Port Vale v Coventry

[JJ1532]

Another clash of 2 top 10 teams.

Port Vale are a funny team. They've been in mid table all season, yet every time they get near the top 6, they throw a wobbler and lose in bizarre fashion. However, they have been one of the best teams in the league at home, picking up 29 points from a possible 39, some going.

They'll fancy their chances against a struggling Coventry side who have won just 2 of their last 11 games, can't seem to score and are conceding regularly. They look in serious trouble and desperately need a win to halt their slide.

Really can't call this one. Recent evidence suggests a home win, but the Vale always seem to go to pieces when in sight of a top 6 spot. Home win? Away win? Something in the middle? Dunno.

Form(last 6 games):
Port Vale: W3, D1, L2, F6, A9, Pts 10
Coventry: W1, D2, L3, F8, A9, Pts 5

Recent meetings:
21 Sep 2013 Port Vale v Coventry City W 3-2 League One
16 Mar 2014 Coventry City v Port Vale D 2-2 League One
13 Dec 2014 Port Vale v Coventry City L 0-2 League One
07 Mar 2015 Coventry City v Port Vale W 2-3 League One
26 Dec 2015 Coventry City v Port Vale L 1-0 League One

All match day discussion here.

 

[valefan16]

Tough game but a huge one for us and hopefully we can rise to the occasion against a big side at home as we did against Wigan, Burnley and Sheff United when we've put in our better performances.

If we win we drag that 5th spot into contention for the chasing pack whilst closing in on Coventry to two points so plenty at stake. At home we have to be confident such is our form this season in Burslem. Bar a couple of really shite away performances at Wigan and at Millwall we've been in decent enough form since the turn of the year since we were beat at the Ricoh in a game we should of taken our chances and taken something from especially first half when we were dominant.

Plenty points to a home win until as JJ says our form over the past two years when the top six has been reachable with a win and even worse our dire record when playing on a Sunday! 1 home win in 19 stretching back to 1994 (excluding Xmas fixtures) and I cant recall an away win on a Sunday either since beating the lardies in the last Potteries Derby at the Shitannia in 2002!

We ended the horrific Swindon hoodoo Tuesday so hopefully we can lay that ghost to rest too.

Win would be superb, have a feeling a slightly disappointing 1-1 is on the cards though.

 

[PUSBCCFC]

We probably won't win.

RCC
Lorentzson-Stephens-Cargill-Stokes
Rose-Fleck
O'Brien-Cole-Lamerias
Armstrong

Burge, Maddison, Murphy, Tudgay, Hunt, Ricketts, Haynes

 

[JoeJoeJoeJoe]

Burge

Ricketts Cargill Stephens Stokes

Rose Fleck

JOB Maddison Murphy

Armstrong

 

[IanPVFC]

I think this will be a draw. Although our home form and Cov's poor run of form should mean a home win, our consistency at being inconsistent coupled with our fear of the play offs should be enough to guarantee a score draw at best!

 

[valefan16]

I think this will be a draw. Although our home form and Cov's poor run of form should mean a home win, our consistency at being inconsistent coupled with our fear of the play offs should be enough to guarantee a score draw at best!

Well we are almost safe (3 wins away) so I would like to see us just go for it now, nothing to lose lets attack teams and try and see where it takes us, pointless playing for draws away for instance to ensure midtable obscurity!

 

[ccfctommy]

Really not too sure about playing two new young centre halves on Sunday. Very risky.

Alslo we have signed Darius Henderson.

Need to put our bad January form behind us and get some kind of a result here

 

[Shrimpurh]

Draw or Port Vale win will do here.

 

[darren gregory]

Henderson seems a bizarre signing, got sent off here last year for Orient for a ridiculous elbow in the face when there had been no needle or prior incidents. Bit of a journeyman / carthorse. Armstrong clearly having a dip in form. I would rather us lose 5-3 in a humdinger than the usual drab Vale tactics we are used to. It won,t happen so i,ll plump for a 1-0 home win based purely on our home form and Cov's recent slump.

 

[valefan16]

Henderson seems a bizarre signing, got sent off here last year for Orient for a ridiculous elbow in the face when there had been no needle or prior incidents. Bit of a journeyman / carthorse. Armstrong clearly having a dip in form. I would rather us lose 5-3 in a humdinger than the usual drab Vale tactics we are used to. It won,t happen so i,ll plump for a 1-0 home win based purely on our home form and Cov's recent slump.

You'd rather we lost 3-5 than won 1-0?

