Stanley v Port Vale Match Thread

[choirboy]

Stanley 3-0 Port Vale.
A super victory for the boys in Red today. Much needed but fully deserved.
The first half hour was fairly even but with a very combative element in our midfield with the return of Coyle and Hamilton. Just after about half an hour Mitch Clark tried to get in two crosses from the right wing with the third attempt to cross coming from Coyle. It was a high cross but the Vale keeper, under no pressure, mishandled it and the assistant referee adjudged that the ball had crossed the goal line!
Finally, a bit of luck went the way of Stanley!
Stanley grew in confidence and started to get on top. From a left wing situation, I think Nathan Butler-Odejayi and Shaun Whalley got to the goal line with the pull back causing chaos in the Vale defence. Rodgers got the final touch for the deserved second goal. The relief was palpable on the Stanley terraces!
We still kept the upper hand in the second half and after a number of substitutions for both teams Stanley got the deserved breakthrough when Shaun Whalley went on one of his mazy runs into the penalty box. He beat three defenders and was tripped by the fourth! Pressley straight away picked up the ball and stood confidently on the penalty spot. The Vale keeper Stephens very unsportingly approached Pressley in order to give him some verbal psychological negativity. However, Ethan Hamilton had very wisely already placed himself in front of Pressley and protected the penalty taker, guiding Stephens away and then Ethan repeated the job with another unsporting attempt from another Vale defender. That was so superb from Hamilton. Pressley duly put the penalty away sending Stephens the wrong way. There was a silly tussle in added time with some unsporting actions from some Vale players. They could have had two red cards but the referee awarded one and a yellow card to both teams.
One other observation of an attempt at cheating was of the Vale number 20, Taylor, who was pulling his own shirt up around his head when being closely ‘marked’ by Coyle at a corner! I have NEVER EVER seen such a blatant disgusting attempt at trickery! The Clayton End gave him a deserved verbal bashing.
All the Stanley players performed well today IMHO.
The Clayton End had been absolutely immense throughout the whole match and the players celebrated so joyfully with them at the end of the match.
A vital three points gained but also a confidence booster.
KEEP THE FAITH
ON STANLEY ON

[choirboy]

BBC report says it was Ethan Hamilton getting to the bye line for the important second goal! Well done Ethan!

[accybeme]

it's not often when your team wins 3-0 you say the ref was useless, he let the wrestling tactics of port vale players go unpunished and lost control of the match, the ref should pay the enevitability of another fine imposed upon us, but the name of andy woolmer goes down in the notebook alongside trevor kettle

[VALAIRIAN]

Very good and solid display yesterday

Whole team played well

I said to Choirboy that Man of the Match could have gone to anybody, but it was between, Coyle, Hamilton and McConville

I then added Mo, as he had a very tough game, up against their No. 19

[Exile on Spencer St]

Originally Posted by VALAIRIAN

Very good and solid display yesterday

Whole team played well
I said to Choirboy that Man of the Match could have gone to anybody, but it was between, Coyle, Hamilton and McConville
I then added Mo, as he had a very tough game, up against their No. 19

Sorry, Val, I have no axe to grind here, and respect him, but how you thought Sean was one of the candidates for Man of the Match is beyond my understanding.
For what it’s worth I thought the captain was largely ineffectual yesterday (and not for the first time). He would have been my 11th choice. But that’s just my opinion.

[VALAIRIAN]

Did a lot of dirty work and made several important tackles

Kept on rallying the lads - not shouting and screaming, as he has done in the past.

