Well, I suppose being able to come away from your first away match of your season with a goalless draw after spending much of the time on the back foot is not too bad, but in truth the phrase which came to mind at the final whistle tonight at Port Vale was “more by luck than judgement”.
A consistent refrain from supporters through the summer was that we needed leaders, more mental toughness and more solidity in defence. Despite the clean sheet from a hard won point at Port Vale tonight, it seems to me that the game offered more proof of these things. As we saw too often last season, it looked like some of the players in blue didn’t fancy it, hence our opponents looking like they wanted it more – probably because they did.
City made three changes from Saturday with new loan signing (yes, we’ve signed someone!) Nathan Trott selected in goal for the unlucky Matt Turner, Calum Chambers returning from suspension in place of Will Fish and Chris Willock coming in for Cian Ashford.
Chambers took over as captain from Rubin Colwill and gave an eccentric first half showing in which he came as close as anyone did all game to breaking the deadlock when he dived to head a cross against his own upright and out for a corner. There were other dodgy moments from the former England international, but, thankfully he improved somewhat after the break. Even so, although it was no surprise that it was Dylan Lawlor who came off for Fish when Brian Barry-Murphy decided he’d seen enough, I thought the youngster had been the better of the two centrebacks at that point (after the game, BBM stated that the reason for Lawlor’s withdrawal was that he’d mentioned his hamstring was feeling tight at half time).
Trott had a quiet debut because for all that Vale were the more lively, committed and dynamic team, both sides only managed one on target attempt each (I think ours must have been a far post header from a corner by Chambers which the keeper saved easily) . City’s new keeper did not have a difficult save to make, but, although he looked confident at first with the ball at his feet, Trott’s kicking fell away in quality as the game went on and it was odd to see him kicking it long and high to sub Callum Robinson late on.
Willock was part of an attack which laboured all night as he and Ollie Tanner, with his new four year contract, produced a variety of crosses which all had the unifying factor that they were rubbish! Most of them were played as if they were being delivered into a force eight gale which necessitated the ball being hit much harder than normal except that, it looked as flat as millpond at Vale Park on the stream I was watching and Sky’s commentators didn’t mention anything about there being a strong wind blowing.
Yousef Salech cut a frustrated figure up front, he had one early shot which flew not too far high and wide, but received no sort of service from the wings and, with dead ball deliveries being equally as slipshod, never looked like scoring. That said, he should have had a penalty when centreback Jesse Debrah clearly grabbed him on a couple of occasions as he tried to get on the end of a Ryan Wintle through ball, but referee Tom Reeves waved play on.
Actually, having been critical of referee Ben Speedie on Saturday, I thought Mr Reeves did pretty well tonight and it seemed to me that, if anything, he and his linesmen favoured us a little. For example, Vale right back Liam Clark had the ball in our net early in the second half only for the goal to be ruled out for offside when replays showed it to be a very, very tight decision. Similarly, a header which cannoned off the underside of the crossbar for the home side was deemed to be offside when replays showed that was clearly not the case.
There was also a tackle by Joel Bagan which might well have seen him shown a straight red card following an incident which epitomized the difference in attitude between the two teams as a home player showed tremendous spirit to keep the ball from going for a goal kick only for us to then carelessly present Port Vale with the ball, immediately followed by a free kick – I think a yellow card was the right decision, but wouldn’t have been surprised at all by a red.
On the subject of carelssness, BBM seemingly wants his wingers taking throw ins when they’re deep inside the opposition’s half, but foul throws conceded by Tanner and I think it was Isaak Davies late on were very cheap, easilly correctable, errors.
All over the pitch, Vale looked more urgent and they seemed to get their head on every corner and free kick that came into our penalty area with Debrah’s powerful header from a corner being blocked close to our goal line by Ronan Kpakio and then another one from the same player was no more than a couple of feet wide.
City improved for a while when Ashford, Fish and David Turnbull replaced the out of sorts Tanner, Lawlor and Joel Colwill, but there was still no end product and it was Vale who finished the stronger although, by now, the lack of quality in front of goal was clear to see from both sides.
So, a real sense of after the Lord Mayor’s Show after Saturday, but, hopefully, this will have been a wake up call that the three or four more new arrivals that we hear are coming eventually really are needed.