 

[darren gregory]

in some respects yes, bizarre maybe. But sometimes look at Pulis at Stoke and now WBA, you get hacked off. I am hacked off with dire negative Page tactics, come on admit it the games are dire. Clearly i don,t want us to lose but maybe my point wasn,t put greatly. The football on offer is dirge but we are winning games. Bradford at home 2 weeks ago was the epitomy of Page's tenure at the club. It may of been worded crap by myself, i want entertaining and if we lose 5-3 then i go home knowing we gave it a right go. A few games where it has been 1-0 either way i have come away numb. Bradford, Bury, Southend,etc etc. We even contrived to be in a club of a very select few, by failing to score against Crewe !!!

 

[blademan89]

in some respects yes, bizarre maybe. But sometimes look at Pulis at Stoke and now WBA, you get hacked off. I am hacked off with dire negative Page tactics, come on admit it the games are dire. Clearly i don,t want us to lose but maybe my point wasn,t put greatly. The football on offer is dirge but we are winning games. Bradford at home 2 weeks ago was the epitomy of Page's tenure at the club. It may of been worded crap by myself, i want entertaining and if we lose 5-3 then i go home knowing we gave it a right go. A few games where it has been 1-0 either way i have come away numb. Bradford, Bury, Southend,etc etc. We even contrived to be in a club of a very select few, by failing to score against Crewe !!!

Were in that club

 

[valefan16]

I don't know I hated going into games knowing we needed at least two goals to stand a chance in games because we couldn't defend for toffee, we've addressed that but was always going to come at a detriment to the attack.

Regardless of scoring against Crewe or not we were expected by most to be with them at the foot of the table, we're currently close to double their points tally so we are doing something right. My weekends are far better after a 1-0 scrappy win than losing but I see your point regarding the 1-0 losses where we haven't had an answer because we are so rigidly stuck at negativity going forward, especially when for eg Coventry and Bradford we lost 1-0 late on but had chances to be ahead far before.

I feel we are going in the right direction though and if we can sort the away form out which has shown signs of improvement with two wins in four away in 2016 compared to 2 wins in five months prior to that!

As I say though if we can rack up three wins quickly and get to safety then say look at the table and have 10 games to go with say 20 points the target for the play offs then I'd like to see us really go for it in games rather than be cautious and cruise to a 10-12th place finish. What's there to lose?

 

[PUSBCCFC]

Burge

Ricketts Cargill Stephens Stokes

Rose Fleck

JOB Maddison Murphy

Armstrong

Ricketts right back

 

[Buxton Vale]

Despite our usual habit of failing when the top 6 is in touching distance, Im going for a 1-0 win based on our good home form and Coventrys lack of form.

 

[ccfctommy]

Will this game be on?

 

[valefan16]

Will this game be on?

Probably not this season our pitch has struggled with the heavy rain.

 

[JoeJoeJoeJoe]

Charles-Cook

Lorentzson Ricketts Cargill Stokes

Fleck Stephens

Rose Maddison Murphy

Armstrong

 

[valefan16]

One change Dodds injured, Moore, pleased with that as much more balanced and two actual wingers.

 

[Freakyteeth]

everybody was kung fu fighting
those cats were fast as lightning

 

[JoeJoeJoeJoe]

yay murphy

 

[valefan16]

Any other team in the division would be 3 or 4-0 up with the dominance we've had in that half. Only Vale could cock up like this! Coventry have been awful, Inniss goes off injured, McGivern comes on(equivalent of swapping a Ferrari for an old battered Mondeo) and we let them in.

Got to take our chances if we throw it away against these twice after the chances we've had we want shooting.

 

[SkyBlueElephant]

Suspect Vale will be walking away from that wondering how they haven't won.

 

[valefan16]

Anything Maddison can come off the bench and do Sam Kelly can do better! Stunner got us the very very minimal that we deserved, should really have won that and won
It well though!

 

[PUSBCCFC]

So poor. Really fancy us to throw away a play off place.

Just no fight and determination at places like this.

 

[JoeJoeJoeJoe]

 

[Steven Simcock]

Feels like a loss, we totally dominated the game from start to finish. Citys keeper pulled off save after save, don'know how he kept out the deflected shot.

 

[Vale on Trent]

Not sure how Coventry got anything out of that, think they had about 3 meaningful attacks all game. Probably the best we've played all season and it was a pleasure to watch at times, just a shame we didn't get all 3 points.

 

[skybluematt]

Horrible performance, horrible game, horrible day. The only Coventry player who can come out of that game with any dignity from that game is RCC. Vale were ok and deserved a point and probably more. The ref wasn't great but by no means has that got anything to do with the result.

I've got to mention the away day experience though, its terrible. We were going to get the train which I'm glad we didn't make the effort, we drove instead. Its the second time I've been to Vale and I think it was worse this time around. Excessive police presence, the only pub that we could get in was a hotel the rest were all the usual "HOME FANS ONLY!". Question is are all Port Vale fans skin head, Stone Island wear morons who are only looking for trouble?

 

[T.A]

You'll be back on track next week Cov fans.