A week is a long time in football, and the last seven days have certainly seen a change of fortune on the pitch for Vale and new Manager Jim Gannon. At home to Rotherham last Tuesday, and the visit to Wycombe on Saturday saw us gain a much needed, and rather surprising, four points. Even more surprising is that we have achieved this through some decent football!
So, what has happened? Why has the turgid, bland, ugly nonsense on display during Gannons opening four league games suddenly blossomed into something entertaining and enterprising?
Firstly, I think the much-publicised 'talks' between players, the Board and Manager have undoubtedly 'cleared the air', and put to bed - if even temporarily - some of the obvious unrest amongst the players, although I'm convinced certain players are stil unhappy with Gannons changes to formation and tactics. Gannon himself seems to have changed his attitude, adopting a 'softer' approach to his post-match interviews, and at least, for the time being anyway, dropping his bull-in-a-chinashop style which threatened to send us spiralling from third in the table to mid-table mediocrity in double-quick time.
Whatever the reasons behind this turning of the tide, let's just thank God that it has happened! Automatic promotion is still not beyond us, and we should certainly expect to see ourselves in the play-off's at the very least.
Over the next eleven games we have eight fixtures at Vale Park, starting with Northampton Town on Saturday 12th. We absolutely must take full advantage of this.