A convincing win or a lucky victory?

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We weren't great but as always winning was the most important thing.

We were more solid at the back but the odd moment of quality from murphy apart, we rarely threatened going forward. Done and Davies continually offside didn't help.
 
Thank god for that. 3 hard earned points.

Got to say though I came out feeling like we had lost, hanging on most of second half. Where did the stats come from that they only had 3 on target? They had 3 on targets in the first 10 mins of second half.

But today I would take any performance for 3 points.

Thought Davies played well but why oh why is our most prolific scorer now playing at right winger and in second half as deep as right full back?

There number 20 was a handful
 
Sounded like a pretty solid win on the radio, we had one disallowed just after the pen.

Still, I'm sure every Blade was expecting Port Vale to equalise, and they didn't. Maybe a corner has being turned.

Looking at the league table, we really can't afford to slip up much. Dingles and Rochdale are both finishing strong. A point away at Barnsley would be a good result for me.
 
It was two very poor sides who without the penalty were going to play out a Nil Nil.

The only positives I can take from it are that we got the three points and also that Basham and Brayford looked a solid partnership, and that was without doubt Brayford's best performance since his return.

Apart from that it was pretty awful entertainment wise.
 



An absolutely typical home display. For the first 25 minutes, we were very good, Baxter was impressive and Port Vale must have thought they were in for a tough afternoon. But then...

As ever, we allowed the opposition to 'come onto' us (as seen so many times this season). By all means, defend a corner, but don't pull all eleven back, leaving absolutely no 'out' when we win the ball.

I would imagine Rob Page thought 'Hang on. We can get summat out of this.' He immediately brought 2 subs on at the start of the second half and they were definitely up for getting at least a point from the game.

Bad finishing, indisicpline and the officials totally allowing 'Vale to take the piss and dictate where free kicks etc. would be taken from, allowed the clock to run down.

By this time, Baxter had reverted to type and was pretty abysmal, Done tried as ever but if you want to pick out a small forward, the service must be spot-on. Ours rarely is.

So 3 points and, for some, that is all that matters. But Clough refusing to leave one/two up front when defending corners or set pieces is basically throwing the towel in. As the game enters its final phase, it only needs a fluke, lucky deflection etc. and we've once again left ourselves no room to manouvre.

Finally, those shirts. Like the 'This substitution was sponsored by Bent Solicitors, your friendly ambulance chasers', it's painfully lower league stuff.

They seem hell bent on alienting the fans at the moment.
 
Dkc said:
Someone commented on Jim Phipps' FB that it was good to he him on the kop. Hats off to the guy if that's where he was sitting, especially knowing what the mood would have been like had we lost.
Click to expand...

He wasn't. He was in the SS (unless he snuck out late in the game...)
 
Davies and Basham outstanding for me.

Never looked like conceding but still a bit scared going forward. I just wish they were afforded a little more freedom.
 
Harry's Game said:
It was two very poor sides who without the penalty were going to play out a Nil Nil.

The only positives I can take from it are that we got the three points and also that Basham and Brayford looked a solid partnership, and that was without doubt Brayford's best performance since his return.

Apart from that it was pretty awful entertainment wise.
Click to expand...
Thought Steve Davies was excellent
 
grafikhaus said:
An absolutely typical home display. For the first 25 minutes, we were very good, Baxter was impressive and Port Vale must have thought they were in for a tough afternoon. But then...

As ever, we allowed the opposition to 'come onto' us (as seen so many times this season). By all means, defend a corner, but don't pull all eleven back, leaving absolutely no 'out' when we win the ball.

I would imagine Rob Page thought 'Hang on. We can get summat out of this.' He immediately brought 2 subs on at the start of the second half and they were definitely up for getting at least a point from the game.

Bad finishing, indisicpline and the officials totally allowing 'Vale to take the piss and dictate where free kicks etc. would be taken from, allowed the clock to run down.

By this time, Baxter had reverted to type and was pretty abysmal, Done tried as ever but if you want to pick out a small forward, the service must be spot-on. Ours rarely is.

So 3 points and, for some, that is all that matters. But Clough refusing to leave one/two up front when defending corners or set pieces is basically throwing the towel in. As the game enters its final phase, it only needs a fluke, lucky deflection etc. and we've once again left ourselves no room to manouvre.

Finally, those shirts. Like the 'This substitution was sponsored by Bent Solicitors, your friendly ambulance chasers', it's painfully lower league stuff.

They seem hell bent on alienting the fans at the moment.
Click to expand...

I'd say the reluctance to leave men forward when defending a corner shows that he's trying to address the issues with conceding from what feels like every corner. Clean sheet and 3 pts. Rot stopped and now we can kick on a bit more.
 