Notts County gave us a very uncomfortable second half in our final friendly game because, basically, they bullied us and tonight Port Vale did much the same for ninety minutes. We need players who are strong physically and mentally because the evidence of last season and the start of this one is that we don’t have enough of them at the moment.
Four days after our Under 21s fired blanks while going out of the Nathaniel MG Cup at Cambrian, they faced Premier League’s Wolves’ under 21s in their final pre season game at Leckwith on Tuesday and beat them 5-0 thanks to goals by Will Spiers (2), Luke Pearce, Jake Davies and Troy Perrett.
Finally, I was not surprised at all to learn this week that the food inflation figure for last month had risen to 4 per cent because I’d been noticing the increase in prices on my weekly shop over the summer. The cost of living crisis has not gone away and so my message to all of you who generously make a financial contribution towards the running of this blog is that you don’t need to do so any more. I needed help tp keep MAYA going when my only income was my works pension, but now that I’m getting my state pension as well, I have no problem funding the blog myself. Therefore, although I’ll continue to be very grateful to anyone who wants to continue to support MAYA, if some of you who are contributing are feeling the pinch, then, by all means, cancel your payments to me – I’ll just remain very grateful for the help you gave me when I really needed it.
If this was a boxing bout of 12 rounds, The Valiants won on an easy points decision. I gave them at least 7 of the 8 minute rounds, with City taking 2, and 3 being shared.
As for your report Paul, you rightly slate certain players. But me, I’d slate them all.
I have just jumped the Echo paywall, to see what Glen Williams had to say. And he astonishes me… he gives some of them a 6/10.
Eh? None of them warranted more than a 5.
Here I quote from his players’ ratings…
‘…
Nathan Trott 6
?
A bright outing from the debutant. Really clever and composed with his feet and was safe with his hands, too. Couple of misplaced passes later on.
…’
OMG… Glen boy, what game were you watching? ‘A bright outing’? Thou canst not be serious.
My assessment of Trott – who I can immediately see has the capacity to GIVE me the trots – was that last night was not so much a ‘bright’ outing, as a very REVEALING one.
I have him filed in the filing cabinet in my brain under one word… ‘cocky’…
And that is the one position on the field where one does not want a player fitting that description.
Unfortunately, this has immediately coloured my judgement of BBM. What arrogance on his part to think that our current three keepers were not good enough for him… when one is (overall, our finest since the long gone days of Maurice Swan, certainly nonpareil in terms of distribution) and the other two, judging by yesterday, whilst not Alnwick-esque, can play just as well as Trott with their feet. (I’m damn sure that they would not have tried that cocky goalkeeping Barnet-type Horlicks after 3 or so minutes that Trott luckily got away with.)
So why has BBM so discriminated against Jak? I guess partly because BBM figured that if a team ended up bottom of 24, then the keeper must be partly to blame. (Listen, BBM… City could have had Gianluigi Donnarumma between the sticks all last season and they would still have been relegated.)
So adding a supernumerary keeper to the wage bill shows how fiscally irresponsible you are… and that’s assuming you have not paid a loan fee to Copenhagen? If you have done BBM, more fool Mehmet for listening to you.
Money wasted on a keeper who, if he was any real quality, would not be changing clubs with the frequency of ‘changing trains’.
Jak boy, you have my sympathy.
And the thought occurs that your beard does not help… how many top goalkeepers are there with beards? BBM and his like have a identikit goalie in their minds-eye… and he does not look like you. But as a man with a beard myself… I can only say ‘keep saying no to a razor’…!!
Back to Glen Williams. Let me run this by you…
‘…
Ronan Kpakio 6 (star man)
?
Another positive display from the youngster. Building on his attacking display in the opening match, he looked more assured in defence.
…’
‘Star’ man…? Eh…?
Firstly, there were no star men in such a drab performance. And were I forced to pick one, then it would not be Ronan, who looked decidedly shaky and whose passing was way off.
Indeed, I think there is a case for Perry NG to take his starting berth.
As for the rest of the team… yes Paul you are right in your view of the appalling performance of Alf Tupper*. Crossing? He could not cross the road, last night.
Same goes for Willock, whose purchase I denounced at the time as a waste of money. He has done nothing of substance all the time he has been here.
