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Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Reports and reaction from the 2007-08 season as Walsall finished 12th in League 1
BathSaddler
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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 5:24 pm

Talk about phoenix from the flames :D . I hope you could all hear the cheer from here in Burnham-on-Sea.

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 5:41 pm

Doesn't sound like the best of performances so to come away with a point represents a decent day's work.

The thing that threatens any promotion push is the thinness of the squad and with some key suspensions and injuries the squad is about to be put to the test with the games continuing to come thick and fast well into the new year.

A top half finish would still represent a fantastic season for us, but if the likes of Roper, Taundry, Deeney, Nicholls, Mcdermott can aquit themselves really well over the next few weeks with Boertain and Dobbo returning then you never know.

Good point today - Oldham and Donny will provide a stiffer test, I'm sure DD will have the lads up for both of em.

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 5:56 pm

Generally quite a poor performance from defence to attack. We totally lost our way after Mooney went off injured and never really looked like scoring until Asbo and Nicholls came on.

Lost a bit of discipline with a few dodgy tackles but the ref didn't help matters.

No matter how badly we played I always felt that we'd get a point somehow. The team has tremendous spirit and desperately wanted to break this unbeaten away games record.

Well done to Ricketts for the equaliser after missing a decent chance a few minutes before.

Onwards and upwards, but suspensions and injuries will now come into play. The need for another striker and right sided midfielder is evident now Mooney is injured and I can't see Sonko playing for a while after that performance.

Well done the lads.

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 5:57 pm

Ends up as a good point, and helps to make up for the Leeds last-minute disappointment. Amazing too how Leeds have done it again today at Hartlepool.

Richard Money very positive on WM a few minutes ago, happy with the point and that we kept battling 'til the very end. He was also confident that the players we have can come in and do a good job in place of the suspended ones, and adamant that NONE of our players are going anywhere unless there are very big offers for them.

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:02 pm

As far as I'm concerned it's a good point today.

Just had a text from a mate who's a Vale fan, here's what he had to say:

"You're the dirtiest side I've seen all season and we battered ya, that's what happens when you're down there fighting"

True or not I don't know but he certainly isn't too pleased!

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:02 pm

Vale fans are upset:

unhappy Fail fan 1 wrote:Would also like to say this about Walsall. They are the most cynical, dirty bunch of thugs I have seen on a football field for a long time. Never mind down to 10 men they could and should have been down to 8 or 9 if the referee had done his job


unhappy Fail fan 2 wrote:I'd like to finish by saying Walsall are a horrible bunch of *******s and I was so ****ing wound up by the end. Another crap team who succeed with kicking, lumping the ball forward and having 2 huge strikers. Crap football, but effective in the division. Their fans are *****, players are *****, management are *****.


:shock:

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:30 pm

Registered Saddler wrote:Vale fans are upset:

unhappy Fail fan 1 wrote:Would also like to say this about Walsall. They are the most cynical, dirty bunch of thugs I have seen on a football field for a long time. Never mind down to 10 men they could and should have been down to 8 or 9 if the referee had done his job


unhappy Fail fan 2 wrote:I'd like to finish by saying Walsall are a horrible bunch of *******s and I was so ****ing wound up by the end. Another crud team who succeed with kicking, lumping the ball forward and having 2 huge strikers. crud football, but effective in the division. Their fans are *****, players are *****, management are *****.


:shock:


Just a bit bitter, and disappointed, as you would be when conceding a late goal against only 10 men. As for kicking and lumping the ball forward, then that describes the majority of Fail sides I've seen over the years.

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:45 pm

BathSaddler wrote:
Registered Saddler wrote:Vale fans are upset:

unhappy Fail fan 1 wrote:Would also like to say this about Walsall. They are the most cynical, dirty bunch of thugs I have seen on a football field for a long time. Never mind down to 10 men they could and should have been down to 8 or 9 if the referee had done his job


unhappy Fail fan 2 wrote:I'd like to finish by saying Walsall are a horrible bunch of *******s and I was so ****ing wound up by the end. Another crud team who succeed with kicking, lumping the ball forward and having 2 huge strikers. crud football, but effective in the division. Their fans are *****, players are *****, management are *****.


