The Vale ended their losing run, not with a victory but with a frankly mental 7-7 draw against Hamilton Rangers.
With some new signings, and new old signings, the Vale lined up with an experimental side, missing several defenders they had to mix and match at the back and it's fair to say that early on it didn't really work! Vale went behind early (not a huge shock!), and were immediately dealt a second blow as Mitch had to be subbed as he twisted his ankle badly and had to come off. A bit more reshuffling and the Vale continued, only to be behind even further after another defensive lapse. Sam scored the Vale's first goal as he flicked the ball in, game on!...but not for long as we conceeded again to go 3-1 down. 3 became 4 after yet more poor defending, though Ed got one back as he capitalised on poor defending to rifle the ball in. More poor defending led to Hamilton extending their lead even further, going 6-2 up. The Vale got one more, though so did Hamilton and the Vale trudged off 7-3 down.
More shuffling of players at halftime and the Vale went out with renewed vigour. The standard of football didn't exactly rise to professional levels, but the Vale certainly upped their game in the second half and put pressure on the opposition. I can't exactly remember the order of the goals, but Sam scored a top drawer freekick that curled into the top corner, Hamilton scored an OG as Kie curled a really good corner in only to see their centreback place a header into his own net. I think it was at this point that Ed was felled in the box, and the ref gave a penalty. Ed dusted himself down, picked up the ball, placed it surenely on the spot...and smashed it miles over the bar. Not sure if the ball has come down yet! But Ed redeemed himself as he scored his second goal after good work by Kie. The Vale were now 7-6 down with about 15 minutes to play, and they piled on the pressure. The ball broke to Sam and he placed the ball past the keeper and defenders, as the ball dribbled agonizingly slowly into the net....7-7! With 8 minutes now left it looked like there would be only one winner, and the Vale created several more chances that were spurned. The final whistle blew on this extraordinary game with each side picking up a point.
Summing up this game is impossible. At times we looked like a football team....at times we looked like a bunch of guys out on a 'sunshine bus trip'. Fair to say that we can't defend like that again (and I mean the whole side, not just the back four!) as it was pretty shambolic in the first half. But at least we showed resolve and heart to fight back into it.
Sam gets man of the match for scoring four. Credit to Ry, Karl, Ed and Kie who all played well too. Marcus and Nick C had really good second halves, and Nick W and Shane came on and worked hard for the team. Hopefully we'll have a few more players back for next week, and we can get a good result vs Queens Head!
If I've forgotten anything I apologise....but it was tricky to remember everything that happened in those 90 minutes!
