The 'Gannon Out' Campaign Begins!

Welcome to Port Vale Football Club Mr Gannon! An avalanche of criticism has descended over our new Manager after yesterdays disappointing 2-1 defeat at the hands of our loathsome rivals Crewe Alexandra. Internet message Boards have been filled with ill-concieved half-witted venom from overly hysterical pubescent schoolboys the length and breadth of Stoke-On-Trent.

Let's put some perspective over yesterdays events. We haven't suddenly become a poor team since the appointment of Gannon, we've been on the slide for a little while now - Micky Adams' gleaming promotion-chasing machine began stuttering back in November. Was Gannon at the helm for our defeats at Morecambe (0-1), Gillingham (0-3), Rotherham (0-5)? No.

We travelled to Gresty Road with key players missing through injury - Marc Richards, Sean Rigg, Doug Loft and Louis Dodds - our 'Iron Curtain II' defence has been shipping goals with alarming regularity, and, bar the 5-0 drubbing of Stockport, we haven't been scoring nearly enough goals. Coupled with our recent plight is the current form shown by yesterdays hosts. Crewe have been steadily rising up the table, and have arrested the glut of 'goals conceded' which threatened to leave them hovering over the relegation zone for the season. Yesterdays result was no big surprise.

Ok, fingers can point at the substitutions made by Gannon at a time when the game was in the balance, Gary Roberts and goalscorer Justin Richards hauled off, but did this really decide the outcome of the game? Did his substitutions contribute to the errors that handed Crewe the winning goal? It's just too easy and too lazy to blame the result on decisions such as this. Is it really inconceivable that Crewe could have won the game if Roberts and Richards had stayed on the pitch?

I have to say that I was not particularly inspired by those who were under consideration for the Managers job, and certainly Jim Gannon would not have been my choice as an appropriate replacement for Adams, but I'm prepared to give him a few games before hurling warped vitriol in his direction...

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