Match Discussion: Game 35 - The Valiants (H)

[cheeky~k8]

The defense did well but it was lacking in the midfield and strikers areas.

[upthepies]

It wasn't a bad performance, but at the same time it wasn't good either.

Overall it was just very flat and effortless, Notts was setup to defend. The plan was to hoof under pressure, hoof when in possession and hoof just for good measure. Neal Ardley failed to instruct the players that the game was important to win, he didn't even see that Port Vale was there for the taking IF performances levels lifted. It was like a club wanting to settle for a point because that outcome was good enough. In the case for Notts it simply wasn't.

The lack of efforts on goals stems from the boring tactics.

[menzinho]

I really felt yesterday was the day we’d make a statement, get back to winning ways and get that optimistic mood back.

Port Vale were bottom of the form table, as a poor team we’ll get to play this season and we made them look half decent. We looked nervous, we didn’t have any sustained spells of pressure just wasted the ball (hoofed it) far too often. The second half was just a complete non-event from us.

Neal Ardley spoke in his press conference before the game that in his eyes it wasn’t a 6 pointer, it absolutely was, and we’re not going to get many more home games where we’ll have a great chance of picking up 3 points.

The draw against Lincoln and the two wins are now just a distant memory, 1 point from every 3 isn’t going to keep us up.

The pressure's on with back to back away games now and we have to win at least one of them.

[BESTpie]

I would take the draw but Cheltenham is now a must win game.

IF the effort is to rely on draws we are doomed as a club because Ardley needs to go for the points, instead of setting a team to park the bus.

[eighteensixtytwo]

If anyone says the game wasn't entertaining they're lying, as goalless draws go the game wasn't bad.

The issue is the fact Notts never looked like scoring.

[super_pie]

On 02/03/2019 at 22:23, Chris said:

The fault today is the in-game tactics and midfield.

If there was more effort and smarter play from the midfield, Notts would have controlled the game. Port Vale looked useless in midfield, however they took  control and looked better as a result of that.

If Notts kept the ball down, passes it around and made good runs - it would have completely been a different game.

There was little to no service for the strikers.

Jon Stead should have been the first off, we needed pace and although Virgil Gomis was very poor. He did force the play, issue again was the fact that too many players played below average. Ryan Schpfield did well, most of his kicking was fine. Very few times did anyone other than CMS or Stead try to get it down.

I agree