End of season 2013/14 review – one vale fan article

Hi,

I'm the reporter for the Port Vale Fans Forum One Vale Fan.

Part of my role is to contact fans of our rivals new to the league for 2014/15 to ask them a few questions and gain their views on the season just past and next season in League 1 in order to produce a summer article which we release on the site.

I wondered if one or more of you have a few minutes and would be prepared to share a few views if you would kindly offer your feelings on the game by answering the following few questions;

THIS SEASON
1. Best player this season (it can be more than one / with mentions of most improved etc.)?
2. Highlight(s) of the season on the pitch?
3. Worst moment(s) of the season on the pitch?
4. Sum up the season in a sentence or two. How have your team done in the 2013/14 campaign in general & in relation to what you expected at the start of the season?
5. Your view on off-field affairs this season?

NEXT SEASON
6. What are your expectations for next season (both ideally & realistically)?
7. Where do the club need to strengthen on the pitch?
8. If you could take one Port Vale player for next season who would it be?
9. What do the club need to do off-field to improve?
10. If you were granted one wish for next season, what would it be?


Please also feel free to include any other information you feel worthy and I will knock it into a report. To enable me to produce this in good time I need a reply by Friday 13th June and the report should appear on the website a couple of days later.

Please also let me know if you would like me to include your name on the article. Many thanks for your potential support in this matter.

Best Regards,



REP

 

1. Chris O'Grady. Special mention to Dale Jennings.
2.Beating Huddersfield at home.With wing backs and Reuben Noble Lazarus. Which Flitcroft then abandoned. Naturally
3. The other 45 games.
4. Culmination of years of bad off-field management in my opinion.
5. See 4.

6. Ideally - play offs. Realistically - mid table.
7. 1 - 11.
8. Sorry mate, don't know enough about you. Any decent strikers ? Midfielders? Defenders ?
9. Get new owners.
10. New owners.

 

THIS SEASON
1. Best player this season (it can be more than one / with mentions of most improved etc.)?
Probably Chris O'Grady, scored 15 goals up front on his own in a team that barely created a chance.
2. Highlight(s) of the season on the pitch?
Yeovil away, beat them 4-1 and gave us a good shout at staying up. Couldn't build on it though which was a shame.
3. Worst moment(s) of the season on the pitch?
Leeds at home, an utterly abject performance (by both teams) that pretty much finished us off.
4. Sum up the season in a sentence or two. How have your team done in the 2013/14 campaign in general & in relation to what you expected at the start of the season?
Proper dogshite from start to finish. Thought we'd do well in pre season but we signed too many crap players who didn't care on loan from Premier League teams.
5. Your view on off-field affairs this season?
Couldn't have gone much worse under Flitcroft. When Wilson came we signed more trash (Frimpong et al) but he didn't have much choice but to gamble in January to try and save us.
NEXT SEASON
6. What are your expectations for next season (both ideally & realistically)?
Ideally play offs, realistically I think we'll fall just short. We're going to have an entirely new squad so could take some time to get going.
7. Where do the club need to strengthen on the pitch?
Everywhere.
8. If you could take one Port Vale player for next season who would it be?
Carl Dickinson, had him at Oakwell a few years ago and he was good for us.
9. What do the club need to do off-field to improve?
Where to start!! Revenue streams mainly, we outsourced everything (club shop, catering etc) and it needs bringing back in house.
10. If you were granted one wish for next season, what would it be?
A team full of players that care about BFC and the town. If we see a team full of players that care and young lads doing their best that would be great.

 

Leeds United at home. Devoid of ideas, commitment, coherence, passion, footballing ability, and athletic ability in a game we had to win. We couldn't even succesfully lump the ball aimlessly up front.

All topped off by Paddy McCourt's second half performance - we would have been better introducing someone with locked-in syndrome to change the game.

And I'm a happy clapper.

 

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

1. Luke Steele performed admirably in goal, keeping the score respectable in quite a few games. Ogrady had a decent season, but can disappear in games. Jennings showed his massive potential after xmas.
2. Huddersfield at home. Yeovil away.
3. Take your pick from about 30 games where we were dire.
4. Awful campaign from start to finish after much optimism in the summer. Flitcroft lost the plot after our 1st day hammering by Wigan.
5. We are **** at everything off field as well as on it.

6. Ideally we should be in the top 6. Realistically, I really haven't a clue how it will turn out.
7. We need about 10 players plus, of various positions.
8. It'd have to be Pope.
9. Increase revenue.
10. Win the league and return to our spiritual home in the 2nd tier.

 

THIS SEASON
1. Best player this season (it can be more than one / with mentions of most improved etc.)?
Martin Cranie.

2. Highlight(s) of the season on the pitch?
Paddy McCourt wonder goal against Boro at home.

3. Worst moment(s) of the season on the pitch?
Harsh to single him out because he performed admirably throughout the season but one singular awful moment of the season would be O'Brien gifting the opposition a goal with an awful pass-back (can't remember who it was against). A truly head in hands moment for him and the supporters.

& Obv the moment we were relegated wasn't great!

4. Sum up the season in a sentence or two. How have your team done in the 2013/14 campaign in general & in relation to what you expected at the start of the season?
Difficult to explain just how bad we were at times. The expectations and reality were in stark contrast.