Our game quality can't have been any worse than the sh*te that West Ham and Sunderland are dishing out right now..
 
I loved pretty much everything about the match today.

It looked to me like there's been a co-ordinated and concerted effort to be positive:
  • Phipps was in our stand talking to supporters down the front and then walked his way around the ground stopping off to chat with fans all the way round
  • Doyle on the bench - no criticism of him at all, but to me a sign of our intent
  • The players seemed to make a point of applauding the fans before and after the game
  • The first half hour was as good as I've seen us play in the League this season: we passed quickly, moved the ball around, got it forward, pressed the opposition, all we needed was a goal, and then Baxter stepped up
  • We either went off the boil or deliberately retreated after that
  • We scored a fantastic disallowed goal :)
  • For me Holt, Davies, Baxter, and Basham had very good games
It wasn't perfect, and there were things that could have been done better, but myself and Foulkes Jr Sr thought it was the best performance we'd seen this season, apart from Southampton.

UTB
 
grafikhaus said:
An absolutely typical home display. For the first 25 minutes, we were very good, Baxter was impressive and Port Vale must have thought they were in for a tough afternoon. But then...

As ever, we allowed the opposition to 'come onto' us (as seen so many times this season). By all means, defend a corner, but don't pull all eleven back, leaving absolutely no 'out' when we win the ball.

I would imagine Rob Page thought 'Hang on. We can get summat out of this.' He immediately brought 2 subs on at the start of the second half and they were definitely up for getting at least a point from the game.

Bad finishing, indisicpline and the officials totally allowing 'Vale to take the piss and dictate where free kicks etc. would be taken from, allowed the clock to run down.

By this time, Baxter had reverted to type and was pretty abysmal, Done tried as ever but if you want to pick out a small forward, the service must be spot-on. Ours rarely is.

So 3 points and, for some, that is all that matters. But Clough refusing to leave one/two up front when defending corners or set pieces is basically throwing the towel in. As the game enters its final phase, it only needs a fluke, lucky deflection etc. and we've once again left ourselves no room to manouvre.

Finally, those shirts. Like the 'This substitution was sponsored by Bent Solicitors, your friendly ambulance chasers', it's painfully lower league stuff.

They seem hell bent on alienting the fans at the moment.
Click to expand...

Do you still have belief that we're going to see good attacking football from us this season, grafikhaus ? For various reasons we just haven't managed to get going, and I doubt it will really happen before we can hopefully make the right adjustments, have a proper pre season and go into next season more prepared and ready. I think some of the impatience among fans comes from the fact that we brought in decent players in January, but with the hectic schedule it's not been ideal for them to adapt.

I thought we went to extreme, almost ridiculous, lengths against Walsall to hold onto our lead, and I think Clough has decided that we've got to get our defensive solidity back, coupled with a working-hard-for-eachother-mentality. Maybe pulling everybody back for corners is part of that. Normally I agree that it's not the right thing to do. But without confidence in our own ability to defend I think it would have been difficult going into the last stage of the season and the team's morale must be strong if we're going to have a chance in the Play Offs.

Two away draws and a hard fought home win with finally a clean sheet, maybe things are going - slowly - the way Clough has planned? Could it be the slow and ugly start of building a little momentum for the Play Offs?
 
William Henry Foulkes said:
I loved pretty much everything about the match today.

It looked to me like there's been a co-ordinated and concerted effort to be positive:
  • Phipps was in our stand talking to supporters down the front and then walked his way around the ground stopping off to chat with fans all the way round
  • Doyle on the bench - no criticism of him at all, but to me a sign of our intent
  • The players seemed to make a point of applauding the fans before and after the game
  • The first half hour was as good as I've seen us play in the League this season: we passed quickly, moved the ball around, got it forward, pressed the opposition, all we needed was a goal, and then Baxter stepped up
  • We either went off the boil or deliberately retreated after that
  • We scored a fantastic disallowed goal :)
  • For me Holt, Davies, Baxter, and Basham had very good games
It wasn't perfect, and there were things that could have been done better, but myself and Foulkes Jr Sr thought it was the best performance we'd seen this season, apart from Southampton.

UTB
Click to expand...
We need replicate the Southampton game in the playoff final
 
We just shaded it, our first half display was more convincing than the 2nd. In the 2nd half, we had problems in dealing with Vale's black right winger. Baxter and Harris were back to playing sloppy passes. Murphy looked tired, Vale's subs added height and weight but thankfully we had Basham back to win the headers
 
I remember we played nervously in some of the last games of our previous promotion seasons. often in March and April, the struggling teams have a winning run and the top teams lose matches that they were expected to win
 



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