draw with Boreham Wood on a freezing Tuesday night.

 

[Son of Cod]

Decent game tonight, I thought. Played at a breakneck pace for long periods, especially at the start when we struggled to get hold of the ball. Massive improvement all over from Saturday though, the heads didn't drop and everyone was busting a gut throughout. Scanell and Wright were getting all the compliments from our commentary team and deservedly so but Danny Rose putting a foot on the ball calming things down and Waterfall getting his head on absolutely everything arguably won us that as much as Wright's goal.

 

[Si Robin]

Are you expecting the towels and long throws to disappear when you’re not so tired? Thought you were a team who played good football so a real shame to see that tonight.

The long throw and towels were used most of last season - it's a tool in the locker and we've worked out this season how to properly use it to our advantage.

The hoofing is a new thing though, and that would go if we weren't playing Sat-Tues-Sat every week.

 

[Monkey Tennis]

The comments you mention certainly don't help. To play devil's advocate, I feel the difference will have been recruitment, from what you have seen so far has anyone he has brought in been a major improvement on what we already had?

Many folk were saying that at our peak last season we wouldn't have looked out of place in League 2. These are the same players that Evatt had.

And before anyone says it, I am grateful to be debating our performances in League 2, rather than mulling over a mundane one-all draw with Boreham Wood on a freezing Tuesday night.

You're right, recruitment hasn't been great, but he signed Platt and James Jones who are very good defenders, and Luke James (although I don't know if he was a club signing rather than Dunn's) has been arguably our best player.

I think you've hit on a point - people were 'saying' last season's team was good enough for L2, but who could honestly know? People don't think there's been much of a step up in quality of opposition, but there clearly is a huge difference. The biggest problem has been that some people expect us to keep tearing it up this season without really knowing what is required to do well at this level. The chairman included.

 

[dedwardp]

Any Col U fans care to comment on what the fuck happened there?

I only listened to it on the radio but it sounded appalling, coupled with Exeter being the best side we've come across this season by all accounts. Just one of those nights I guess where it falls apart entirely, happens to us all from time to time.

It sounded as though we should have been three or four down at half-time. Having said that, it was only 1-0 so to make all three subs at the break is perhaps premature when tightening up and trying to nick an equaliser may have been more prudent. One of those subs was to take off the right back for a forward, only to then bring on a youth right back ten minutes later after the second goal went in - to me that sounds like we were all over the place in terms of shape etc and Steve Ball not really knowing what to do.

Fortunately the battery in my radio died at 4-0 so I didn't bother with the rest. Shameful result though at any level.

 

[County1]

Walsall the best side to have visited RP this season. Played a very high press and loads of energy. A point the least they deserved.

 

[ShrimpsMeltdown]

Serious question...why did you release Tutte...And have you someone as good as him in midfield??

He was terrible for us, up there with one of our worst signings. He was either injured or throwing his toys out of the pram all the time, he was really toxic and you could tell that he didn't want to play for us. Glad we binned him off, we're much better without him. Still can't believe you signed him if i'm honest.

 

[denzel ecfc]

I only listened to it on the radio but it sounded appalling, coupled with Exeter being the best side we've come across this season by all accounts. Just one of those nights I guess where it falls apart entirely, happens to us all from time to time.

It sounded as though we should have been three or four down at half-time. Having said that, it was only 1-0 so to make all three subs at the break is perhaps premature when tightening up and trying to nick an equaliser may have been more prudent. One of those subs was to take off the right back for a forward, only to then bring on a youth right back ten minutes later after the second goal went in - to me that sounds like we were all over the place in terms of shape etc and Steve Ball not really knowing what to do.

Fortunately the battery in my radio died at 4-0 so I didn't bother with the rest. Shameful result though at any level.

