The Vale were fairly comfortably beaten today away at Netherton. On a fucking awful pitch the Vale boys didn't really turn up. There can be no question of any lack of effort, in fact every player worked their balls off for the full game, unfortunately the actual football played didn't live up to the energy put in. Poor passing and a complete lack of communication was the Vale's downfall today. Having said all that, considering how poor we were, a 3-0 loss wasn't that bad and actually flattered the opposition a little.....the three goals conceeded can be described thusly:
Goal 1 - possibly offside, though a bit tricky to tell, and a decent finish.
Goal 2 - speculative shot from 30 yards that the wind swerved viciously past Bomo....unsaveable.
Goal 3 - Bomo own goal. Decided to pat the ball in with his hand from one yard.
Netherton were a decent side, though we allowed them to play a little too much, and they did create some more chances during the 90 minutes. The Vale created a couple in the first half, and improved in the second to create more opportunities, but didn't work the keeper nearly enough. There was a 20 minute spell in the game where Cookie and Gerry got things going in the middle of the park and used the ball well, but the passing didn't spread through the rest of the side and we soon all dropped back to passing really badly!
The main criticism of the game, though, was the lack of talking amongst the Vale boys. Something we're pretty good at during training, but which seemingly only the manager and one or two other players actually do during a match. We're all mates, we all get along really well, yet we don't help our mates out by saying something as simple as "Man on!", instead letting them get dispossessed. However poor your touch may be, however bad at kicking/heading/tackling you may be...even the shittest player in the team (and yeah I know that's probably me!) is able to talk to his bloody mates! Instead we're all much too quiet. Improve on that and performance will jump up 25% easy.
I can't really be arsed to write any more. I wholeheartedly applaud the effort of the boys, Cookie, Gerry, Jim and Luke in midfield constantly tried to get back and help the defence out, and the boys up front ran their legs off closing people down. But lets concentrate next week on doing the simple football stuff really well shall we?
Misc:
Bomo took a goalkick, and lost his shoe in the process! Kieron helpfully pointed out that the shoe went further than the ball!
Billy didn't turn up, so gets the same punishment as Gaylo in terms of rating. I don't mind people turning up smashed/hungover/off their tits, but if I've selected you in the side it means I've asked someone else to sit out...it's not fair on the team or the squad in general if you just decide not to turn up! I'll give everyone a first chance, but if people keep doing it, they'll find it very hard to get selected in the future.
Old Sam was man of the match...though I think he mainly got it for the goal kick he took that actually got over the halfway line!
Ref didn't turn up, so Netherton's manager reffed the game. He was very good and certainly didn't give his side all the decisions. He also managed to take a phone call off his missus during play!
Things to cheer us up:
The team we narrowly lost to last week, Ferndale, won 8-0 this week!
We're not bottom!
We're not in the relegation zone!
The team we've got next week, lost this week!
We don't have to play on that fucking pitch in Halesowen again!
I didn't have to buy everyone a drink for our first win!
