Thoughts before Tuesday night’s game

Graves

Graves

Well-known member
Port Vale always seemed to me, in the last few seasons, to be a night and day team that pulls off unexpected results but never finds enough consistency to challenge for promotion. I’ve not been to this fixture since childhood, so I’m looking forward to it and hoping we can just go for it and send them home with nothing.

Last year they were inconsistent on the road and didn’t seem to draw too many.

They now come to us in good recent form, having beaten Fleetwood 3-2 in that ‘don’t have a cow’ cup thing and overcoming Reading 1-0 at home on Saturday. The opening day was an eye opener, shipping 7 goals away at Barnsley. Interestingly enough stato’s, that’s the only game of the three so far that they’ve had more possession and passes in.

If I’ve heard correctly, they’ve sold upwards of 1800 tickets, which is a good number for a Tuesday night fixture and a good 2 hour+ journey up north. I know you’ll all show our town off well and make them feel welcome outside the ground but not during the 90 minutes inside :)

It feels like every game is so important for us at the moment. Not least because I want the fans back on Critchley and the squads’ side. I really do believe that we, the fans, can make a positive difference and I’m proud of our noisy reputation at home. If Sadler is the brains, Critchley is definitely the busy legs, the players are the arms, and we are the heart.

Anyway, more about Vale.

Crosby’s men usually line up 3-4-2-1 with a busy working midfield and a couple of creative players to watch out for in Garrity (a familiar name to The Seasiders and with three goals so far this season) and Chislett. Also a previous ex nobber Ripley usually starts in between the sticks, so no doubt a few in the North may have some greetings for him once the floodlights are shining brightly!

My instinct tells me that we can pull off a result here, that is, if we play fearlessly and take our chances after a somewhat missed opportunity for a ‘smash and grab’, at Exeter.
I’ll be darned if I’m going to guess what changes (and with the busy schedule facing us, there will be changes) Neil Critchley will make. I’d like to see more of Casey, I don’t think Marv will or should be dropped. Norburn is a shoe in so far and I reckon Shayne and Bees will start up top again.

Wonder how Pennington is getting on?

Yes, we are perhaps lacking another couple of bodies with strong looking legs and football radar brains, but as it stands we are where we are and we do have some quality at this level.

I’m not going to think too much about Joseph, being young and having had a decent amount of football last season, I like to think he’ll sort out whatever mystery niggle is making our medical expert Colby Bishop faction of fans nervous. He’s probably one of a couple of our boys (Apter - keep working and your chance will come) that will help us out later. Hopefully it’s not another Fiorini style ‘oh, bother - he’s injured before we’ve even started properly and he’s actually quite good’ scenario. I think I’m more traumatised from our Platoon like scenes of hamstring torn soldiers more than our actual relegation last season if I’m honest. Please God let the injuries not hamper us this year.

Anyway, sorry I can’t tell you too much more about Port Vale other than the decent memories and historical info that our fellow Avftters have already shared. This is as much as I can muster without serious googling.

I quietly respect them, real club with good fans and I’m sure they will get a few good wins this season, but again I’m not sure they’ll make the top six. I think if we can remain calm, organised and improve with each game. We will.

So bring it on, dress warm- if the Gold Coast is being its usual self on an August evening and please God, let’s continue our nice little clean sheet run whilst entertaining and getting on the scoresheet!

How are you all feeling? Confident? Worrying that our midweek form is still a bit of a thing following us around like a bad hangover?

I am confident but I wouldn’t like to place a bet on this. Tough league. Lots of games.

Unite. Believe.

UTMP
Yours faithfully, Graves, writing to you from a train in Moscow. ✌️ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🧡
 
Last edited:
Graves said:
Port Vale always seemed to me, in the last few seasons, to be a night and day team that pulls off unexpected results but never finds enough consistency to challenge for promotion. I’ve not been to this fixture since childhood, so I’m looking forward to it and hoping we can just go for it and send them home with nothing.

Last year they were inconsistent on the road and didn’t seem to draw too many.