All about opinions

[VALAIRIAN]

And only Harvey was in the team of the week

All about opinions

We got the three points, all that matters really

[cashman]

SANGARE was immense in my opiinion

[choirboy]

Originally Posted by accybeme

it's not often when your team wins 3-0 you say the ref was useless, he let the wrestling tactics of port vale players go unpunished and lost control of the match, the ref should pay the enevitability of another fine imposed upon us, but the name of andy woolmer goes down in the notebook alongside trevor kettle

Largely agree with you accybeme. Yet another referee who seemed to have two objectives: a) Not to use his yellow card at all throughout the whole match. b) To ‘play on’ after many infringements, which is ok when the fouled team have a really clear advantage.
After ‘playing on’ and a break down in play, why did he he not then go back to admonish the player committing the foul?
Once again the referee’s action let the match bubble over in the later stages.
This refereeing edict over the last couple of seasons that the game is a ‘physical sport’ so play on, is not working.
The situation in every goal mouth at a set piece is just ridiculous with defenders and attackers of both teams ‘wrestling’ and shirt pulling constantly. At every one of these set pieces half a dozen penalties or free kicks to the either team should be awarded!
The worst trick that I have ever seen was Taylor, number 20, on the near post just five yards from where I stand. He was being ‘marked’ by Coyle who was ‘restricting’ Taylor’s attempts to stand on the feet of Jensen. Taylor grabbed his own shirt at the top of his shoulders and was pulling it up over his head in the hope of fooling the referee. I would ban Taylor for a whole season for this as that was the most blatant and unprofessional attempt at cheating that I have ever witnessed!
The refereeing committee need to look again at ‘The foul’ and make the referee’s apply the laws of the game.

[Exile on Spencer St]

The game - players, managers, and officials - have totally abandoned or lost any ability to stop cheating.
The only thing that changes is the methods of cheating. The latest is head injuries. For every genuine one like Doug Tharme suffered, there are ten or more simulations to break up attacks or waste time. The players and managers know the refs have no discretion.
Like many Stanley fans I’ve done my fair share of criticising refs but I think players and managers should take most of the blame.
It was lost when such behaviour was described by eminent pundits as “gamesmanship”, the total opposite of what it is.
I heard a perfect example on Friday from Fleetwood’s manager (not exactly an innocent himself when playing) who complained that the ref gave Cambridge a penalty when, in his opinion, the Cambridge player ‘dived’. He then said that it was “fair play to him” for diving.
It’d need ten refs in each half to stop it now.

[VALAIRIAN]

The problem is though - in my opinion - poor officials at all levels......

Spurs - Brighton being another perfect example.

There is so much at stake at all levels these days, it has to be right!!

Glad I am not a Referee

[Exile on Spencer St]

Originally Posted by VALAIRIAN

The problem is though - in my opinion - poor officials at all levels.....

Not sure (again ) I agree, Val.
I don’t think most footie refs are poor. A few are, but not all.
Is a ref missing an obvious penalty any different, in terms of professional competence, than, say, a striker not even hitting the target with a penalty kick or a goalkeeper dropping the ball into his own net?
Most rugby refs are good and some less good, but that game seems to operate without continuous moaning about refereeing decisions.
There are ‘dark arts’ in rugby and punch-ups occur (for slightly more understandable reasons given the physical nature of the game) but, imho, it isn’t in danger of losing its sporting ethos.
Two things that the football authorities could take from rugby would be:
(a) accurate time keeping, with a stop watch, to prevent time wasting;
(b) no player, other than a captain, allowed to confront or even talk to a ref.
But, of course, they won’t, as ‘poor’ decisions and cheating players is now all part of the football theatre.

[cashman]

the ref was poor for both sides in my view.

[choirboy]

Just watched the post match interviews.
Lovely to hear young Nathan showing some real appreciation of the wonderful support from the vocal Stanley fans!
The support has been great even when we have been losing but Saturday was tremendous with the Flags, the noise and the constant singing in The Clayton End.
He makes the very important point how we are the Twelfth Man!
KEEP THE FAITH
ON STANLEY ON

[Crown Grounder]

Originally Posted by cashman

the ref was poor for both sides in my view.

In a way Cashy, that's all you can hope for......the same treatment for both sides....either poor for both sides...or good for both sides......even treatment and consistency...