‘THE PLAYERS GAVE UP. VALE’S DISPLAY WAS SHAMEFUL...’
PORT Vale produced arguably their worst performance of the season as they were beaten 4-0 at Oxford United in front of close to 1,000 travelling supporters. Over to the Vale faithful for their say.
Craig Royall: Obvious early on that our wing-backs couldn’t cope with theirs, out muscled and outpaced at will.
Poor defending and keeping for their first and a dreadful official at fault for the second.
On a positive note, we did create plenty of chances too, just couldn’t put them away. Conlon played too deep but was our best defensive player so without him there it could have been worse. On to the next one Vale.
Karl Fletcher: Shocking! If your team hasn’t won at home in ages or is on a losing streak, play the Vale charity FC!
Tony Boulton: First half was spoiled by the appalling decisions from the officials.
We should have come back fired up but we seemed a beaten side even before the third and fourth goals. Have to put it down to the players, not the manager and his selections and subs. Midfield was over-run again. We had chances but failed to convert. Back to the training pitch.
Ian Brammer: A lovely November day in the sun, fantastic turnout from the Vale fans, all set up for a decent performance! Poorest of the season so far? I think so. Fourteen shots and only two on target and, at this level, you cannot be so wasteful. Long way to come for nothing, really disappointed. Hopefully we will get a response, seriously required!
Dave Mannion: Dire, the goals are flying in and we need to start to do the hard part and better! They were up for it and we weren’t, not quick enough and no quality at all on the ball.
I could go on all day and pick players/formations apart, but we need to do the horrible things and simple things well again and we can move on. Credit we kept going, but we could keep going until next Saturday and we’d still be getting beat! Another tricky one next weekend, fingers crossed the other Vale turn out!
Alex Stevenson: Poor that’s it, just poor. Poor in that we don’t have any consistency in selection week after week. How are you expected to get up to scratch if you’re in one week and out the next?
Poor in defending but see the previous comment for why. Didn’t look at times like they knew what they were doing, being asked. Not seen this since Exeter at the start of the season. Complete reset needed. Get bodies out the door in readiness for a much needed January influx.
Tim Barber: Poor scoreline but 4-0 flattered them. Their commentary team said the same. On the end of some poor reffing decisions but, ignoring them, poor defending and poor finishing did for us. Harrison should have had a hat trick. If you analyse the game, the difference was they put their chances away. If we weren’t creating chances, I’d worry, but we did today but never looked like putting them away and that was the difference.
Kerry Walshe: I wouldn’t even know where to start. We just were not in the starting blocks at all. Massey needs to do his job. Stone is not good enough for this league. Ref abysmal. Stewards awful and as rough as anything. Think the players should donate money to the next long away day.
Carl Ziemann: Shameful, absolutely disgusting performance from players who gave up and downed tools.
Can’t defend, wont defend, a midfield with no League One ability, can’t pass, can’t tackle, no work rate, just a complete shambles.
This result has been coming for a number of weeks, slow starts are the norm, lack of urgency, the roulette with team selection means we are disjointed most weeks and players don’t get any consistency to form relationships on field.
There are seven or eight players at least who are sinking and nowhere near League One capability.
When you are conceding two and three per game, and you need to be scoring three or four just to stand a chance of getting a point, it’s a recipe for trouble.
I’m hoping that DC has been giving players a chance to sink or swim in order to justify his annual January cull. Well DC, today should be the last we see of seven or eight of these in a Vale shirt, they have shown you they are not capable, shown the fans they have a soft underbelly and shown that if we are to progress then there is no room for sentiment from last season. Defence - for me there are question marks over them all with regards to League One. Midfield - Conlon, Pett definitely nowhere close to League One, Garrity probably a step too far. Loans, send Politic and Mipo back, neither are close to being good enough in League One. Time to get ruthless DC.
As for the players, they should refund every single fan in full that travelled today. A disgusting performance.