:shock:


Just a bit bitter, and disappointed, as you would be when conceding a late goal against only 10 men. As for kicking and lumping the ball forward, then that describes the majority of Fail sides I've seen over the years.


After what I've seen of Vale over the years, I think the words pot, kettle and black are the first to come to mind.

I don't think we resorted to this sort of angry comment after Leeds mugged US in injury time, shame the fans from the Potteries aren't so cool.

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:48 pm

Ince - Nothing to mention really

Weston - Usual High Standards
Gerrard - Struggled against that big black guy at times
Dann - Few jittery moments today, Rogers got loose a few times
Fox - Not at the races

Deeney - Good account of himself, but lacks quality
Bradley - In and out of the game not as dominant
Wracky - Good performance, but not strong / forcful enough !
Sweeney - Arguably our motm took the game to them.

Mooney - ??
Ricketts - I know he never looks bothered, but today he didn't look like he wanted the ball

Sonko - Better than recent weeks, some good bursts
Nicholls - Got the Vale on their heels good work
Ishy - Quiet by his usual standards.

in my opinion only Clayton, Weston, Sweeney and Wrack played to the recent high standard we have been accustomed to.

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:55 pm

Thought we were poor today, but Vale weren't as bad as their position suggests (certainly better than Millwall!). Can't put my finger on what went wrong really - I thought Sweeny or Weston were MOTM. I was a little disappointed with Bradley today (but dont expect him to maintain a high standard every match) and sonko was poor IMHO. I was really please that they kept trying right until the end - and got their rewards despite probably not deserving it (takes cover!).

You can't beat that "last minute" goal feeling :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Well done lads on another club record of away "results".

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:58 pm

Geoff,

Although the Vale fans have gone slightly overboard, they do make some valid points. I remember sitting there 10 minutes before the end thinking "what on earth are we doing". Watching some of the cynical and blatant fouls being committed was so very alien to anything i've seen from a Walsall side historically.

After Fox was deservedly sent off (should have gone earlier IMO) we appeared to lose all interest in salvaging the game so poor was our play. We seemed more concerned with putting in some dangerous challenges along with blatant unnecessary trips.

Quite why i really do not know. What i do know though, i didn't like what i saw.

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 7:02 pm

Norfolk_Saddler wrote:Gerrard booked and now suspended.

Great.

When does the slate get wiped clean? Jan 1st?


March 1st - sorry! :cry:

A truly abysmal match where a draw was a fair result. However, both teams deserved zero points for that performance. The two 'keepers could have gone home at 3-00 p.m. such was the little that they had to do.

Their goal (12th minute) - Sweeney marred his otherwise satisfactory performance by "accompanying" the Vale player on his steady, unopposed journey into our penalty area, rather than pressurising him and preventing him from getting in a not particularly powerful shot. Sweeney rightly received an "ear-bending" from Fox, Dann, Gerrard and Bradley for his non-defending. I also felt that Ince could have got down to it, a bit quicker.

Our goal (93rd minute) - international class - former Wales International, Weston, delivered an excellent deep cross for former England International, Ricketts, to head in.

Sadly, our other full International player, Sonko, had yet another nightmare. Along, I suspect. with all other Saddlers' fans, I am at a total loss to understand quite what DD sees in Sonko. Quite frankly, he is an embarrassment. Surely, the time has come to drop him to the Reserves, in the hope that he may recover his self-confidence and early 'sparkle'? At the moment, the guy just can't do right for doing wrong.

Other negatives - (i) our disciplinary record and forthcoming suspensions. The referees for our last five matches have been excellent. However, today's was a card-happy idiot. As for Vale fans accusing us of being dirty, I'm afraid that they are just desperately clutching at straws to justify their own side's inept performance. There was a certain irony seeing Miles being stretchered off. I must reassure any Vale fans, reading this, that the cheers, at his departure, were not aimed at Port Vale, rather his actions at one of his previous clubs. Saddlers' fans will know what I mean. (ii) the injury to Mooney. We don't half miss him, when he is not there.

Other positives - (i) the fact that we are still a hard team to beat. (ii) the team spirit (very much linked to the previous point). (iii) the new club record of 10 consecutive away games, unbeaten.

