Blades V Valiants

[valefan16]

Another big game for both sides as 4th place Vale take on Sheffield United who sit in 8th - 2 points behind.

Vale's dreadful away record took an unexpected turn for the better on Sunday with a hard fought 1-0 victory at Stadium MK and will be hoping to build on this at Ribeiro's ex club.

Vale have a horrific record at Bramall Lane with 1 win and 6 defeats in varying league and cup competition, red cards, dire attacking performances and crazy injury time comebacks have haunted us here as a rule.

A win this time out would be massive and set us up to challenge the top 2 with 2 home games to follow against mid-table opposition in Charlton and Oxford but i would take a point now!

Expect United to be less good at possession football than MK but much better going forward, so we should be seeing much more possession but need to utilise it well.

Fancy us to nick a point 1-1 Alex Jones for us, Sharp for them.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Vale fan,

We've not been great this season but there has been a noticeable change (improvement). We seem to have leaders in the team, better organisation, a mental toughness and will to win.

Basically the players now play like they really care and they always give 100% effort. We've noticed it and now there's a much more postive atmosphere at a Bramall Lane amongst the home support. Our fans now get behind the team.

Our strongest area is probably central defence and keeper. We look much more solid compared to previous seasons.

Our weakest area is attack. We have some quality forwards (for league 1) but they've not clicked yet and been guilty of missing chances. However we've got Clarke and Lavery out injured who will be back soon wanting a place, so there's enough competition and options up front it should improve at some point.

Prediction
Blades 2 Port Vale 1
Attendance 19,894 (Biggest of the season)

 

[MJA]

Any neutral (and probably Sheff Utd) fans looking at this game would probably find it difficult to look past a home win considering how bad our away form has been for much of this season so far. However, we showed great resilience last weekend, albeit against a pretty poor MK Dons side, and hopefully we can take this to a place where we don't usually get much and return with at least a point.

We are in the midst of a tricky run of fixtures throughout October so I suspect we will be able to gauge exactly where we are at as a squad at the end of this month. What would fellow Valiants accept as a decent return of points from these fixtures? Is 10 realistic including the 3 picked up last week?

 

[leedsvaliant]

It's a strange game this. On the one hand, I'm expecting a defeat as we always lose at Bramall Lane and tend to suffer misfortune in the process. It's the sort of place where historically our players have frozen in front of a big crowd and Sheffield United seem to be on the up.

On the other hand, we should take confidence from getting our first away win last week, all be it without playing really well but scrapping it out well and defending excellently. This is how we should approach our away games as we're not going to play teams off the park away from home. they'll have a lot of possession but we need to make sure that when we get it, we are effective with it.

Sheffield United had a really poor start and I kind of wish we'd have had this game in the early part of the season as they seem to have picked up some momentum having won 5 out of their last 7 and not lost since August. Their fans and players will expect a comfortable home win, but we need to disrupt their rhythm and then impose our qualities on them.

I still think we'll lose but it'll be tight 2-1 Sheffield.

 

[Monkey]

I've been waiting for this thread just to say I hope we win.

 

[Topher]

be well happy with a point, would set us up very nicely for two winnable home games before Bolton away. will Jerome be back? That'd help us move the ball forwards more quickly if so and if Amoros starts again that'll be a good chance for him to build on his performance at MK. If we don't piss about with the ball in dangerous areas and play it forward at the right times we'll be in with a good chance. Big if though.

 

[valefan16]

Any neutral (and probably Sheff Utd) fans looking at this game would probably find it difficult to look past a home win considering how bad our away form has been for much of this season so far. However, we showed great resilience last weekend, albeit against a pretty poor MK Dons side, and hopefully we can take this to a place where we don't usually get much and return with at least a point.

We are in the midst of a tricky run of fixtures throughout October so I suspect we will be able to gauge exactly where we are at as a squad at the end of this month. What would fellow Valiants accept as a decent return of points from these fixtures? Is 10 realistic including the 3 picked up last week?

We've had a tough September and October on paper so come out in a good shape after Bolton and on paper the fixtures then look kinder until new year so would be in a great position to build and really challenge.

The home games are winnable, Charlton and Oxford are hit and miss so a point here would be huge... due a win though here!

See if Sheffield United do the high press and if so we need to stop knocking it around our back four waiting for a disaster to happen and clear our lines instead!

In fairness i'd rather play Sheffield United in good form now than when they were at the bottom struggling as we all know we'd have been the one to stop their rot ala Coventry!

 

[Buxton Vale]

We won't be favourites to get 3 points, and neither will we, but I think a point here could be considered a good result. Our away form is poor, but 4 points out of 2 away games would be great.

1-1 Jones

 

[Monkey]

They don't seem too confident on their Forum.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Their fans and players will expect a comfortable home win, but we need to disrupt their rhythm and then impose our qualities on them.

I still think we'll lose but it'll be tight 2-1 Sheffield.

Disagree, don't know any of our supporters expecting a comfortable win. Don't think we've won any games by a 2 goal margin this season. Also our style of play is quite mixed. It's generally quick tempo and direct but we do pass it around keeping good possession every now and then too.