A fair summation. I couldn't understand making three subs at half time, just looked like panicking. Thought Senior looked good at times but faded in the second half.
It's a funny old game, I thought we would beat Oldham easily and struggle against you, but the opposite happened

 

[E10rifle]

Excruciating game in E10. Two poor sides separated by the one bit of quality in the entire game. Enjoying our gloriously false position in the table, but I’m sure we’ll revert to the mean in the coming weeks. Luckily this division is so bad that we’ll deservedly cruise along in around 14th without breaking a sweat.

Bratfurt are defensively solid but couldn’t score in a brothel; no ability at the top end of the pitch whatsoever. Had a small chuckle at your official Twatter feed, which appeared to imply that you were all over us for most of the game. Comical Ali stuff. If it’s any consolation, Harrogate were even more pathetic last week, so you might yet end up as the best 4th division side in Yorkshire.

 

[The Alex]

Fucks sake Vale. Ref didn’t help us there, and tbf Stevenage are a very good side. But come on ref, some of those decisions against the Vale? EFL have got it in for us. Doesn’t help that we sold Smith to Birmingham in the summer.

Tough to take, we’ve gone from scoring a goal at Man City away in a 4-1 defeat, having Robbie Williams announcing a pop concert at the Wembley of the North (technically midlands), and Carol waving at our buses, to 5 defeats in the bottom tier in a row, including a pub team. Where’s the money gone? Only 1 ex Crewe player this transfer window? What planet am I living on? Sort it out.

We should definitely sack Askey, the instability and appointment of an unwanted manager would do wonders for this aspirational club, look at our squad, it’s brilliant! You’d expect a squad of this standard to be doing better.

Want. Need. Expect.

Love you Carol x

 

[masi51]

You're right, recruitment hasn't been great, but he signed Platt and James Jones who are very good defenders, and Luke James (although I don't know if he was a club signing rather than Dunn's) has been arguably our best player.

I think you've hit on a point - people were 'saying' last season's team was good enough for L2, but who could honestly know? People don't think there's been much of a step up in quality of opposition, but there clearly is a huge difference. The biggest problem has been that some people expect us to keep tearing it up this season without really knowing what is required to do well at this level. The chairman included.

Can fans of Barrow not see they cannot attract quality players because the pot they can shop for players is limited and they are at the back off the line once everyone else have been shopping.

If there are 200 players who are willing to play in lge 1/2 Blackpool, Fleetwood proberbly get the pick of these players and Barrow come after another 15 clubs have signed players.

 

[E10rifle]

Can fans of Barrow not see they cannot attract quality players because the pot they can shop for players is limited and they are at the back off the line once everyone else have been shopping.

If there are 200 players who are willing to play in lge 1/2 Blackpool, Fleetwood proberbly get the pick of these players and Barrow come after another 15 clubs have signed players.

Oooh, ‘ark at who’s piping up after beating title challengers Scunny and Stevenage! Feeling confident enough to start punching downwards at a club that’s just come up from non-league, are we?

 

[masi51]

Oooh, ‘ark at who’s piping up after beating title challengers Scunny and Stevenage! Feeling confident enough to start punching downwards at a club that’s just come up from non-league, are we?

Not in the slightest. Lots of time for clubs like Barrow but the facts are they lost there manager who would have had a list of players ready to be recruited. They then lost there best player [Rooney] I think Barrow have done great ,nobody have hammered them,but they will always struggle to recruit because clubs very close to them offer better working conditions [training facilities] play in better stadia or simply offer more money.

 

[Chris FGR]

Don't know why Barrow fans thought there wasn't much of a step up tbh, they were warned.

They aren't a bad side though based on Saturday, they'll stay up imo but this time next year will have a almost completely different squad to the one they came up with.

 

[Kauto Star]

McCall out is louder than ever, I just can’t see how anyone could improve this squad given how bad it is.

A squad that McCall weakened even more with his shocking recruitment in the summer. Sorry mate, legend or not, he truly is a poor manager. The only sniff of success as a manager in England was when he took a team he inherited from Parkinson, to the playoff final, he even blew that by showing the Millwall team far too much respect.

