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Rovers v Port Vale

Rovers v Port Vale
Posted by Ian
Prenton Park
Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 03:00 PM
Until: Saturday, August 25, 2018 - 04:45 PM
(Adjusted for timezone: Europe/London)
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Jason Koumas / John Morrissey
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A localish derby against Port Vale is next up for Rovers. The Valiants have started the season reasonably well and sit in eleventh place, but are on a very poor away run of no wins in fourteen games. On Tuesday night they lost at Carlisle.

Their squad contains plenty of quality and a few familiar faces. Tom Pope and our old nemesis Ricky Miller make a formidable front pairing, while this summer Vale also brought in two outstanding young talents who were regular opponents of ours at Aldershot, Oyelike and Kanu. It is a strong squad, but probably not as stellar as Manfield's and hopefully this will be a slightly less challenging fixture.

I would expect Rovers to line up with an unchanged eleven, although it will be interesting to see who makes the bench after the arrival of the loan striker this week. This season I think we need to target matches where a victory is realistic, and I think this is one of those matches. We certainly need a win with a very tough trip to Northampton to follow next week.

There were already pre-sales of 4,500 this afternoon, including 600 Vale fans, so there should be another healthy gate of 6.500-7,000 with over 1,000 from the Potteries.
 
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Alan King, Barry Dyson
Another derby we have missed over recent seasons. It should be a great atmosphere tomorrow.

It has been a strange season so far. Our four away goals have earned us just one point, while our solitary home goal has been enough for four points. I expect Vale's poor away run will mean a defensive, spoiling game. After scoring three in their first game, Vale have hit just two in four. However, we will need to be more clinical up front and concentrate at the back to get all the points. I am tipping 2-0, but would not be surprised to lose 0-1. I would expect an unchanged lineup.
 

Sparky

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Chris Greenacre
I’ve not long watched the Vale pre match interview with their coach a certain Gary Brabin.

His inside knowledge of a few of his signings for us could be relevant.

As RLC points out, Vale have some major attacking threats. Ex Wrexham loanne Scott Quigley is also in their squad who scored against us at the racecourse last year. By brabins own admissions they haven’t gelled yet going forward.

I’m expecting a tough game. It’s winnable but a draw wouldn’t surprise me.
 

Ian

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I think now after a few games it’s clear to see the difference in quality from the league below. We have to be on the ball at all times otherwise we’ll get punished. Expect a decent workout from this lot but a good competitive game which I hope we can squeeze a result from. Forward line has to be as effective as the defence and when we get a chance, we put it away aka Swindon.
 
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Agreed, Ian. But the upside is that no one in L2 treats a match at PP like a cup final. By and large, they want to play football and won't park the bus.
 

Boz

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Unsure I’d class this as a derby, but should be a decent turnout, around 7k. I’d feel more confident if Vale’s away form had been better.
 
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Unsure I’d class this as a derby, but should be a decent turnout, around 7k. I’d feel more confident if Vale’s away form had been better.
When I was a lad, we played derbies every season against Chester, Southport and Wrexham. Now any team within an hour's drive has to count, otherwise we'd have hardly any. :)
 
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aldo
With over 5200 pre sales nd over 720 away fans . I am pissed im gonna miss it the atmosphere will be great there today for once a proper away support we havent seen that for a while . Appart from Wrexham or Chester. First home game over 2900 paid on day if the same happens today that's an 8k plus turn out 3-0 with smith . Mdh and noors getting them
 

Cowshed Kid

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Agreed, Ian. But the upside is that no one in L2 treats a match at PP like a cup final. By and large, they want to play football and won't park the bus.

Have to agree with that.
I went home on Tuesday not thinking that we'd dropped two points but that we'd seen a great game of football between two teams going about winning the game.
It certainly proved we can compete this season.
I don't think today will be any different.
Some decent players in that Vale team and we may well slog it out for another point.
I'd take that......as long as it keeps us away from the bottom two!!
 

Cowshed Kid

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With over 5200 pre sales nd over 720 away fans . I am pissed im gonna miss it the atmosphere will be great there today for once a proper away support we havent seen that for a while . Appart from Wrexham or Chester. First home game over 2900 paid on day if the same happens today that's an 8k plus turn out 3-0 with smith . Mdh and noors getting them

Carlsberg don't do match previews.
But if they did...........
 

Boz

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No surprise there. Nick Long on the bench ahead of Gilmour, think he’s a defender(?) and new striker not on the bench either
 

Boz

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Started well, but Vale got more into it. Miller has been pulling the referee’s strings a bit. Rovers had the better chances, Smith fairly quiet and Stockton ineffective so far.
 
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Phew! Looks like we just about deserved it but it could have gone either way. Now missing out on a play-off spot only on goal difference. What would we do without Nors?
 

Cowshed Kid

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Tremendous stuff.
I'm away and have been following on Twitter.
Might be slightly biased but it sounded like it was deserved.
How different the atmosphere is about the place these days.
I actually had mates asking me if our tickets were going spare.
Ok, last two were both home games, but there can no doubt now that we ARE back where we belong.
 

Sparky

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We defintakwy deserved it CK based on the 2nd half. First half was a bit of a stalemate. Neither side creating much except long range efforts.

Second half was similar early on and the changes gave us fresh energy with DMH excellent and Mullin a nuisance. Nors worked his socks off and deserved his goal. Nors missed a late one on one albeit on his left foot and Mullin missed another one on one himself, finishing poorly.

The defence was immense today with caprice very good, Ellis and Big Mac were excellent and my mom was big monthe who was excellent all game at both ends. Stockton again had some nice touches but has no aerial threat and doesn’t look like scoring at all. I would have possibly put Tollit on for CJ if we hadn’t scored when we did. CJ as usual put a real shift in but didn’t create much.

I still think we need more goals but let’s celebrate the win.
 
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A well deserved victory. The first half was cagey, albeit we had the better chances. However, after half time we completely dominated and had chances to win the game more comfortably, as Sparky mentions.

I thought Vale looked like a typical Brabin team. They played five at the back and were well organised defensively, but came to frustrate and nick something, rather than really take the game to us. I don't think they had a shot on target in the ninety minutes and they got what they deserved in the end.

Individually, I agree with Sparky about the back four, who were immense. I lost count of the number of headers Macca and Ellis won and their positional sense is excellent. Miller got nothing out of them at all, and when he drifted wide on to Monthe, the big man snuffed him out completely. Great to see.

Elsewhere, I thought McCullough was really classy in midfield. He takes up good defensive positions in front of the back four, but also offers something with the ball and some of his passing was excellent. Smith was really lively in the first half, but had a difficult game up against Montano, who I thought was Vale's best player. Stockton was pretty ineffective and Mullin offered much, much more when he came on. He made himself a real nuisance and deserves to start on that showing. It was a brilliant run by Caprice to set up Nors for the goal. Connor looks out of sorts on the left hand side, and I wonder if being played out of position every week is catching up with him at a higher level, against better players. I agree with Sparky that Monthe was man of the match: he was an absolute colossus and seems to get better every game at the moment.

I think Micky got the timing of the subs spot on, and DMH and Mullin gave us something extra in the final half an hour.

Up to tenth position, and the positive start continues.
 

Boz

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Think we deserved the win today and after taking the lead through a scrappy goal from Norwood (but they all count) could have extended it through Mullin and Norwood, though Vale had two penalty shouts turned down as they tried to level.

I agree with Sparky re Monthe as MoM. The sponsors opted for McNulty, who played well but got away with a few things today. DMH and Mullin made a difference when coming on, particularly Dylan who gave their defence more to think about than a below par Johnny Smith had managed.
 
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