Oh dear, oh dear.... On that showing, relegation is a real possibility. Totally clueless, ineffective and downright sh*t.
The problems, well, where to start?
Firstly - Long ball football;
Reality hit home today. Hard. Under Tilly we constantly tried to get the ball down and play football. Intricate passes and slick inter-changes look a thing of the past. Instead we now have to look forward to the ball constantly being pumped high into the air. Now don't get me wrong, it can be a very effective tactic, especially at this level, but when you have zero targets, then it is about as much use as Anne Frank's drum kit. Blair Sturrock showed he is not a targetman and was beaten time and time again in the air. I lost count of the amount of hit and hope balls played up to the strikers. Clohessy must think he's Beckham or something. He's constantly pinging balls 60 yards through the air into the Vale box, but no-one even wanted to attack the ball.
Secondly - Player quality;
I'm not looking for scapegoats, but it must be said, that a lot of this mob are devoid of quality. The main culprit being Luke Prosser. He was awful today. A 13-year old schoolgirl would have been more effective. He's a weak as a kitten, his heading was atrocious and i'd hazard a guess, but I reckon he'd struggle to trap a bag of sand. No surprise he got the hook at HT. His replacement, Phillips wasn't much better. Please try out Mohsni in the next game Sturrock.
Thirdly - Cutting edge
This will be our major downfall. We had good attacking spells in the first half, but lacked that special talent to score goals. Vale might have scored 3 in the first half, but we could have had a few ourselves.
A long, hard season is in front of us, and I can see us struggling.
The problems, well, where to start?
Firstly - Long ball football;
Reality hit home today. Hard. Under Tilly we constantly tried to get the ball down and play football. Intricate passes and slick inter-changes look a thing of the past. Instead we now have to look forward to the ball constantly being pumped high into the air. Now don't get me wrong, it can be a very effective tactic, especially at this level, but when you have zero targets, then it is about as much use as Anne Frank's drum kit. Blair Sturrock showed he is not a targetman and was beaten time and time again in the air. I lost count of the amount of hit and hope balls played up to the strikers. Clohessy must think he's Beckham or something. He's constantly pinging balls 60 yards through the air into the Vale box, but no-one even wanted to attack the ball.
Secondly - Player quality;
I'm not looking for scapegoats, but it must be said, that a lot of this mob are devoid of quality. The main culprit being Luke Prosser. He was awful today. A 13-year old schoolgirl would have been more effective. He's a weak as a kitten, his heading was atrocious and i'd hazard a guess, but I reckon he'd struggle to trap a bag of sand. No surprise he got the hook at HT. His replacement, Phillips wasn't much better. Please try out Mohsni in the next game Sturrock.
Thirdly - Cutting edge
This will be our major downfall. We had good attacking spells in the first half, but lacked that special talent to score goals. Vale might have scored 3 in the first half, but we could have had a few ourselves.
A long, hard season is in front of us, and I can see us struggling.