They now come to us in good recent form, having beaten Fleetwood 3-2 in that ‘don’t have a cow’ cup thing and overcoming Reading 1-0 at home on Saturday. The opening day was an eye opener, shipping 7 goals away at Barnsley. Interestingly enough stato’s, that’s the only game of the three so far that they’ve had more possession and passes in.

If I’ve heard correctly, they’ve sold upwards of 1800 tickets, which is a good number for a Tuesday night fixture and a good 2 hour+ journey up north. I know you’ll all show our town off well and make them feel welcome outside the ground but not during the 90 minutes inside :)

It feels like every game is so important for us at the moment. Not least because I want the fans back on Critchley and the squads’ side. I really do believe that we, the fans, can make a positive difference and I’m proud of our noisy reputation at home. If Sadler is the brains, Critchley is definitely the busy legs, the players are the arms, and we are the heart.

Anyway, more about Vale.

Crosby’s men usually line up 3-4-2-1 with a busy working midfield and a couple of creative players to watch out for in Garrity (a familiar name to The Seasiders and with three goals so far this season) and Chislett. Also a previous ex nobber Ripley usually starts in between the sticks, so no doubt a few in the North may have some greetings for him once the floodlights are shining brightly!

My instinct tells me that we can pull off a result here, that is, if we play fearlessly and take our chances after a somewhat missed opportunity for a ‘smash and grab’, at Exeter.
I’ll be darned if I’m going to guess what changes (and with the busy schedule facing us, there will be changes) Neil Critchley will make. I’d like to see more of Casey, I don’t think Marv will or should be dropped. Norburn is a shoe in so far and I reckon Shayne and Bees will start up top again.

Wonder how Pennington is getting on?

Yes, we are perhaps lacking another couple of bodies with strong looking legs and football radar brains, but as it stands we are where we are and we do have some quality at this level.

I’m not going to think too much about Joseph, being young and having had a decent amount of football last season, I like to think he’ll sort out whatever mystery niggle is making our medical expert Colby Bishop faction of fans nervous. He’s probably one of a couple of our boys (Apter - keep working and your chance will come) that will help us out later. Hopefully it’s not another Fiorini style ‘oh, bother - he’s injured before we’ve even started properly and he’s actually quite good’ scenario. I think I’m more traumatised from our Platoon like scenes of hamstring torn soldiers more than our actual relegation last season if I’m honest. Please God let the injuries not hamper us this year.

Anyway, sorry I can’t tell you too much more about Port Vale other than the decent memories and historical info that our fellow Avftters have already shared. This is as much as I can muster without serious googling.

I quietly respect them, real club with good fans and I’m sure they will get a few good wins this season, but again I’m not sure they’ll make the top six. I think if we can remain calm, organised and improve with each game. We will.

So bring it on, dress warm- if the Gold Coast is being its usual self on an August evening and please God, let’s continue our nice little clean sheet run whilst entertaining and getting on the scoresheet!

How are you all feeling? Confident? Worrying that our midweek form is still a bit of a thing following us around like a bad hangover?

I am confident but I wouldn’t like to place a bet on this. Tough league. Lots of games.

Unite. Believe.

UTMP
Yours faithfully, Graves, writing to you from a train in Moscow. ✌️ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🧡
Click to expand...
It has the potential to be a banana skin.

Not sure what to expect from Port Vale tbh. I think if we are on it then we could very well tear them apart.

I’m hoping for 6 points from the next two but would settle for 4.
 
Pun_1 said:
It has the potential to be a banana skin.

Not sure what to expect from Port Vale tbh. I think if we are on it then we could very well tear them apart.

I’m hoping for 6 points from the next two but would settle for 4.
Click to expand...
Yes - this week is an opportunity, get 6 points and we make a serious statement. We are capable of it. I think the fans’ current high expectations is somehow feeding the team, so I hope they continue to prove their point.

But agree, tomorrow we’ve got to be on it. Seems like Vale either win comprehensively or get badly beaten…
 
personally i think we will edge this one. CURRENT form suggests we will. there have been 74 meetings between the two clubs. WE have wone 22 AT home while they have won 22 at Vale park. So it would tell me that we SHOULD have more than enough for all three points.
 