5. Your view on off-field affairs this season?
Transitional season for new Chief Exec Ben Mansford. Hoping for better next season.

NEXT SEASON
6. What are your expectations for next season (both ideally & realistically)?
Ideally - Top8 challenging for play-offs.
Realistically - somewhere in the middle third of the league by the end.

7. Where do the club need to strengthen on the pitch?
Everywhere.

8. If you could take one Port Vale player for next season who would it be?
Carl Dickinson - my favourite BFC left-back from recent times.

9. What do the club need to do off-field to improve?
Revenue streams.

10. If you were granted one wish for next season, what would it be?
We're going to need to find a few million from somewhere to be truly competitive imho.

 

THIS SEASON
1. Best player this season (it can be more than one / with mentions of most improved)
Chris O'Grady, Dale Jennings, Luke Steele
2. Highlight(s) of the season on the pitch?
Paddy McCourt's goal against Middlesbrough.
3. Worst moment(s) of the season on the pitch?
Bournemouth at home. Conceding in second half stoppage really summed up our season.
4. Sum up the season in a sentence or two. How have your team done in the 2013/14 campaign in general & in relation to what you expected at the start of the season?
Massive disappointment. The anticipation of a season of some success died in the first game when Wigan took us apart.
5. Your view on off-field affairs this season?
Chaotic seems to sum it up.
NEXT SEASON
6. What are your expectations for next season (both ideally & realistically)?
Ideally play-offs at the least. Realistically, mid-table obscurity.
7. Where do the club need to strengthen on the pitch?
Defence, midfield, attack.
8. If you could take one Port Vale player for next season who would it be?
Sorry mate, I don't know any of your players. Apologies if that sounds a bit arrogant, but I've been more concerned with who we played last season. No doubt I will know them when they knock 2 or 3 past us.
9. What do the club need to do off-field to improve?
Try and get the fans back on board. There's a feeling that the club doesn't care about the fans. It needs to be addressed.
10. If you were granted one wish for next season, what would it be?
As others have said, a team that has some heart and passion. I can forgive losing, but not lack of effort.

 

1 - Chris O'Grady won the supporters player of the year award, and it's hard to disagree with that. But I would have given it to Tom Kennedy who was our most consistent player throughout the season.

2 - The highlight for me was the minute the referee blew for full time on the last day of the season.

3 - The worst moment on the pitch was when I realised that yes, Martin Woods was just as bad as I'd expected him to be.

4 - Einstein's definition of madness.

5 - Same as number four. Our 'board/owner' are clueless.


6 - Ideally, we'll win more games, score more goals, concede less, play actual 'football' on the deck and ideally be promoted with ease. Realistically, I expect the same. This division looks piss poor, give or take a handful of clubs.

7 - Depends how many of our so called better players we keep. But we're desperately short in most positions, especially midfield. It's been that way since late January 2012.

8 - If I was a Sheffielder, my answer would have been "don't know any of your players". But I'm not. The obvious answer would be Tom Pope. But I've always liked Richard Duffy, and with us being short at right back/centre half, he'd be a canny acquisition.

9 - So much needs improving, but a good start would be to listen to supporters and to treat them as supporters, rather than feckwitted customers. Honesty goes a long way.

10 - For us to sign Adebayo Akinfenwa.



Name: André Blanc.



Good luck to Vale next season.

 

THIS SEASON
1. Best player this season (it can be more than one / with mentions of most improved etc.)?
Probably Chris O'Grady, without his goals we'd have been rock bottom all season. Honourable mention to Luke Steele as well.

2. Highlight(s) of the season on the pitch?
The home win against Huddersfield early on when optimism was still high.

3. Worst moment(s) of the season on the pitch?
The farcical loss at Hillsborough and the utterly pathetic defeats against Huddersfield and Leeds later on.

4. Sum up the season in a sentence or two. How have your team done in the 2013/14 campaign in general & in relation to what you expected at the start of the season?
A huge dissapointment given pre-season optimism and expectations. But also a sense on inevitablity given how we as a club stood in the Championship off the field.

5. Your view on off-field affairs this season?
Very muddled. Lack of a clear plan, dithering with managment decisions, continuation of stagnation largely due to lack of finance and vision.

NEXT SEASON
6. What are your expectations for next season (both ideally & realistically)?
Play Offs should be the aim. Realistically a top half finish is a must for me.

7. Where do the club need to strengthen on the pitch?
Everywhere. We're likely to need 10-12 players. A goalscorer will be top of my list.

8. If you could take one Port Vale player for next season who would it be?
Probably Tom Pope due to his tendency to find the net.

9. What do the club need to do off-field to improve?
Too much to write here! We need investment, or at least a clear medium to long term plan to evolve as a club.

10. If you were granted one wish for next season, what would it be?
Someone trustworthy to ease the pressue on our sole benefactor. Or at least smiles back on our fans faces!

 

Remember it. Heard the crack in the away end. Didn't Steve Cooper go in goal?

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Re: Never mind all that ..... flipping Robbie Earle

Hi,

Apparently he did try to make contact...
http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Robb...s-atmosphere/story-12482788-detail/story.html

I was at that game and the ref didn't even deem it a foul, I remember as the idiot sat next to me at the time was calling the keeper a cheat for staying down so long.

 

Thanks so much for all of the replies, I will pick off the best bits and create an article which will be released on our site on the weekend of 5th July