City’s winning start to the season came to an end in a thrilling encounter at Vale Park as the home side squeezed in a last gasp winner that, frankly, they deserved for their dominance over the first hour of the game. Vale played an attractive, fluent and expansive game that reflected well on their manager Martin Foyle, himself a one-dimensional bruising striker of little note during his playing career. Midfielder Armstrong was encouraged to burst through our defences when the home side were in possession and this tactic was never dealt with my the City midfield and defence, while Vale’s man of the match was the skilful Brooker, who drifted across the front line and the space between defence and midfield with aplomb, proving a constant thorn in the City side that eventually led to their undoing. Coupled with this attacking threat was a decent defensive unit founded on centre backs Collins and the capable flame haired ex-O and Owl Dean Smith, so altogether Port Vale looked a decent side. Alas inspection of the programme revealed that their squad is paper thin, 15-16 first teamers and a handful of kids, so while they are good side in August, what they will be like in four month’s and three injury’s time is open to question.

The Tigers were roared on by an away support of between 2,000 and 2,500, out of a pitiful crowd of just over 6,500. This perhaps suggests that while Vale were a good side in this match, they might not play that way every week. Vale Park was once a cavernous stadium that could accommodate crowds approaching 50,000, but the modern ground has smart but functional stands on three sides and a truly awful best stand down one side that has clearly been in a state of semi-completion for several years. As a result, glass fronted executive boxes and yellow seats gave way half way along to the exposed concrete and buddleia of a long abandoned building site. Shame, because if they finish it off it’d be a tidy stadium of around 20,000 capacity. The pitch was quite enormous, the marked playing area was large and flanked on at least 3 sides by generous run-off areas of 10 yards or more. No wonder they can’t afford to finish the Main Stand, the petrol bills for the lawnmower must be colossal.

Anyway, on with the match. With the away support in fine voice pre-match on the back of two good wins (although Sheffield Wednesday’s thumping of Torquay yesterday perhaps diminished the excellence of City’s 3-0 win at Plainmoor last Tuesday just a little) City lined up unchanged:

Myhill
Hinds Cort Delaney Dawson
Green Lewis Ashbee Elliott
Barmby Allsopp

Facey replaced the suspended Wilbraham on the bench, and the stocky forward was joined by Duke, Joseph, France and Walters. The early exchanges were even on a warm afternoon but Vale soon assumed the upper hand with some sweet passing and movement that left City chasing shadows far too often, and some powerful forward play by ex-Bristol City Lee Matthews, who performed similarly well against us when loaned to Darlington last season and who spent the summer searching for a club in the shadow of the less-capable but more experienced bruiser Lee Peacock. Eight minutes gone and City stood off as Vale fizzed the ball around the last third before Brooker found space and placed a low shot just wide of Myhill’s post. Good passing worked opportunities for Armstrong - who fired over - and Brooker, who stepped inside Delaney with ease and skied a routine shot from the edge of the box. With a quarter of an hour gone another slick interchange coupled with poor City marking found Matthews in space and he curled a sumptuous effort inches over. The main problem seemed to be in wide midfield areas, where Green and Elliott - so thrilling on the break as we have already discovered this season - afforded insufficient cover to full backs Dawson and Hinds. Hinds in particular was constantly exposed and taking a bit of a pasting.

A goal seemed inevitable and so it came. Remarkably it was City, who had barely had possession in Vale’s half for the first quarter of an hour, that scored it. Myhill prodded a routine drop-kick into the centre circle and Elliott rose strongly to head the ball on to Barmby. Quite where Vale’s defence had gone was a mystery and Barmby galloped into acres of space between centre spot and penalty spot before thumping a lofted shot past the exposed Brain into the back of the net. 1-0 to City, not really deserved at all, but hey, we’ll take it.

The game was now a little more even as Vale recoiled and regrouped. Matthews performed a clever turn in the box that created a glimpsed shooting chance. The shot was blocked but fell to the advancing Pilkington who struck a shot just over from 20 yards. Then a splendid slaloming run by Junior Lewis (yes, Junior Lewis) resulted in Elliott being freed wide left deep inside the Vale box, but the Ulsterman appeared to be stuck between whether to shoot or cross and ended up flashing a low drive across the face of the box that Allsopp had no chance to connect with.

With 25 minutes gone Delaney was judged harshly to have fouled Matthews on the edge of the box (the first of a number of poor decisions that referee Thorpe gave against the away side) and Vale hatched their plans with slow deliberation. Eventually a shot was fired towards the near post and Myhill stepped in behind it niftily, only for the pace of the shot to catch him out and the ball spill from his grasp into the path of the advancing Collins, who gratefully clumped home an equaliser from 4 yards out. An unfortunate fuble for the big keeper who has been practically error-free since he signed for City last December.

