My take on the game...
Port Vale are probably one of the most abject, dull teams we will face all season and clearly their fans are completely disillusioned. They had players out of position and as has already been pointed out they were completely one dimensional with no pace at all. They were physical in the tackle and had some big lads but I doubt you will see a worse performance from an away team at The Ricoh.
As for Cov, as usual we made hard work of it and we scraped past them in the end....the worrying thing is we probably have just played the two current worst teams in the league and we've only managed one goal....
A few comments...
Burge - Didn't have a lot to do and did fine bar a couple of standard dodgy kicks.
Grimmer - Ok performance against minimal threat, lacks pace and his distribution was at times lazy today..as was the case last week we clearly need more down the right side, Vincenti doesn't have the pace to offer a credible threat.
Vincenti - I have criticised him and I don't like him but his second half performance was much better so fair play.
Kelly/Doyle - As already pointed out too similar but I think Kelly is the more creative out of the two and one of them should go but for who?
The Duck - strong and willing but not the answer as a goalscorer, will provide a decent outlet but can't see him being anything more than an option to bring on at this stage
Jones - A class above anybody else on the pitch, didn't see enough of the ball in the second half but the only player who really looked like making anything happen. Teams are wising up to him and he's a marked man all season now. If he gets injured then as it stands we are screwed.
Tony A - Didn't do an awful lot but we should be looking to make him our Midfield General, clearly has ability but lacking match practice etc. Hopefully not a bad injury.
Rest of the defence - Looking solid and to be fair this end of the pitch is encouraging with yet another clean sheet - we look difficult to breakdown for sure.
McNulty/Beavon - Both very average until they went off, more creativity from the middle and the right side needed although was pleased to see the tactic of long balls to the front seems to have diminished.
Must beat Carlisle now to build momentum and confidence in the team, we still haven't played one of the better teams in my opinion and although there aren't any outstanding teams as of yet, the Exeter game will show where we are at. A point at Cambridge would be a decent return.
