Port Vale (H) League One, Sun 20th Dec, 12noon k.o.

[Darth Vader]

Much Better second half

[LLASLAW]

HAHAHAHAH COOOOOOOOKKKKKKK 2-0 :lol:

[Welsh_Saddler]

2-0 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D

[deldras]

C⚽⚽K

[LLASLAW]

2-0 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D

Possibly a good job you cashed out on the under 2.5 the way it's going now!

[DavidWFC2010]

Forget ginger Mourinho, we've got a new ginger hero :)

[chunkster]

i can't believe it's took smith to leave for us to find a gem of a striker :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Ancient Moaner]

2-0 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D

Latest Disney blockbuster....Donkey transforms into soccer player sensation!

[Darth Vader]

Cook has been brilliant changed the game top class

[Ancient Moaner]

Excellent hard fought win, congratulations to the squad, they hung on in there after an appalling first half to eke out a VERY important 3 points against a stubborn Vale side, with this addition of Walsall's version of a pantomime donkey coming good (at last!) :D :D :D :D

[Welsh_Saddler]

(Take note MPSADDLER) - we are now in an automatic promotion place, WITH a game in hand over all near rival teams, AND the best goal difference in League One.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS......... :D :D :D (and where's our money?????)

[BathSaddler]

Cook has been brilliant changed the game top class

He likes home games just before Christmas - he scored two against Barnsley this time last year. I'm pleased for him, it can only give him confidence, but we still need someone who can play the lone striker role when Bradshaw is out.

Edit - not a good crowd by any means and even when factoring in the Sunday 12 noon KO time, that Port Vale following was dreadful.

[Sadders]

Good win.

We have a manager who actually made an early sub, changed the formation and won us the game by having 2 strikers on the pitch

Happy for Cook. We still need another lone forward, someone to aim for.

Sawyers ran the game again, brillant player - far too good for us.

Vale can feel slightly harshly treated. Our goal looked marginally offside and stood, there's looked marginally onside and was ruled out.

Don't care - we owe them.

[Ancient Moaner]

Cook has been brilliant changed the game top class

He likes home games just before Christmas - he scored two against Barnsley this time last year. I'm pleased for him, it can only give him confidence, but we still need someone who can play the lone striker role when Bradshaw is sold and hope Taylor stays fit when Rico is also sold.

Edit - not a good crowd by any means and even when factoring in the Sunday 12 noon KO time, that Port Vale following was dreadful.

There fixed your first paragraph for you Bath! :lol: :lol:

[Andy W Taylor]

Who was that bloke who came on wearing 21 instead of Cook? :D

[scott_powell]

Sawyers is class. Enough said

[chunkster]

Who was that bloke who came on wearing 21 instead of Cook? :D

aguero. i thought the makeup was good :lol:

[Guest]

Bring on Jordan Cook. Why didn't we think of that before?

[scott_powell]

Also me have a manager who is willing to make subs fairly early!! Perfect


Massive praise for Cook. I think he's cack but he made the difference. Lets hope he can do it when the cameras aren't there now.

[chunkster]

Also me have a manager who is willing to make subs fairly early!! Perfect


Massive praise for Cook. I think he's cack but he made the difference. Lets hope he can do it when the cameras aren't there now.

he was looking for a move to brentford :lol:

[BathSaddler]

Cook has been brilliant changed the game top class

He likes home games just before Christmas - he scored two against Barnsley this time last year. I'm pleased for him, it can only give him confidence, but we still need someone who can play the lone striker role when Bradshaw is sold and hope Taylor stays fit when Rico is also sold.

Edit - not a good crowd by any means and even when factoring in the Sunday 12 noon KO time, that Port Vale following was dreadful.

There fixed your first paragraph for you Bath! :lol: :lol:

I don't want to think about that right now AM :wink: .

[Walsallone]

If we can win 2-0 playing as poorly as that then we will do very well. Excellent move by SOD or WHITNEY to bring on Cook and play 2 up front...it made a big difference and in the end we deserved to win. A special mention to our Centre backs who were outstanding today.
Just a word on Cook ...he cannot play the lone striker role neither can Lalkovic so if we are to continue with that system we need another player in January.

