Well, I suppose being able to come away from your first away match of your season with a goalless draw after spending much of the time on the back foot is not too bad, but in truth the phrase which came to mind at the final whistle tonight at Port Vale was “more by luck than judgement”.
A consistent refrain from supporters through the summer was that we needed leaders, more mental toughness and more solidity in defence. Despite the clean sheet from a hard won point at Port Vale tonight, it seems to me that the game offered more proof of these things. As we saw too often last season, it looked like some of the players in blue didn’t fancy it, hence our opponents looking like they wanted it more – probably because they did.
City made three changes from Saturday with new loan signing (yes, we’ve signed someone!) Nathan Trott selected in goal for the unlucky Matt Turner, Calum Chambers returning from suspension in place of Will Fish and Chris Willock coming in for Cian Ashford.
Chambers took over as captain from Rubin Colwill and gave an eccentric first half showing in which he came as close as anyone did all game to breaking the deadlock when he dived to head a cross against his own upright and out for a corner. There were other dodgy moments from the former England international, but, thankfully he improved somewhat after the break. Even so, although it was no surprise that it was Dylan Lawlor who came off for Fish when Brian Barry-Murphy decided he’d seen enough, I thought the youngster had been the better of the two centrebacks at that point (after the game, BBM stated that the reason for Lawlor’s withdrawal was that he’d mentioned his hamstring was feeling tight at half time).
Trott had a quiet debut because for all that Vale were the more lively, committed and dynamic team, both sides only managed one on target attempt each (I think ours must have been a far post header from a corner by Chambers which the keeper saved easily) . City’s new keeper did not have a difficult save to make, but, although he looked confident at first with the ball at his feet, Trott’s kicking fell away in quality as the game went on and it was odd to see him kicking it long and high to sub Callum Robinson late on.
Willock was part of an attack which laboured all night as he and Ollie Tanner, with his new four year contract, produced a variety of crosses which all had the unifying factor that they were rubbish! Most of them were played as if they were being delivered into a force eight gale which necessitated the ball being hit much harder than normal except that, it looked as flat as millpond at Vale Park on the stream I was watching and Sky’s commentators didn’t mention anything about there being a strong wind blowing.
Yousef Salech cut a frustrated figure up front, he had one early shot which flew not too far high and wide, but received no sort of service from the wings and, with dead ball deliveries being equally as slipshod, never looked like scoring. That said, he should have had a penalty when centreback Jesse Debrah clearly grabbed him on a couple of occasions as he tried to get on the end of a Ryan Wintle through ball, but referee Tom Reeves waved play on.
Actually, having been critical of referee Ben Speedie on Saturday, I thought Mr Reeves did pretty well tonight and it seemed to me that, if anything, he and his linesmen favoured us a little. For example, Vale right back Liam Clark had the ball in our net early in the second half only for the goal to be ruled out for offside when replays showed it to be a very, very tight decision. Similarly, a header which cannoned off the underside of the crossbar for the home side was deemed to be offside when replays showed that was clearly not the case.
There was also a tackle by Joel Bagan which might well have seen him shown a straight red card following an incident which epitomized the difference in attitude between the two teams as a home player showed tremendous spirit to keep the ball from going for a goal kick only for us to then carelessly present Port Vale with the ball, immediately followed by a free kick – I think a yellow card was the right decision, but wouldn’t have been surprised at all by a red.
On the subject of carelssness, BBM seemingly wants his wingers taking throw ins when they’re deep inside the opposition’s half, but foul throws conceded by Tanner and I think it was Isaak Davies late on were very cheap, easilly correctable, errors.
All over the pitch, Vale looked more urgent and they seemed to get their head on every corner and free kick that came into our penalty area with Debrah’s powerful header from a corner being blocked close to our goal line by Ronan Kpakio and then another one from the same player was no more than a couple of feet wide.
City improved for a while when Ashford, Fish and David Turnbull replaced the out of sorts Tanner, Lawlor and Joel Colwill, but there was still no end product and it was Vale who finished the stronger although, by now, the lack of quality in front of goal was clear to see from both sides.
So, a real sense of after the Lord Mayor’s Show after Saturday, but, hopefully, this will have been a wake up call that the three or four more new arrivals that we hear are coming eventually really are needed.
Notts County gave us a very uncomfortable second half in our final friendly game because, basically, they bullied us and tonight Port Vale did much the same for ninety minutes. We need players who are strong physically and mentally because the evidence of last season and the start of this one is that we don’t have enough of them at the moment.
Four days after our Under 21s fired blanks while going out of the Nathaniel MG Cup at Cambrian, they faced Premier League’s Wolves’ under 21s in their final pre season game at Leckwith on Tuesday and beat them 5-0 thanks to goals by Will Spiers (2), Luke Pearce, Jake Davies and Troy Perrett.