Graves said:
Port Vale always seemed to me, in the last few seasons, to be a night and day team that pulls off unexpected results but never finds enough consistency to challenge for promotion. I’ve not been to this fixture since childhood, so I’m looking forward to it and hoping we can just go for it and send them home with nothing.

Last year they were inconsistent on the road and didn’t seem to draw too many.

They now come to us in good recent form, having beaten Fleetwood 3-2 in that ‘don’t have a cow’ cup thing and overcoming Reading 1-0 at home on Saturday. The opening day was an eye opener, shipping 7 goals away at Barnsley. Interestingly enough stato’s, that’s the only game of the three so far that they’ve had more possession and passes in.

If I’ve heard correctly, they’ve sold upwards of 1800 tickets, which is a good number for a Tuesday night fixture and a good 2 hour+ journey up north. I know you’ll all show our town off well and make them feel welcome outside the ground but not during the 90 minutes inside :)

It feels like every game is so important for us at the moment. Not least because I want the fans back on Critchley and the squads’ side. I really do believe that we, the fans, can make a positive difference and I’m proud of our noisy reputation at home. If Sadler is the brains, Critchley is definitely the busy legs, the players are the arms, and we are the heart.

Anyway, more about Vale.

Crosby’s men usually line up 3-4-2-1 with a busy working midfield and a couple of creative players to watch out for in Garrity (a familiar name to The Seasiders and with three goals so far this season) and Chislett. Also a previous ex nobber Ripley usually starts in between the sticks, so no doubt a few in the North may have some greetings for him once the floodlights are shining brightly!

My instinct tells me that we can pull off a result here, that is, if we play fearlessly and take our chances after a somewhat missed opportunity for a ‘smash and grab’, at Exeter.
I’ll be darned if I’m going to guess what changes (and with the busy schedule facing us, there will be changes) Neil Critchley will make. I’d like to see more of Casey, I don’t think Marv will or should be dropped. Norburn is a shoe in so far and I reckon Shayne and Bees will start up top again.

Wonder how Pennington is getting on?

Yes, we are perhaps lacking another couple of bodies with strong looking legs and football radar brains, but as it stands we are where we are and we do have some quality at this level.

I’m not going to think too much about Joseph, being young and having had a decent amount of football last season, I like to think he’ll sort out whatever mystery niggle is making our medical expert Colby Bishop faction of fans nervous. He’s probably one of a couple of our boys (Apter - keep working and your chance will come) that will help us out later. Hopefully it’s not another Fiorini style ‘oh, bother - he’s injured before we’ve even started properly and he’s actually quite good’ scenario. I think I’m more traumatised from our Platoon like scenes of hamstring torn soldiers more than our actual relegation last season if I’m honest. Please God let the injuries not hamper us this year.

Anyway, sorry I can’t tell you too much more about Port Vale other than the decent memories and historical info that our fellow Avftters have already shared. This is as much as I can muster without serious googling.

I quietly respect them, real club with good fans and I’m sure they will get a few good wins this season, but again I’m not sure they’ll make the top six. I think if we can remain calm, organised and improve with each game. We will.

So bring it on, dress warm- if the Gold Coast is being its usual self on an August evening and please God, let’s continue our nice little clean sheet run whilst entertaining and getting on the scoresheet!

How are you all feeling? Confident? Worrying that our midweek form is still a bit of a thing following us around like a bad hangover?

I am confident but I wouldn’t like to place a bet on this. Tough league. Lots of games.

Unite. Believe.

UTMP
Yours faithfully, Graves, writing to you from a train in Moscow. ✌️ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🧡
Click to expand...
I take it the scenery is not up to much? Does everyone look like Putin?
 
Remember Neville Chamberlain scoring for them one of the best goals I've ever seen at Bloomfield road. Pretty impressive as he was wearing a Homburg and smoking a pipe at the time.

