The Vale secured their third win a row, a win that saw them climb to second in the league table, with a 5-1 defeat of Norton J.
The Vale lined up with Bomo, Marcus, Ed, Steeley, Scottie, Gaylo, Dave D, Dan, Kie, Sam and Aaron with Shane and Silk on the bench. The pitch wasn't great and the Vale started a bit sluggish as they tried to pass it around but didn't manage to do it too fluently early on. However the opposition weren't faring much better and the Vale started to take control of the game. We missed a fair few chances before we finally took the lead....Gaylo, Sam and Aaron all missing one-on-ones with the keeper. But we finally did score about half way through the first half as Gaylo played in Aaron down teh channel who cut the ball back to Sam (or possibly the defender!) who tapped it into the net. The Vale had more chances toward the end of the first half, but didn't take them.
Half time then, 1-0 up and looking fairly comfortable....so obviously we let them score next. To be fair it was a cracking finish as the Vale didn't clear the ball properly and it fell to Nortons tall centre mid who hit a sweet half volley past Bomo. After a bit of moaning at each other the Vale started to play a bit better, and we restored our lead when Sam scored after a huge (and accurate) kick up field from Bomo that Sam collected and knocked past the keeper. 2-1 soon became 3-1 as Kie laid the ball off to Ed who hit a shot that may or may not have been going in, but was certainly going into the keepers hands until a defender helpfully got in the way and tapped it into the net. Shane then came on for Steeley, meaning a slight reshuffle with Shane on the left, Kie on the right, Gaylo moving into centre mid and Dave D slotting back into the defence. Shane instantly got involved as he hit three brilliant crosses into the box that sadly no-one got on the end of. He also hit a rasping drive with his left foot that the keeper saved excellently. Kie got the next goal, as Gaylo played the ball across the box, everyone missed it and it dropped at the feet of our ginger winger. He lobbed the ball over the keeper, who got a hand to it but could only palm it into the net. The fifth and final goal came when Dan cut through the opposition defence with a very good pass, leaving Sam through on the keeper. He finished it well and claimed his third hattrick in a row.....not bad! Unsurprisingly with a 4 goal lead teh Vale started to play with a bit of confidence and passed the ball around much better for the final 15 minutes of the game. The final whistle blew and the Vale were victorious!
While its hard to say we played amazingly, no-one played badly and the team tried to pass the ball around much more this week. Shane came on and did very well on the left wing, Bomo had a couple of worldy saves, Sam hit a hattrick (needs to cut out that Hollywood ball though, eh Sam!) and Dan was man of the match for his display in centre mid.
We should have a couple of players back for teh next game, but it'll be hard to make many changes after three wins in a row! Hopefully those that do come in can help the Vale win a fourth consecutive game...something that probably hasn't happened for a very long time for the Mighty Vale!