Did you listen to his post match interview last night, he sounded desperate and gave me no confidence whatsoever that he knows what to do to prevent us sleepwalking to non league oblivion

Time for change. Be interesting to see who the new CEO is going to be and what he thinks

 

[Boz]

I haven’t seen enough of Barrow to assess their strength, but the majority of the Rovers side who regained our FL status then got us into and won the L2 play-offs. I’m not convinced the gulf between NL and L2 is that vast.

Vital win against Carlisle last night. A nervy last 15 minutes aside, Rovers fairly comfortable and a quality finish from Blackett-Taylor earned us the points. Was expecting a bit more from the Cumbrians, maybe the way they set out to stifle our recent tactics, which worked well in the first half, took the edge of their normal game? Carlisle seemed a decent enough team though and some of the criticism on their forum seemed OTT

 

[Monkey Tennis]

I haven’t seen enough of Barrow to assess their strength, but the majority of the Rovers side who regained our FL status then got us into and won the L2 play-offs. I’m not convinced the gulf between NL and L2 is that vast.

Vital win against Carlisle last night. A nervy last 15 minutes aside, Rovers fairly comfortable and a quality finish from Blackett-Taylor earned us the points. Was expecting a bit more from the Cumbrians, maybe the way they set out to stifle our recent tactics, which worked well in the first half, took the edge of their normal game? Carlisle seemed a decent enough team though and some of the criticism on their forum seemed OTT

The difference is, you had momentum - we lost our manager and didn't play for six months. The difference in quality between NL and L2 is obvious to me, but to our other fans less so. They think we've somehow become a lot worse rather than the opposition have got better. The main difference that's we've struggled with is that in NL, a mistake at the back is usually seized on by some donkey forward who spoons a one-on-one over the bar - at this level, nine times out of 10 it's in the back of the net.

 

[The Terminator]

Don't know why Barrow fans thought there wasn't much of a step up tbh, they were warned.

They aren't a bad side though based on Saturday, they'll stay up imo but this time next year will have a almost completely different squad to the one they came up with.

I've always thought the same thing, but last night 7 of our starting XI was playing in the National League the season we went up, (5 played for us, 2 with other clubs) and we're now up to 8th - Which is one of the reasons we're punching above our weight. But a few of our players have slowly improved in the last 12 months, particularly once the managerial situation settled.

 

[Son of Cod]

The difference is, you had momentum - we lost our manager and didn't play for six months. The difference in quality between NL and L2 is obvious to me, but to our other fans less so. They think we've somehow become a lot worse rather than the opposition have got better. The main difference that's we've struggled with is that in NL, a mistake at the back is usually seized on by some donkey forward who spoons a one-on-one over the bar - at this level, nine times out of 10 it's in the back of the net.

Nine tens out of ten is stretch...that's more like a slip at the back in the Premier League. Those chances still get missed at the back down here quite a lot, in my opinion. Your situation is a bit like ours in that we got promoted and the bubble had burst within a few months and we were almost immediately back into League 2 lower midtable/relegation dogfight territory.

 

[dedwardp]

A fair summation. I couldn't understand making three subs at half time, just looked like panicking. Thought Senior looked good at times but faded in the second half.
It's a funny old game, I thought we would beat Oldham easily and struggle against you, but the opposite happened

Yep. If we had been 3-0 or 4-0 down as we probably deserved to be then perhaps it's justified to throw them all on but we all know that half-time can be a big reset in itself. Far too often we've been Jekyll and Hyde either side of the break, so when it's still only the one goal, however fortunate, at least give the break a chance to help change the momentum and start afresh.

To throw on three forwards at half-time though, away from home at one the division's better sides, whilst it is still only 1-0 is incredibly gung ho and ultimately proved to be pretty naive. The second goal shortly after half-time effectively killed the game off and it comes because of a huge, gaping hole down our right-hand side... having taken the right back off for a forward at half-time.

