‘THERE CAN BE NO EXCUSES, WE HAVE TO DEFEND FAR BETTER...’

PORT Vale fans have their say on the 4-3 defeat at Sutton United...

Daniel Berrisford: Bad day at the office, we go again next week. First 30 minutes we were brilliant. After that I don’t know if we got complacent or their deflected goal affected us. Two poor reffing decisions led to goals but no excuses, we still have to defend it better.

Louis Royall: Two deflected goals and dreadful defending cost us, need to be more switched on especially when we were 2-0 up away from home. Move on to next week but a lot of lessons to be learned.

Dave Mannion: If you can’t stop the ball into the box we are fighting a losing battle. They weren’t great and nor were we after scoring our second. At 3-2, the door should have been firmly closed but we were still miles off it. Hopefully, another lesson to learn, we are still up there to be shot at. The season will be shaped by teams putting together little runs here and there, we just have to start again now, I’d expect a few changes next week now.

Wayne Windsor: One or two terrible refereeing decisions didn’t help. Taking Proctor off was not a good decision, unless he picked up a knock.

We have to stop the crosses, we don’t work hard enough and, when we have a keeper who doesn’t like to dominate his area with purpose, it’s not a good recipe. Very disappointed.

Craig Royall: Let’s be honest here, it wasn’t an incredible game, it was dreadful defending in a game that we should have been able to see out at 3-2.

They played the same tactics throughout and we weren’t smart enough to suss that out. Effectively we were good first half and they were poor. In the second half we were dreadful and they were average. Simple as. On to the next one.

Richard Jones: All went wrong when we brought Wilson and Proctor off. The manager of the month strikes again. Although think a draw would have been a fair result.

Stephen Cooper: Can’t defend crosses. Really poor at the back. The midfield was left on the coach I think, but Clarke cost us the game when he took Proctor off. Our best player going forward. Held the ball up and added height to defend set-pieces. Clarke cost Vale that game by trying to please players.

Rob Rhead: A case of the biter bit? After winning two games in added time this week, it was our turn to taste bitter disappointment. The Vale played really well for the first quarter of the match, but are beginning to look incapable of defending early leads.

Both goals were well created and taken while Sutton got back into the game with a deflected shot that Covolan was unable to keep out. There was also a measure of bad luck for the equaliser when the referee gave Sutton a throw in despite the ball being played against a home player. Even so, the throw-in was poorly defended. The Vale looked as if they were heading for victory with a well-struck shot but the defence went to pieces following the introduction of Johnson, not entirely his fault, but we don’t seem to defend well with him on the pitch.

The referee, however, had the final say giving a foul against George Lloyd when everyone else thought he was the injured party, including the Sutton players who formed up to defend a free-kick until the referee indicated in their favour. Again, Covolan should have done better and claimed the ball but didn’t and the Vale lost a game they should have won.