[Gripper]

Christmas Miracle.

UTS

[coop63]

If we can win 2-0 playing as poorly as that then we will do very well. Excellent move by SOD or WHITNEY to bring on Cook and play 2 up front...it made a big difference and in the end we deserved to win. A special mention to our Centre backs who were outstanding today.
Just a word on Cook ...he cannot play the lone striker role neither can Lalkovic so if we are to continue with that system we need another player in January.

Pretty much exactly what I was planning on writing - spot on Walsallone..

Just to add that if we don't get a decent striker in and rely on the 4-4-2 too often, we'll get picked off soon enough by quality teams (even with the centre back quality we've got..)

UTS

[SoccerHQ]

A first half we saw a million times in home games under Smith.

Much better second half, stepped it up big time and the most intriguing thing for me is in this type of game the team looked much better playing 4-4-2, two focal points upfront and Sawyers still got on the ball albeit from deeper positions so that formation can be revisited in games like this for the rest of the season.

Relaxed anyway, S'OD knows what he's doing.

[SoccerHQ]

Was going to a local pub to watch us on sky after ousting Xmas visitors, but it don't seem worth it from what has been seen from the first half.
As someone mentioned above, this will probably be our team come the end of January, and we all know that there will be no 'replacements' forthcoming, so the rest of the season is looking bleak.
Wigan & the Blades slowly creeping up the table I notice, holiday in Florida from my winnings would be the outcome if they do take spots 1 & 2!

Still leaves the best back 4 in the league though. :wink: I would say 5 but Etheridge seemed to be under the impression the game kicked off at 1pm today.

[Fish]

I think (hope) that we saw the changing of the guard today, making the transition from a team and formation that Smith would have stuck with until Port Vale scored, to one in which a manager (coach) needed to change things to win the game...and did.

Very encouraged! And so will the players be, they now know that they have someone in charge who can make things happen for them - too often this season (Bury and Chesterfield) that hasn't been the case. The only question is what team will we have at the end of January?

Over to you Uncle Jeff - don't let us down.



BTW: Sky have the highlights online already

http://www.skysports.com/watch/video/10 ... -port-vale

[PT]

Hard fought win.

Credit to the new gaffer. After a decent first half an hour we went to pot for the next half an hour so things needed a change. I'd do the mortgage on Smith bringing on Cook but taking off Milan to basically leave us with the same system that hadn't been working. Instead, we went two up top, which left us as bit bare down the right at times as Evans naturally drifted infield but that change in system effectively won us the game as both goals came about by just having more bodies in the box.

We certainly miss Tom and particularly Rico but managed to chisel out a win thanks to a manager/head coach that took a bit of a gamble and saw it pay off.

I will now stare at the table for an hour. :D :D

[WFC_Rob]

That's as good a result as we've had at home this season, purely because of how tough a side Vale are to break down. We can expect a few more games like that between now and the end of the season though. Would we have won that one 12 months ago? Probably not.

I like SO'D's 'no need to upset the apple cart' mentality, but he may well have just come up with a plan C to go with the plans A (4-3-3) and B (3-5-1-1) Smith had been alternating between earlier in the season. Cook looked lost playing up front on his own on Tuesday and Lalkovic looked much the same in the first half today. To go with both of them up front in a relatively cagey game took bottle, and I'm pleased for the new gaffer that it came off.

Sawyers' performance might have been getting rave reviews from Minto & Holloway on Sky, but it was a bread and butter display - the kind we've become used to this season. And I mean that in the best way possible. Let's not forget some of the other big performances out there though - O'Connor, Chambers & Forde all looking the part too.

We haven't tended to win ugly at home since the Richard Money era, but that performance today suggests we're planning to stick around in that promotion hunt for a while yet.

[The Bosted Slab]

Not good, but good enough on the day.

Cook deserves unqualified praise for his general play and the clinical way he took both of the goals.