Also saw us win at their place 6-1 - a pretty even game though we scored with practically every shot we took.
 
It's only been 2 games but I suspect the pattern under Critchley last time in this league will hold. We will win a lot of games, but they'll be tight. Don't think we're gonna see many 4-0 thumping victories, I think we'll edge it but it will be very competitive and I wouldn't be surprised if it ended 1-1 but i'll go 2-1 pool.
 
Meliora said:
She's got a cousin,
In fact she's got bout a dozen,
And she's got one in the oven,
But it's nothing to do with me
Click to expand...
Bonus Oasis story - we beat Burton on my birthday. So, we went out and did Karaoke. I slaughtered Supersonic and finished the night off with Champagne Supernova. And yes, the cousin was there.
 
Graves said:
Port Vale always seemed to me, in the last few seasons, to be a night and day team that pulls off unexpected results but never finds enough consistency to challenge for promotion. I’ve not been to this fixture since childhood, so I’m looking forward to it and hoping we can just go for it and send them home with nothing.

Last year they were inconsistent on the road and didn’t seem to draw too many.

They now come to us in good recent form, having beaten Fleetwood 3-2 in that ‘don’t have a cow’ cup thing and overcoming Reading 1-0 at home on Saturday. The opening day was an eye opener, shipping 7 goals away at Barnsley. Interestingly enough stato’s, that’s the only game of the three so far that they’ve had more possession and passes in.

If I’ve heard correctly, they’ve sold upwards of 1800 tickets, which is a good number for a Tuesday night fixture and a good 2 hour+ journey up north. I know you’ll all show our town off well and make them feel welcome outside the ground but not during the 90 minutes inside :)

It feels like every game is so important for us at the moment. Not least because I want the fans back on Critchley and the squads’ side. I really do believe that we, the fans, can make a positive difference and I’m proud of our noisy reputation at home. If Sadler is the brains, Critchley is definitely the busy legs, the players are the arms, and we are the heart.

Anyway, more about Vale.

Crosby’s men usually line up 3-4-2-1 with a busy working midfield and a couple of creative players to watch out for in Garrity (a familiar name to The Seasiders and with three goals so far this season) and Chislett. Also a previous ex nobber Ripley usually starts in between the sticks, so no doubt a few in the North may have some greetings for him once the floodlights are shining brightly!

My instinct tells me that we can pull off a result here, that is, if we play fearlessly and take our chances after a somewhat missed opportunity for a ‘smash and grab’, at Exeter.
I’ll be darned if I’m going to guess what changes (and with the busy schedule facing us, there will be changes) Neil Critchley will make. I’d like to see more of Casey, I don’t think Marv will or should be dropped. Norburn is a shoe in so far and I reckon Shayne and Bees will start up top again.

Wonder how Pennington is getting on?

Yes, we are perhaps lacking another couple of bodies with strong looking legs and football radar brains, but as it stands we are where we are and we do have some quality at this level.

I’m not going to think too much about Joseph, being young and having had a decent amount of football last season, I like to think he’ll sort out whatever mystery niggle is making our medical expert Colby Bishop faction of fans nervous. He’s probably one of a couple of our boys (Apter - keep working and your chance will come) that will help us out later. Hopefully it’s not another Fiorini style ‘oh, bother - he’s injured before we’ve even started properly and he’s actually quite good’ scenario. I think I’m more traumatised from our Platoon like scenes of hamstring torn soldiers more than our actual relegation last season if I’m honest. Please God let the injuries not hamper us this year.

Anyway, sorry I can’t tell you too much more about Port Vale other than the decent memories and historical info that our fellow Avftters have already shared. This is as much as I can muster without serious googling.

I quietly respect them, real club with good fans and I’m sure they will get a few good wins this season, but again I’m not sure they’ll make the top six. I think if we can remain calm, organised and improve with each game. We will.

So bring it on, dress warm- if the Gold Coast is being its usual self on an August evening and please God, let’s continue our nice little clean sheet run whilst entertaining and getting on the scoresheet!