Calum Chambers was another player whose transfer to us has not worked out. He is too easily bullied to be a centre back, and as for him being made captain… well BBM missed a trick by not giving the armband to Rubin permanently.
You saw what happened with Rubin last night… he slunk into anonymity… whereas with the armband, he’d have been ‘at it’ for the full ninety.
As for the Bagan yellow… it had the looks of a silly rash tackle, but in terms of its severity, it only warranted a LEMON card… for his boot made no contact with the Valiant man’s leg. Indeed that fellow rolling about, should have got an ORANGE card for trying to get a fellow pro sent off.
And how refreshing to hear Darren Moore say what he said of the incident after the game. How he came across in post match interviews so much better than his Cardiff equivalent. The man just oozes good grace.
BBM still thinks that Salech can play up front on his own… marked by two big men tugging at his shirt. No, he cannot… he is the total antithesis of a Wyn Davies who died the other day.
* Alf Tupper the Tough of the Track, from the comic book hero of 65 years ago… Tanner does not just have a surname as redolent as Tupper in the annals of great names of the horny handed sons of toil… but Ollie even looks like I imagine Alf Tupper to have looked like…
Will sign off now…
TTFN,
Dai.
Good morning Paul and others – Thanks for your summary of last night’s City effort (not sure if “effort” is the appropriate word) and I endorse your every word.
If the City are to play with two wide men ala Man City, then they had better find two who are competent at crossing the ball than those who operated in that position yesterday. Awful, dreadful and stronger words come to mind. Both Willock and Tanner were lucky to be on the pitch after half-time.
And if we have a defensive coach/s, they really have considerable work to do in enabling those who have to defend set piece deliveries coming into our penalty area to do just that – defend. I lost count of just how many time Port Vale’s attackers were able to win headers by being first to the incoming ball, and lucky that few were on target.
So two games in, and still unbeaten but bruised after last night. A rude awakening after Saturday. Welcome to League !.
Good morning one and all. Ta, again, Paul for your summary of last night’s encounter. The enthusiasm of Saturday’s game soon evaporated into the nervousness of last night’s, didn’t it?
It was Alan Hansen who perceptively stated, “You’ll never win anything with kids.” How true. Whist City 2025/26 has a good number of promising youngsters, to throw them into the maelstrom that is the Third Division was proved, like many stated, fool-hardy last night. As has been reported numerous times we need a couple of hacks who have seen the dark arts of this level before and know how to combat it.
So, the same 4231 formation as Saturday, though Colwill (J) was forced to play somewhat deeper since Port Vale’s almost total superiority over the night. The end product from Willock and Tanner was non-existent whilst the isolated Salech, marked by the 6’2” lump that was Jesse Debrah, was more like a boxing match. His was a gruelling night’s work as the Vale defender, used fair means but mostly foul to nullify the City player. Four incidents, including a knee in the face, went unpunished before the ref finally got around to talking to him on 80 mins after the City player’s shirt was pulled three-quarters off his back. Sky could have done with that native of Newport, Raymond Glendenning, to do the inter-round summaries that he was famed for on the many boxing commentaries he graced on the radio.
Much has been said of the Bagan challenge, one made to look far worse by the histrionics of Lorent Tolaj. Ten year old boy’s I refereed in junior school got up much quicker from tarmac surfaces, with blood streaming from knees, than him. Bagan’s tackle clearly only made impact with the ball though his boot bounced up from striking it before making contact with the shin. Had the ball not been there it would have been a definite red. A yellow I felt was a correct decision. Overall, though, the officials ruled in our favour and disallowed two efforts from the home side.
A pleasing point from Port Vale it was but it was very much a poor performance which brought out into the open the urgent need for reinforcements. Please Mr Tan, the statements attributed to you of, ‘a zero budget,’ and going with the kids needs to be reappraised. Good though they may, a Donald Murray at the back and a Paul Ramsey or Graham Kavanagh in central midfield are urgently required to give the kids a chance.
Many thanks Paul and Steve for your belated comments re that video survey of the stadia in Div 1 (MAYA readers please see their comments on last week’s posting.)
And special thanks Steve boyo for here reminding us that Raymond Glendenning was born in Newport. The beauty of MAYA is that – to use the words of the old Screws of the World – ‘all human life is here’…!!