With parity restored the two sides traded opportunities with Vale still looking the more potent threat. Lewis flashed a shot over from a narrow angle after good running from Barmby, while Elliott headed narrowly over from a Hinds cross. A lengthy passing move confused the City defence greatly and when Pilkington eventually crossed, Matthews was left totally unmarked ten yards from goal. Remarkably, his weak header plopped into Myhill’s grasp as the lead beckoned. For all his sound approach play, perhaps the big man lacks the killer instinct in front of goal.

The half closed with Armstrong working 2 decent chances to score as he raced onto decent passes from deep positions, but both were spurned. As the teams withdrew for half time one couldn’t help but feel that while the judges’ scorecards had the bout even at the end of the sixth round, City had taken a fearful pummelling on the ropes and were lucky to still be in with a chance. Taylor signalled a willingness to inject new fight into the City attack by withdrawing Green for France within five minutes of the restart, and Walters for Allsopp moments later. Green looked injured, Allsopp looked poor.

By this time Port Vale had already eased into the lead. Another tidy exchange of passes on the Vale left - aided by the absenteeism of Green from any defensive duty - found Brooker in space centrally and he smashed a shot into the roof of the net from a range similar to that of Barmby’s first half effort. Had Taylor not acted one feared that City’s performance would have descended to rag-bag and disinterested, so once more top marks to the manager for his bold substitutions.

And so, slowly, the tide began to turn and City finally exerted some pressure on the home side. Barmby’s shot from a Hinds cross was blocked and the ball fell just behind Elliott who hooked a shot goalwards but at the keeper. City were playing the game in the Vale half now, but were 2-3 times left exposed to the fast break that the home side used with great effect, Armstrong and Matthews wasting good chances as City scrambled back to cover their lines. When Hinds was withdrawn for Facey and France deployed as advanced right-back the attacking pressure was racked up another notch, but now it was time for the referee to also exert his presence - it wasn’t entirely positive. Firstly a France cross appeared to be handled in the box, right in front the ref. It was perhaps a 50:50 shout but we needed all the help we could get. Later another cross was played into Walters’ feet and he was clearly shoved in the back by Collins. This was much more obvious, perhaps 90:10, and the referee again failed to give a decision despite being positioned well to witness the felony. You can often judge the strength of a penalty shout by the reaction of the players - City’s indignation after the alleged handball was half hearted, while the fury in Walters’ eyes as he chased 30 yards after the referee revealed that he was in no doubt that a clear spot-kick had been denied by a poor decision.

He didn’t help himself when he booked Barmby for dissent after missing another foul on the edge of Vale’s box. By now City were pummelling the Vale back four without really creating clear chances, partly perhaps because Barmby’s threat on the deck was waning as he struggled to find space in a packed final third. Goalmouth scrambles presented scoring chances to Delaney and Ashbee but both were lifted high over the goal into the City supporters. Then just as all seemed lost and the clock ticked round to 90 minutes the ball fell to Ashbee, who had limped through the final fifteen minutes with a clear injury, and the captain summoned one last effort to chip a delightful pass into the six yard box just right of the Vale goal. Walters battled gamely for the ball and squirted a pass across the face of goal, which eventually arrived at Elliott who hooked a low shot under Brain’s dive and into the net for a tumultuous, if not entirely deserved, equaliser.

A minute later Vale had a corner which was cleared from City’s box, but the back four didn’t advance quickly enough, the midfield didn’t close down the ball quickly enough (Lewis had performed magnificently to do all Ashbee’s running in the last quarter of an hour, but couldn’t be on the spot on this occasion), a Valester lofted a ball back into the mixer, Brooker skilfully controlled the ball on his chest and flipped it over his marker in one tasty motion and cracked a low shot past Myhill for the winner. An anti-climax for City fans, but in cold sober reflection one couldn’t really complain. The best team won. Simple as.

Plusses. Lewis was again splendid, his work rate excellent, his passing controlled and appropriate, he even tried some dribbles that struck fear in the Vale back four. Ashbee battled well as we know he can, even after taking a nasty looking knock shortly after the third substitution was made. Elliott put in a good shift for ninety minutes while Walters and Facey were both strong and threatening as the Vale back line tired. Delaney was typically composed while Dawson defended stoutly and provided threatening left wing crosses throughout the second half.

Minuses. Allsopp struggled to get a foothold in the game. Green went walkabout too often and was insufficiently disciplined to play his required role when Vale were dominating possession and the game. Hinds was regularly exposed, partly due to Green’s absence, and I fear visiting scouts are picking out young Richard as our weakest link. Barmby linked play together well but faded late on when City needed him most. Myhill made good saves and looked secure but, as is so often the goalkeeper’s tale, one mistake presented Vale with a goal and diminished his performance greatly.