I hope Uncle Jeff can unlock the padlock on his piggy-bank, on January 1st. An additional striker and another midfield player are needed.

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 7:33 pm

Ho-Ho-Ho!

Merry Christmas Port Failures......anyone else listen to Sinnot on Radio Stoke 94.6 on the way home......90 seconds.......kick the cat........if only........90 seconds.........professional.........annoyed........90 seconds.

Actually, more like 20 seconds!!! :lol:

Eat my late, late goal!

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 7:40 pm

Another point away, and with ten men at the end - can't complain, so why does it feel like I should? Sadly because Fail were a three point banker in my mind. It's a funny old game. Well done to the lads for getting a point where none seemed possible, in the end.

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 7:45 pm

Unfortunately our players did appear wound up as there were some shocking tackles. I was suprised at our long ball tactics too.

BUT praise to the team for the way they kept at it.

The point of the post? According to vale we took 1,800 fans. Rubbish. Absolute rubbish. Im sure clubs are playing with the figures (notts county also springs to mind) to make their home crowd seem bigger.

That stand held 4,500 and there werent many gaps

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 7:46 pm

Played crap, still got a point, very drunk, liked the pies.

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 7:50 pm

yoda wrote:According to Vale we took 1,800 fans. Rubbish. Absolute rubbish. I'm sure clubs are playing with the figures (Notts County also springs to mind), to make their home crowd seem bigger.

That stand held 4,500 and there weren't many gaps


Actually, yoda, there were a LOT of empty seats - apart from the sizeable block, cordoned off, as a barrier to keep our lot well away from their lot! 1800 seems about reasonable to me - only Leeds (and, possibly, Forest) are likely to beat that, at Fail Park, this season.

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 7:59 pm

While on the subject of attendances, Port Fail must have known that they were going to get probably their third biggest gate of the season. So what happens? They sell out of programmes - THIRTY-FIVE minutes before kick-off! Then they sell out of steak pies, before half-time! It made the Banks's Stadium seem almost efficient! :D . I must say that the quality and the prices, of the refreshments, were much better than at Bescot, though.

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 8:00 pm

I strongly believe there were more than 1,800. there wasnt 4,000, but there looked a tad more than 2,000

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 8:04 pm

1 Mikel Ricketts, Theres only 1 Mikel Ricketts!, those of you who were at the game will know what i mean :lol:

anyone else see a steward hit a walsall fan outside the ground after the game, not quite sure as to what went on though...

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 8:25 pm

Win when playing poorly - the sign of a good side?

We certainly weren't at our best today and proved how important Mooney is to us because when he went off, the ball simply wouldn't stick in the final third.
Ricketts proved again that he is in a class of his own. Controlled the ball on the edge of the box, turned, picked out Weston in the clear when no-one else seemed to have even noticed he was there, made his move to the back post and converted the type of crosses strikers dream of. Brilliant.

I actually thoight Weston was man of the match today. He was good defensively considering he had to cope with Sonko's defensive ineptitude in front of him and put a few decent crosses over. In truth, the rest of the back four played alright again but Weston was my pick of the bunch.
Sweeney also looked excellent until he was taken off (couldn't see why). He ran at defenders and generally looked to keep hold of the ball which we were having trouble doing generally.
Sonko needs taking out of the side and out of the 16 immediately. I think he's a good player when he performs to his best, but we haven't seen that from him for a good couple of months now and the stick he gets is doing his confidence no good at all. Give him a spell in the reserves to prove to himself as much as anyone that he has what it takes to make it as a Walsall player.
Wrack was good again. In the first half, the number of loose balls he was picking up was unbelievable. He's playing like a 22 year old rather than a 32 year old at the moment and long may it continue.
I thought Bradley had another one of his 'in and out' games today. In general, I thought he was quiet but he did show glimpses of quality and sharpness around the ball.

