What the hell does Sammy and the lads have to do...

[Keith]

Ordinarily, it would be heart warming to hear that we played football today... if it wasn't for this post... viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1311&p=13862#p13862

Had an e-mail exchange with my Port Vale friend... In my last e-mail to him I'd said Saturday will be either a dire 0-0 or an absolutely crackin' game. His response gives some interesting insights to Port Vale at the moment...

Sounds like we’re in for a thriller on Saturday! All you have to do is play with some conviction and you’ll beat us. Apart from Bradford we get easily the biggest gates in the division and our young players just can’t cope with the expectation and go into their shells (mainly because the crowd get on their backs if it’s still 0-0 after 5 minutes) and you can visibly see the confidence drain away from them. We won our last 2 away matches playing 4-5-1 so our fool of a manager decided to play it at home last night and we were just toothless in attack.

If you play it long and get at our back four you will win – end of story. As long as you can take care of our big no. 9 Marc Richards then you be able to cope with our pretty lacklustre attack. We’ve also got a couple of decent wingers in Edwards and Dodds, but they’re lightweight and can be easily shrugged off the ball. Our only hope is play 4-4-2 and really get at you, but we’ll need an early goal. If you score first then you won’t lose and will probably go on to grab more goals. I am dreading it!

Our 6 home games this season

0-2 Accrington
3-1 Bournemouth
0-2 Bradford
1-4 Macclesfield
1-2 Notts County
1-3 Exeter

So, having hoofed it most of the season, will we choose this match to not go long Let's take it on board and get stuck in right from the off. Another early goal, but against a team that would crumble rather than come back? PLEASE don't go for the 'keep it tight' routine because a) we can't and b) they will grow in confidence if they are invited on to us.

He'd better not visit this site between now and Saturday!

Ho-hum I'm hoping that I may be able to dump my wife at Manchester Airport and still have time to get to Morecambe on Tuesday night. I hope this is the start of us playing good football and the injustice experienced today is what spurs us on to positive results... although reading that back, I'm not sure "spurs" and "positive results" fit well in the same sentence!

[valiant]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/7691457.stm

Talking of Spurs, Ramos has been sacked and Harry Redknapp is about to be appointed so it says. Should be a good choice for Spurs but Redknapp will be a loss to Portsmouth.

[Keith]

I'm hoping that I may be able to dump my wife at Manchester Airport...

What I of course meant was once I've shown her to the bar and bought her a large glass of wine...

Just checked the time of my arrival in Manchester and realised I don't have time bugger. I will be at Chester though, by which time we will be on a run, with a couple of league wins and an FA Cup 2nd round looming*...







*I've found my happy hat again this morning!

[HALMA 1983]

Local bragging rights are at stake and if nothing else I would like the win just for Oldhamade!

There's a first for everything Mark

I'm saving up at this moment in time (credit crunch and all ) so here's what i'd do

Should we BEAT Accy both HOME & AWAY this season I will give the club a donation of £50
Now let's do the business and prove the doubters wrong!

Anyone else want to come in with a pledge to this worthy cause of ending years of local misery?

[slackAlice]

It was a tremendous effort - 3 Morecambe players made the League 2 'Team of the day' in the NOTW - YATES[8] , BENTLEY[8] and STANLEY[9].

[baldrick]

The win will come soon and i think it will be tuesday then saturday and then we can all take a deep breath.

[John L]

We have never beaten Accrington over 90 minutes.

Sorry if I've missed your point, Mark, but we've beaten them twice over 90 mins, or do you mean in League 2? See http://www.soccerbase.com/head2.sd?team2id=42&team1id=1732

[yozzer]

The biter has been bit. I'm sure Mark will check his stats if John will get a life......It could have been a set-up of course.... for some idiot to respond like this....Doh!

[John L]

The biter has been bit. I'm sure Mark will check his stats if John will get a life......It could have been a set-up of course.... for some idiot to respond like this....Doh!

Hah-hah! I could've said something yesterday when he mentioned it, but decided I'd try and check my stats first!!!

[shrimper]

As I left the ground, I said to my wife and dad 'just watch, people who weren't there will just see this as yet another defeat and won't want to hear about how well we played'.

While that's not entirely what's happened on here I do think some posters making one or two comments would have a completely different perspective had they been there.

Basically Luke Rodgers was the difference between us winning and losing this game. Apart from him their threat was largely from distance shots. We created enough ourselves to have won a couple of games. Their keeper made some excellent saves and other efforts went very narrowly wide or were blocked by flailing legs.

In the end, apart from Rodgers who was excellent, we also lost because we wanted to win. I think we could have secured a 0-0 comfortably and, after equalising their opener, could have settled for a 1-1 without too much trouble.

That's not to say Port Vale were easy opponents, they worked really hard and had a few players who looked too good to be in a struggling side. They also had some good chances but, overall, I just think we largely had the measure of them on the day.

Their winner was one of those you'd like to see again - it looked as if Rodgers was about two yards offside when the ball was played and we were right in line. BUT - our players were advancing as he was breaking forward and, unless it's your job to make that call you can 'see what you want to see' and it's hard to judge for definite. The liner may have got it spot on but it was a very close call.

It was just so gutting - I've rarely felt so disappointed for our players after a game.

Sammy made a very brave call on the line-up and formation and the system seemed to work very well. They all played their hearts out right from the off - we took the game to the home side and, with them playing out of their skins as well, it was a very good, open game.

After recent weeks we started to look a decent side again and you could imagine that with just one or two more jigsaw pieces in place we could be back on course.

Players who people have already described as 'not good enough for league football' can take on a different appearance with certain different team-mates around them.

Some people may say 'aye but anyone can look decent against Port Vale at the moment' but I don't think that's fair. Port Vale aren't useless, though they are going through a sticky patch they've still got some very good players at this level. And our team have had other good displays (in between some poor ones) against the likes of Bury, Wycombe and Shrewsbury).

Still need one or two new lads but, if we get the right ones, there's enough there to suggest we'll be okay.

Anyway - I bought a Port Vale fanzine and it was advertising 'Rose Tinted Glasses for sale' - I bought a few pairs if anyone wants to borrow any anytime!!

[Martin]

When we equalised so quickly, I think we all felt it might just be our day and at the worst we'd go home with a well earned point. Vale supporters were walking to the exits and there was just one set of players out there in the ascendancy. It was a real blow to the stomach when their winner went in.

In truth, we still need a goal-scorer. Howe works hard and Taylor is a prospect, but is not quite ready for the increasing burden that a winless run inflicts.

But Sammy knows that and is actively trying to secure the loan deal.

Tuesday will be tough; Accrington always is. But if we work as hard as we did yesterday then we have a fighting chance of getting the win we all crave.

No that the rawness of the disappointment (and the alchohol ) has subsided, things do look more promising.

[Valefan]

We played superbly today and no Port Vale fan could of complained if we had come away with 3 points. There wasn't one player on the pitch who had a bad game and to lose it at the death was gutting The defense were much better today, restricting them to long shots for most of the game. At the end of the day, we were going for the winner and they caught us on the counter attack, we have to win our next two games.

No chance, A point would have been fair, yes, but 3?!?!

Had we been 2-0 at half time you couldn't have complained, and that would have been game over. We hit the inside of the post, the bar and missed a one on one that is a certain goal had Richards taken a further touch.

Yes it is guttint to lose in the last minute, especially when the other team gets a slice of luck, But still, had you won yesterday it would have been a bigger travisty than the actual result was in the end.