I had not thought of that name for many years… and although I knew he was a Newport boy, I confess that I had forgotten the fact.*
Nor have I forgotten my late dad in 1957 waking me up in the middle of the night to go downstairs to hear RG broadcasting from Buenos Aires as our Dai Dower from Abercynon fought Argentina’s Pascual Pérez for the world flyweight title. My dad lit the gas stove as the fight started, and put the kettle on for us to have a cup of tea… as he did, I watched the lights go on in houses below us all over Porth.
At the same moment the kettle started to whistle, the lights went out for poor Dai Dower… knocked out in the first round.
Glendenning himself was fatally knocked out by a heart attack at 66, and for British people who were not alive in his day, it is difficult to really convey his degree of fame. His voice was unmistakable… he had ironed out the creases in his boyhood accent to such an extent that you’d have sworn that his alma mater was Eton College rather than Newport High School.
I submit his voice was better known than any broadcasting voice of the day… including the voices of both John Arlott and Kenneth Wolstenholme.
*nothing unusual in that… I cannot tell you what I even had for dinner last night.
DW
Thanks for your replies and good to hear from you again Brian. Just a few thoughts about some of the issues raised in your replies. Starting with our new goalkeeper, the first thing I’d say is that I’m not convinced we needed him. Although Ethan Horvarth’s nightmare at Burnley this time last year means I just don’t trust him with the ball at his feet even if he strikes me as a good reaction save type keeper. However, even if Horvarth is discarded, I’d have no problem with Jak Alnwick as number 1 keeper at this level and Matt Turner did well on Saturday when given. his chance.
The thing is, BBM clearly wants his own man in and has talked about how Trott gives us something extra in terms of playing out from the back. I’ve made my view clear about this way of playing in the past, if it costs us more goals than it creates over the course of a season, then we should bin it. However, I’m sure this manager won’t think like that and we’ll keep on doing it – furthermore, he clearly thinks Trott will make us better at it.
I honestly cannot say much about Nathan Trott after watching his debut for us – is he a good shot stopper? Who knows, because, for all that we were second best on the night, Port Vale could only muster one on target goal attempt – a clear sign of the lower standard at which we’re playing this season. As for the facet of the game that he’s supposed to be better at than his three rivals, Trott got out of trouble adroitly once, but I’d rather not see him get in trouble in the first place and, for someone who is, apparently, supposed to give us an extra dimension, I found it pretty depressing that he ended the game pumping long balls up to Callum Robinson of all people.
I’m in agreemnt with Dai and Steve when it comes to the Bagan tackle, he clearly got the ball, but his foot slid over the top of it and so caught the Port Vasle player higher than it would have done. That said, I wouldn’t have been shocked at all by a decision to send him off because there was an “out of control” element to it. However, I reckon a referee who quite impressed me after all of the awful things I’d heard about officals at this level came down on the right side of what was almost a 50/50 decision for me – he mat have been let down by one of his linesmen, but I thought Mr Reeves had a pretty good game.
Brian is spot on about Port Vale’s complete domination when it came to getting the first touch on crosses into our penalty area. Things did improve somewhat with the introduction of Will Fish, but it’s a fault that has been carried over from last season and, talking of 24/25, I thought Thursday showed that the mental scars from our worst season in a quarter of a century are a long way from being healed. I differ from Steve to the extent that I don’t see the younger players as the main problem here. We brought in two of the more experienced players from last season for a couple of youngsters and our performance level dived. Furthermore, it seemed to me that Rubin Colwill made a far better fist of the captaincy that Calum Chambers did – Chambers had enough problems of his own in the first forty five minutes in particular and, as for Colwill, we saw him slipping back into the anonymity that we saw from him too often last season.In the main, our more experienced players let us down badly last season and I’ve little faith in them doing much better this time around.
Talking of little faith, I’m no more than hopeful that we’ll bring in players who will bring about the change in attitude required to see us move away from rhe sort of feeling sorry for ourselves attitude we saw so much of last season which raised its head again on Thursday. You’d think that with us seemingly looking at loans more than the permanent signings market that any new players brought in are going to be younger than the likes of Chambers, Willock, Wintle, Robinson etc. Therefore, they would have to be something special to being about the disappearance of the damaging attitudes from last season which I believe threaten to hold us back again this time around.