 

[Shrimper92]

Our season will be decided by our next 5 games

Bolton, Stevenage, Scunthorpe, Grimsby and Mansfield.

All down there apart from Bolton because of recent form. Fail to get at least two wins and it's curtains.

 

[Monkey Tennis]

Nine tens out of ten is stretch...that's more like a slip at the back in the Premier League. Those chances still get missed at the back down here quite a lot, in my opinion. Your situation is a bit like ours in that we got promoted and the bubble had burst within a few months and we were almost immediately back into League 2 lower midtable/relegation dogfight territory.

Well in our experience so far this season, a huge chunk of the goals we've conceded have been entirely of our own making.

The other big difference between us and the likes of Orient and Tranmere is that they got promoted with squads packed full of L2 quality players - ours was almost entirely the same team that finished mid-table in the NL the season before.

 

[Boz]

The difference is, you had momentum - we lost our manager and didn't play for six months. The difference in quality between NL and L2 is obvious to me, but to our other fans less so. They think we've somehow become a lot worse rather than the opposition have got better. The main difference that's we've struggled with is that in NL, a mistake at the back is usually seized on by some donkey forward who spoons a one-on-one over the bar - at this level, nine times out of 10 it's in the back of the net.

Would Evatt staying have made a big difference? Presume his identified targets to strengthen Barrow would be very different to those players who've arrived at Bolton for financial reasons?

Well in our experience so far this season, a huge chunk of the goals we've conceded have been entirely of our own making.

The other big difference between us and the likes of Orient and Tranmere is that they got promoted with squads packed full of L2 quality players - ours was almost entirely the same team that finished mid-table in the NL the season before.

Some merit in this viewpoint, though Norwood our stand out player from the L2 promotion season had minimal FL experience. However my view is that most sides coming up from the NL are capable of survival at L2 level. There's a much greater gulf between L2 and L1 as we found last season.

 

[Monkey Tennis]

Would Evatt staying have made a big difference? Presume his identified targets to strengthen Barrow would be very different to those players who've arrived at Bolton for financial reasons?

Some merit in this viewpoint, though Norwood our stand out player from the L2 promotion season had minimal FL experience. However my view is that most sides coming up from the NL are capable of survival at L2 level. There's a much greater gulf between L2 and L1 as we found last season.

Hard to say who was on Evatt's list - I think Platt and Luke James were identified by Evatt and have been our best players so far.

Thing is, we are currently well capable of survival - it's fans who expect us to be up at the top end that are the problem. I just can't really understand how two defeats in a month (a month that includes wins against Bradford and Mansfield, and draws with Cambridge, Bolton, Walsall and Forest Green) is worthy of giving the manager the boot.

 

[Conker]

That win against Mansfield was the easiest win you’ll get all season, even Southend will probably put up a better fight

We were by all accounts rubbish last night, I fortunately didn’t watch it. So our six game unbeaten run is over, and we still only have one win in the league, a lot of work for Clough.

 

[valefan16]

Doesn’t seem to be much support for Askey this morning. A lot of fans were backing him last week but last night was so bad and he sounded devoid of ideas. Worryingly the thought we played well second half! Until the goal out of nothing when we started battering on the door last ten minutes we did nothing!

 

[Conker]

Way to early to sack him off at Vale, gotta give him more time.

 

[The Terminator]

Way to early to sack him off at Vale, gotta give him more time.

I agree, still in midtable with playoffs in reach. Every team will have a big wobble this season due to the nature of it.

We lost 4 in a row in all comps and a week or so later with back to back wins we're looking healthier.

Don't see how changing a manager right now for a midtable side who had a good season last season will do much to change the overall fortunes of Port Vale right now.

 

[Son of Cod]

Vale fans are like us. A couple of wins and The Fishy proclaims we're going up (only 9 pts off the playoffs if we win those 4 games in hand!!) and a couple of defeats and we're going back down to the The Conference.