How are you all feeling? Confident? Worrying that our midweek form is still a bit of a thing following us around like a bad hangover?

I am confident but I wouldn’t like to place a bet on this. Tough league. Lots of games.

Unite. Believe.

UTMP
Yours faithfully, Graves, writing to you from a train in Moscow. ✌️ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🧡
Click to expand...
Great post and even longer than my camping one

Bravo
 
bollieboy said:
Remember Neville Chamberlain scoring for them one of the best goals I've ever seen at Bloomfield road. Pretty impressive as he was wearing a Homburg and smoking a pipe at the time.

Also saw us win at their place 6-1 - a pretty even game though we scored with practically every shot we took.
Click to expand...
...with a piece of paper in his hand
 
NAPMer said:
Bearing in mind our lack of strikers, do you try something different and leave Bees for the last 20 mins?
Click to expand...
It’s a good point but I’m still not sure whether we’ve tried to make Bees the Madine replacement in that he wins the ball in the air, flicks on for Lavery to run onto.

There’s even been talk of Sonny being used as false 9 but I’m not sure about that. He can finish though.
 
Graves said:
Port Vale always seemed to me, in the last few seasons, to be a night and day team that pulls off unexpected results but never finds enough consistency to challenge for promotion. I’ve not been to this fixture since childhood, so I’m looking forward to it and hoping we can just go for it and send them home with nothing.

Last year they were inconsistent on the road and didn’t seem to draw too many.

They now come to us in good recent form, having beaten Fleetwood 3-2 in that ‘don’t have a cow’ cup thing and overcoming Reading 1-0 at home on Saturday. The opening day was an eye opener, shipping 7 goals away at Barnsley. Interestingly enough stato’s, that’s the only game of the three so far that they’ve had more possession and passes in.

If I’ve heard correctly, they’ve sold upwards of 1800 tickets, which is a good number for a Tuesday night fixture and a good 2 hour+ journey up north. I know you’ll all show our town off well and make them feel welcome outside the ground but not during the 90 minutes inside :)

It feels like every game is so important for us at the moment. Not least because I want the fans back on Critchley and the squads’ side. I really do believe that we, the fans, can make a positive difference and I’m proud of our noisy reputation at home. If Sadler is the brains, Critchley is definitely the busy legs, the players are the arms, and we are the heart.

Anyway, more about Vale.

Crosby’s men usually line up 3-4-2-1 with a busy working midfield and a couple of creative players to watch out for in Garrity (a familiar name to The Seasiders and with three goals so far this season) and Chislett. Also a previous ex nobber Ripley usually starts in between the sticks, so no doubt a few in the North may have some greetings for him once the floodlights are shining brightly!

My instinct tells me that we can pull off a result here, that is, if we play fearlessly and take our chances after a somewhat missed opportunity for a ‘smash and grab’, at Exeter.
I’ll be darned if I’m going to guess what changes (and with the busy schedule facing us, there will be changes) Neil Critchley will make. I’d like to see more of Casey, I don’t think Marv will or should be dropped. Norburn is a shoe in so far and I reckon Shayne and Bees will start up top again.

Wonder how Pennington is getting on?

Yes, we are perhaps lacking another couple of bodies with strong looking legs and football radar brains, but as it stands we are where we are and we do have some quality at this level.

I’m not going to think too much about Joseph, being young and having had a decent amount of football last season, I like to think he’ll sort out whatever mystery niggle is making our medical expert Colby Bishop faction of fans nervous. He’s probably one of a couple of our boys (Apter - keep working and your chance will come) that will help us out later. Hopefully it’s not another Fiorini style ‘oh, bother - he’s injured before we’ve even started properly and he’s actually quite good’ scenario. I think I’m more traumatised from our Platoon like scenes of hamstring torn soldiers more than our actual relegation last season if I’m honest. Please God let the injuries not hamper us this year.

Anyway, sorry I can’t tell you too much more about Port Vale other than the decent memories and historical info that our fellow Avftters have already shared. This is as much as I can muster without serious googling.

