valefan16
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- Port Vale
A battle of two in form teams... Mansfield have started to find form after a steady start whilst the Valiants have been completely revitalized under the dream team of legends Neil Aspin and John Rudge.
Vale head into this in remarkable form considering we had won our first game then went 13 without a win... since then Vale have won six and drew one of our last 8 games to push ourselves towards safety.
What has been impressive is that we've found differing ways to win, destroying Morecambe, Oxford and Cheltenham, an efficient victory at Exeter and a patient grind out against a negative Barnet side.
No co-incident our upturn has coincided Tom Pope rolling back the years to his form of 2012/13 in recent weeks with 8 goals in 9.
I said prior to Newport i'd take 5 points from Newport/Barnet/Mansfield and we are on 4 so I guess a point wouldn't be a bad result, Mansfield have spent big and will be a very tough game, don't know a great deal about them, Paul Anderson is from the same town as me so kept an eye on his career but Vale and Mansfield havent really crossed paths bar a paint pot game last season... was at our last league meeting though when Keith Curle deflected a John Durnin strike into the net!
If Mansfield are solid at the back in the air then we might struggle, without Whitfield still we've been very direct so if they handle us there against Pope they will likely prevail... if they struggle aerially at the back then we will fancy it... could be the key area that.
Think we will be good for a point here though 1-1.
Vale head into this in remarkable form considering we had won our first game then went 13 without a win... since then Vale have won six and drew one of our last 8 games to push ourselves towards safety.
What has been impressive is that we've found differing ways to win, destroying Morecambe, Oxford and Cheltenham, an efficient victory at Exeter and a patient grind out against a negative Barnet side.
No co-incident our upturn has coincided Tom Pope rolling back the years to his form of 2012/13 in recent weeks with 8 goals in 9.
I said prior to Newport i'd take 5 points from Newport/Barnet/Mansfield and we are on 4 so I guess a point wouldn't be a bad result, Mansfield have spent big and will be a very tough game, don't know a great deal about them, Paul Anderson is from the same town as me so kept an eye on his career but Vale and Mansfield havent really crossed paths bar a paint pot game last season... was at our last league meeting though when Keith Curle deflected a John Durnin strike into the net!
If Mansfield are solid at the back in the air then we might struggle, without Whitfield still we've been very direct so if they handle us there against Pope they will likely prevail... if they struggle aerially at the back then we will fancy it... could be the key area that.
Think we will be good for a point here though 1-1.