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Vale 1 Dale 0
Wednesday, 17th Aug 2016 08:34 by Col

Few thoughts on Tuesday night's defeat at Vale Park.

I don't think there was much option other than playing Cannon at right back. I know he's the lad in form, but for all Lund has fitted in at right back before, he's always looked a weak link to me when playing there, and it would have been a big ask for Tanser to make his first appearance of 2016 on the wrong side. Maybe going three at the back with wingbacks was an option (thats what I thought from the team sheet) but we don't know how late Raff was pulled out which might not have given them time to work on it.

At half time last night, I was pretty pleased with how things were going. We'd played some lovely football - at times some of the best I've seen in the League One from us, and we had created 2 or 3 decent chances. Perhaps it was a touch of the rose coloured specs but we were up against a footballing side, and we were outpassing and outplaying them for the majority of the first half, and with the exception of one of the most glaring free header misses you'll ever see, we were never troubled by Vale.

But, and there's always a but, the concern at half time was that Vale were absolutely there for the taking, but we've said that at Vale Park many, many times in the past, and so it proved to be the case again.

Vale stepped up a gear at half time, disrupted our play a little and we fell to pieces. They scored with a move from our left hand side which is already becoming a theme, and from that moment on, we didn't look like getting anything from the game. I couldn't tell you whether it was Vale doing everything right and forcing us into the change, but we just stopped playing football and played in such a way that became very comfortable for the home side, and as the half went on, it had the feeling of one of those away trips to Barnsley where they could have picked us off at will. A better side than Vale could have finished with four or five goals as we huffed and puffed to get something. We could have snatched a late scrambled goal but we wouldn't have deserved it.

Someone mentioned that KH doesn't know his best side. I'd say that the problem at the moment is that he does know it but the squad at the moment doesn't allow him to improve it. I don't think Camps is up to his best yet - there were glimpses last night but not much more than that, but for the res t of the squad, there's no one who you'd say could come on and give Vale problems.

The lad from Wigan looks like he's never played the game before and in the two showings I've seen from him so far, he looks detrimental to our play. I'd rather Reuben be given a chance off the bench than him, and I'v e never been one shouting for RNL to be given another chance.

Photo: Action Images



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