I quietly respect them, real club with good fans and I’m sure they will get a few good wins this season, but again I’m not sure they’ll make the top six. I think if we can remain calm, organised and improve with each game. We will.

So bring it on, dress warm- if the Gold Coast is being its usual self on an August evening and please God, let’s continue our nice little clean sheet run whilst entertaining and getting on the scoresheet!

How are you all feeling? Confident? Worrying that our midweek form is still a bit of a thing following us around like a bad hangover?

I am confident but I wouldn’t like to place a bet on this. Tough league. Lots of games.

Unite. Believe.

UTMP
Yours faithfully, Graves, writing to you from a train in Moscow. ✌️ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🧡
Click to expand...

Spot on that.

I almost want us to embrace a slightly chaotic game. I feel like if we worry too much about conceding, we'll miss out on the chance to score...

I also know exactly what you mean about Critch. The 'feelgood' is back a bit but it's a fragile state.

You can absolutely imagine us going out and trying to play measured controlled football and losing 2-0 and Critch saying 'well, we had good shape out of possession" or something very Critch and I absolutely don't want to live through the resulting meltdown.

I'd far rather we get at them and really go for it, because I think a) that's always the way to the fanbase's heart and b) I actually think we're very capable of running in a good number of goals. We've looked very fluent in spells and in preseason. There's a movement and purpose at times that looks great.

We know we can do the gritty thing, but not all games are won like that and I've a feeling this one won't be.

That said, it will now inevitably be a horrible scrappy game and we win 1-0 with a lucky deflection. 🤣
 
i am going five pawns up top. a two bishop midfield queen in a false no 9 . rooks forming a solid defence with two knights at the back. KING in between the sticks.. three pawns on the bech. its the CRITCHOVIC reverse double gambit with a curry and chips. see you all at BLOOMERS tonight . #lads and dads / .
 
Owen Dale would definitely be a pawn on a chess set, but occasionally he'd reach the other side and become a much more gifted piece.
 
td53 said:
Owen Dale would definitely be a pawn on a chess set, but occasionally he'd reach the other side and become a much more gifted piece.
Click to expand...
YES promotion to Queen or any other piece . but normally queen. playing a guy last night who had two queens on the board. drives me mad but the greatest game .
 
Graves said:
It’s a good point but I’m still not sure whether we’ve tried to make Bees the Madine replacement in that he wins the ball in the air, flicks on for Lavery to run onto.

There’s even been talk of Sonny being used as false 9 but I’m not sure about that. He can finish though.
Click to expand...
I quite like the Sonny false 9 idea providing you support him with midfielders from deep that will run beyond. Possibly that's the thinking with Weir.

If he's just a deep lying striker with Lavs you might as well play a striker.
 
td53 said:
I'm crap at it. My lad is good. He needs to play more and I'm too crap for him now.
Click to expand...
chess.com is a good place . play at your own level . loads of puzzles lessons . after each game the engine analizes your mistakes . my son and myself are both on it. he would probably beat me.
 
td53 said:
Spot on that.

I almost want us to embrace a slightly chaotic game. I feel like if we worry too much about conceding, we'll miss out on the chance to score...

I also know exactly what you mean about Critch. The 'feelgood' is back a bit but it's a fragile state.

You can absolutely imagine us going out and trying to play measured controlled football and losing 2-0 and Critch saying 'well, we had good shape out of possession" or something very Critch and I absolutely don't want to live through the resulting meltdown.

I'd far rather we get at them and really go for it, because I think a) that's always the way to the fanbase's heart and b) I actually think we're very capable of running in a good number of goals. We've looked very fluent in spells and in preseason. There's a movement and purpose at times that looks great.

We know we can do the gritty thing, but not all games are won like that and I've a feeling this one won't be.

That said, it will now inevitably be a horrible scrappy game and we win 1-0 with a lucky deflection. 🤣
Click to expand...
Decent points, TD.

I’ll take the scrappy or the chaotic. A win is a win and it’ll keep me on my happy clappy cloud with the other optimistic maniacs 🥹
 
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