2nd from bottom versus bottom! The pressure was on for both teams and the huge attendance was evidence of this. Rumours have it, that some tickets had been sold for up to ten times their face value. The total attendance was estimated to have been in the TWENTYS!!!! All that was missing was a mounted policeman on a white horse and it could have been that famous cup final in 1923 (Just googled that).
The Vale went into the game on the back of two draws and having only conceded the one goal (a dubious penalty) in the previous two games. Our starting line up was fairly strong and we also had a pretty decent bench. Pascy was particularly annoyed at the fact, that he didn’t find a place for Dave Delivers or Cookie in the starting eleven as they both played really well the previous week.
Our worst result of last season was against Hillgrove when they picked up their first point of last season’s campaign against us in a one all draw. A very well taken free kick on that occasion was enough to level the scores and see them go away with a draw. So with that in mind, and with us still looking for our first win of the season, it’s fair to say we all wanted the three points quite badly!
Gonge’s brother, Andy was back in goal for us this week and Silk and Fez played in the middle of the back four, for the first time this season! Deano played at right back and Chuff of course, was at left back. As usual, our wingers were Luke and Sam, and Craig B and Simmo were centre mid. That left Gaylo and Jim to play up top.
The game kicked off and within seconds we had our first clear cut chance of the game. Jim found himself with a great one on one chance but their keeper did well to come off his line quickly and block Jim’s effort. Hopefully this was a sign of things to come.
For the next ten minutes we did look the better team, but we were far from playing well. Simple ten yard passes weren’t being made and we all looked on edge. They even had a couple of half decent chances in the opening minutes but didn’t make the most of them. That was until they were awarded a free kick on the right side of our box which once again they managed to convert. We were one nil down to bottom of the league!!!!!! Unbelievable! They had managed to double their goals for record in just fifteen minutes against us!!
The question for us (and ALL of our fans) now was, would going a goal down spur us on and get us playing like we can or would it result in us panicking and playing like a bunch of clowns for the remainder of the half???? Unfortunately the answer to that question involves the word ‘clowns’! We continued to misplace passes, have poor first touch’s, and be in a rush to get the ball forward.
Even though, like I said, we played like clowns for the entire first half, thanks to great long range strike from Craig B we did however go into the break with the scores level.
HT 1-1
The 2nd half started in a similar fashion to the first half with both teams doing their league positions justice. The standard was embarrassingly low!
We needed a goal badly, and although we did start to create some really good chances we just couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net. Pascy made a change as a result of this, and brought Laan on to play up front.
Ten minutes later..... 2-1 Vale! Laan! Pascy seems to be getting the hang of this management lark.
Finally we were in front and although our performance up to this point had been poor, we did clearly deserve to be ahead in the game.
Another ten or so minutes later and Simmo had made it 3-1 with a nicely taken header. Now we could play without the fear of losing to bottom of the league. And it showed.
We actually started to play some football and for the last ten minutes we did play some decent stuff. Our passes started to find their targets on a more regular basis and we took total control of the game. By the end of the game it could have been five or six one, but our finishing was generally poor. We did of course fail to keep a clean sheet also, but we can at least say that we have not conceded in open play in our last three games now.
FT 3-1
Notes:
*Simmo was skinned in the final few minutes by Rik Waller.
*As poor as we were at times, some people’s ratings did seem quite harsh!
*Handley is apparently so unfit now, that he actually ran out of energy half way through shouting out a sentence from the sideline.