A word on the referee. That bloke was an absloute joke. Referees like him are the reason why players lose control. To use an example, as Bradley tracks the Vale player on the ball, he swings an arm and elbows Bradley in the face. Bradley turns to the ref who blows his whistle and calls the player in question over. A quiet word in the ear and he's back on his way. If the ref has seen an elbow to the face, as he must have done, how has he let the player continue without a card? Fortunately, Bradley isn't a dirty player because on another day, he could have sought his revenge.
The ref then went about booking any player who caused his opponent to fall to the ground.
I have no complaints about the Fox red card. I just hope a couple of his team-mates have apologised to him for putting him in a position where he had little choice. The absentees in midfield who allowed them to catch us on the break put him in a position where only an immaculate challenge would have resulted in anything less.

Port Vale were poor, let's not forget it. They'll struggle because main striker Luke 'Firework' Rodgers plays like a headless chicken and doesn't look like he could hit a barn door with a banjo. When we went down to 10 men, we left the back door slightly ajar, so to speak, and let them play a bit of football. They'll come away thinking that if they play like that every week, they'll be alright. The reality was that they had fewer clear cut chances in the game than we had after we went down to 10 men.

All in all, a good day. Miles going off on a stretcher was satisfying to say the least. I was just glad we came away with a point despite not playing anywhere near our best and having to cope with a completely stupid referee.

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 8:52 pm

WFC_Rob wrote:
The ref then went about booking any player who caused his opponent to fall to the ground.
.


Yup, and im not sure if vale cottoned on to this, or they are serial divers anyway, but it was a joke towards the end

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 9:15 pm

Very pleased with the smash and grab point today but not at all happy with the way we dished it out.

In 35+years of Saddling I can't remember ever witnessing such a shower of cloggers in Walsall shirts. You don't mind your players battling and sweating blood for the cause-in fact you should expect it-but our players went beyond what I consider reasonable and acceptable. I'll concede that the ref didn't get everything right- I can't believe that he let that elbow on Bradley go unpunished for instance- but every one of our cards was well merited and how Ishy got away with that outrageous double foul towards the end I'll never know.

Still, none of that stopped me from going mental when the much maligned Ricketts popped up at the end. :lol:

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 9:45 pm

The ref lost control of the game early on! Which resulted in a very dirty game! Vale started the game in very physical fashion and we just did it back to them! :x

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 9:50 pm

Pedagogue wrote:While on the subject of attendances, Port Fail must have known that they were going to get probably their third biggest gate of the season. So what happens? They sell out of programmes - THIRTY-FIVE minutes before kick-off! Then they sell out of steak pies, before half-time! It made the Banks's Stadium seem almost efficient! :D . I must say that the quality and the prices, of the refreshments, were much better than at Bescot, though.


Mind you, according to page 53 we are Tranmere Rovers. :?

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Wed Dec 26, 2007 11:39 pm

First and foremost vale were shocking!! the only option they used all game was to lump it long to willock.
I thoguht the only players who had decent games were; ince,sweney,wrack and weston, Fox deserved to go and sonko doesnt look like a league one player at all also the ref was a joke randomly booking whoever he felt like. Nice goal by ricketts after good build up play, like to know about the injury to mooney aswell??
ROLL ON OLHAM!!

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Thu Dec 27, 2007 12:21 am

couple of points..

weston (against his former club) and sweeney (on loan from stoke) were the only two players who turned up today.
cant believe money took sweeney off. he needed to make a point and sub a sub.. sonko. or even better, dont bring him on in the first place. looked lazy, scared, invisible. we played with 9 men for the last half hour

vale fans slagging us off? i doubt they were even at the game. there werent many of them. **** fans? i cant wait to see how many of the 6000 crowd were from ws1. id guess at 40%.

without mooney, we miss a leader. ricketts and wrack dont talk enough. we need another old head.

crap performance today, reminded me of mansfield last year. we know we're better than we showed, we just couldnt get into it

lost our heads a bit at the end, foxy needs to learn to tackle without jumping into players. ricketts needs to learn not to lean back when shooting.

important that we didnt lose tho. the run goes on, and we cant play any worse 8)

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Thu Dec 27, 2007 1:07 am

Brum wrote:couple of points..


lost our heads a bit at the end, foxy needs to learn to tackle without jumping into players. ricketts needs to learn not to lean back when shooting.


to be fair to fox, he is one of the stronger tacklers we have, and the vale attacker was through on goal and would have probably buried it if fox didnt do something, so i disagree with you on that one..