As I'd said we've not been great in any match this season BUT for the last 7 matches we've consistently looked a strong, hardworking and organised outfit. It's the consistency that bodes well for the rest of the season and the fact that I'm certain our attack (goal scoring abilities) will improve at some point.

I think our mentally approach to games has changed thanks to the new manager. He makes sure the players have a healthy respect for the opposition and seems to be able to make sure the players are focussed and up for it expecting a tough game.

We've won our last 3 home matches but they've all been tough hard fought battles where we've put in solid professional displays and most of our fans expect the same type of game on Saturday.

 

[MJA]

Don't panic, we will still win

 

[valefan16]

Sounds like another away day horror show from us!

 

[MJA]

Don't panic, we will still win

 

[valefan16]

Sounds like the level of performance we put in at Bury and Coventry... be happy to sub key players for Tuesday now to be honest. Massively need to sort this issue out.

Lot of anger on OVF from people there! So Jekyll and Hyde. Sounds like it'll be a 4 or 5-0.

 

[MJA]

Don't panic, we will still win

 

[Monkey]

Glad this match wasn't on Sky

 

[valefan16]

Glad this match wasn't on Sky

Me too! Four goals disallowed too! How can we defend like we did Sunday then do what we have today! 3 terrible goals apparently 2 from a corner and a 5 on 2 breakaway from our corner.

 

[valefan16]

Dan Turner on... playing at Kidsgrove two weeks ago... may as well chuck him in!

 

[MJA]

Don't panic, we will still win

 

[Monkey]

Don't panic, we will still win

Biggest WUM on this forum!

 

[MJA]

Biggest WUM on this forum!

 

[valefan16]

Well another shocker to add to Carlisle, Coventry (who got trashed today) and Bury... worryingly two unbelievably dire performances out of three paints a worrying picture going forward.

Four conceded, four disallowed (all be it that means nothing) mixing very good performances with extremely diabolical ones... set up is wrong, messed about with striking options again and yet again another embarrassing result.

 

[MJA]

Can't say I am overly surprised at this result to be honest. Last weekend probably gave a few Valiants some false hope that we had turned a corner with regards to away performances but lets face it the performance at MK would have resulted in a defeat against a lot of teams in this division. Clearly Bruno is struggling with getting the team selections and tactics right for away games and I am sure he knows that he has work to do in this regard

 

[valefan16]

Can't say I am overly surprised at this result to be honest. Last weekend probably gave a few Valiants some false hope that we had turned a corner with regards to away performances but lets face it the performance at MK would have resulted in a defeat against a lot of teams in this division. Clearly Bruno is struggling with getting the team selections and tactics right for away games and I am sure he knows that he has work to do in this regard

Doesn't seem to change anything though, warning signs were there since making Carlisle look like Brazil, followed by repeatedly dire away showings. The worry is Coventry battered us at home and if that isn't a blip in home form, which we will find out over the next week then we are In serious trouble. To have aspirations of challenging for the top six and conceding four twice now isn't good enough. If the reports on the calamity of the goals conceded today is correct then it's a mega big worry.

Read a comment from a bloke at the game that today was worse than anything seem under Glover!

 

[MJA]

Vale fans tend to over-react, I'd prefer to see how results pan out over the next few weeks than worry about a few comments on OVF

 

[kieran_vale]

Disappointing to get our arses kicked like that but it happens. To be honest I could see this coming today, we never seem to do well there.

Bottom line at this level this will happen to everyone from time to time. Who knows we could go out and do the same to Charlton or Oxford next time out.

 

[Bottega Don]

Hahahaha where is ColB at today?

 

[valefan16]

Disappointing to get our arses kicked like that but it happens. To be honest I could see this coming today, we never seem to do well there.

Bottom line at this level this will happen to everyone from time to time. Who knows we could go out and do the same to Charlton or Oxford next time out.

Problem is it's not from time to time, we got smashed at Bury and let's be fair an awful Coventry side should of hit us for four or five...

 

[kieran_vale]

Problem is it's not from time to time, we got smashed at Bury and let's be fair an awful Coventry side should of hit us for four or five...

Yes and it likely won't be the last time this year either. And we've put a few teams to the sword ourselves. It's annoying especially am sure for those who paid to go but it's hardly the end of the world.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Didn't see that coming

4-0 win with 4 goals disallowed.
The ref has since admittted he made a midtake by disallowing Flecks goal.

It was easily our best 90 minute display for 5 years during Danny Wilsons 1st season when we regularly outclassed opposition teams.

The fault with Port Vale was you set up too negative. You tried to frustrate us defending in numbers and to be fair you defended well but when the deadlock was broken your game plan fell through and you didn't know whether to attack or defend.

It's always hard to judge these matches. Was it us who were so good or Vale who were so poor? Probably a bit of both.

Blades are normally critical and negative but even the most level headed Blade would find it hard to resist going overboard after a display which had "promotion bound" written all over it.