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Thu Dec 27, 2007 1:30 am

WFC_Rob wrote:Win when playing poorly - the sign of a good side?

We certainly weren't at our best today and proved how important Mooney is to us because when he went off, the ball simply wouldn't stick in the final third.
Ricketts proved again that he is in a class of his own. Controlled the ball on the edge of the box, turned, picked out Weston in the clear when no-one else seemed to have even noticed he was there, made his move to the back post and converted the type of crosses strikers dream of. Brilliant.

I actually thoight Weston was man of the match today. He was good defensively considering he had to cope with Sonko's defensive ineptitude in front of him and put a few decent crosses over. In truth, the rest of the back four played alright again but Weston was my pick of the bunch.
Sweeney also looked excellent until he was taken off (couldn't see why). He ran at defenders and generally looked to keep hold of the ball which we were having trouble doing generally.
Sonko needs taking out of the side and out of the 16 immediately. I think he's a good player when he performs to his best, but we haven't seen that from him for a good couple of months now and the stick he gets is doing his confidence no good at all. Give him a spell in the reserves to prove to himself as much as anyone that he has what it takes to make it as a Walsall player.
Wrack was good again. In the first half, the number of loose balls he was picking up was unbelievable. He's playing like a 22 year old rather than a 32 year old at the moment and long may it continue.
I thought Bradley had another one of his 'in and out' games today. In general, I thought he was quiet but he did show glimpses of quality and sharpness around the ball.

A word on the referee. That bloke was an absloute joke. Referees like him are the reason why players lose control. To use an example, as Bradley tracks the Vale player on the ball, he swings an arm and elbows Bradley in the face. Bradley turns to the ref who blows his whistle and calls the player in question over. A quiet word in the ear and he's back on his way. If the ref has seen an elbow to the face, as he must have done, how has he let the player continue without a card? Fortunately, Bradley isn't a dirty player because on another day, he could have sought his revenge.
The ref then went about booking any player who caused his opponent to fall to the ground.
I have no complaints about the Fox red card. I just hope a couple of his team-mates have apologised to him for putting him in a position where he had little choice. The absentees in midfield who allowed them to catch us on the break put him in a position where only an immaculate challenge would have resulted in anything less.

Port Vale were poor, let's not forget it. They'll struggle because main striker Luke 'Firework' Rodgers plays like a headless chicken and doesn't look like he could hit a barn door with a banjo. When we went down to 10 men, we left the back door slightly ajar, so to speak, and let them play a bit of football. They'll come away thinking that if they play like that every week, they'll be alright. The reality was that they had fewer clear cut chances in the game than we had after we went down to 10 men.

All in all, a good day. Miles going off on a stretcher was satisfying to say the least. I was just glad we came away with a point despite not playing anywhere near our best and having to cope with a completely stupid referee.


Absolutely spot on to the letter.

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Re: Port Vale (A) League 1 Boxing Day 26/12/07.

Thu Dec 27, 2007 1:43 am

As people have pointed out, we were abysmal today, I dont know what 3 of the back 4 were doing today but it was shocking. Totally inept, however the one moment of real quality was the difference... and thats what Ricketts gives you, there aint half some mindless people booing him, they can all sod off and grow up.

Ince - The usual

Weston - MOTM by a mile, he was superb
Gerrard - Shocking, worst of the defence today, was out jumped and caught out of position almost at will
Dann - Crap, but still distributed well.
Fox - Shocking, bring back Taundary ! :D

Deeney - Tries bless him, but he is never a winger or a striker or a pro footballer in a million years, lacks anything.
Bradley - Ran his legs off
Wracky - Ok I guess, just much of a muchness
Sweeney - Very good

Mooney - Hamstring
Ricketts - Brilliant, linked up well and provided real quality when required.

Sonko - I cannot believe someone said he was 'good in bursts' previously. I am not kidding, that was one of the WORST individual performances I have EVER seen, i would get rid rid after that. Embarassing.
Nicholls - The real plus point today, did really well and turned the vale defence in the channels and providing a good outlet. I would start imho if mooneys not fit.
Ishy - Crap, did nothing.

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