Well.. we finished the game with RHJ at centre back, Mitch Rose at right back and Ahkeem Rose hobbling about nursing a hamstring yet we managed to put bodies on the line and thwart an injury time aerial onslaught.

Sometimes a team plays really badly against a poor one-dimensional hoof ball team but with graft and desire stays in the game to give themselves an opportunity to snatch a winner, and that’s what Town did. And what a winner from Wes Thomas! Make sure you look out for the goal on the highlights as the camera view is right behind it. Superb strike from a player that had got nothing out of the game however hard he tried against an uncompromising defence and some pretty wretched service.

Seeming to be let off by the ref for playing the man rather than the ball time and time again, Pope was a handful for them up front and while not being as dominant in the air as you’d expect, Whitmore and Davies put their bodies on the line time and time again, culminating in Davies taking a kick to the face and having to be substituted.

Port Vale are a typical Aspin side, brute strength and lump it forward to the big man and feed off the bits which was fairly effective on a bobbly pitch. We just didn’t get going until we scored. We were really poor with the ball and not much better without it in front of the defence. It was the sort of game that really doesn’t suit Pringle and he was a passenger until he got substituted for Woolford who offered more protection for Fox who had a good game. RHJ did ok too even though Cardwell struggled in front of him. He looked a bit lost, heavy legged and lumbered about as hard as he tried. The midfield three put a shift in without really being careful in possession until we had a spell of counter attacking after we scored when Embleton suddenly saw more of the ball and looked threatening.

Not looking good for the next game with these injuries piling up, but today we won three points from a game where a neutral would say it was undeserved on the balance of play. Not a bad habit to have, but I’d like to see us have more energy and pace in wide areas from players that are prepared to do the dirty stuff to protect our full backs and prevent dangerous balls from deep going into our box as well as getting at their full backs. These positions would be high on the agenda in the transfer window if I were MJ.

A Thomas wonder strike and three more points. Onwards and upwards..

EDIT

Here's the goal..

https://twitter.com/pganderson/status/1077963760646713347

Thought we robbed Fail, they were the better side and more deserving of a win but it doesn't matter as we got the goal and what a strike from Thomas!

We looked slow and full of Christmas Turkey today, Vale pushed high on us forcing us to just aimlessly lump it into the channels. If we weren't ding that we looked like we had never played together, no one was on the same page.

Injuries wise, I'm not suprised that Rose pulled up the number of times he was made to sit down and after being called up. Hopefully Davis isn't concust and just has a lump of his head missing otherwise we are looking really short at the back.

Overall, not too worried after that its about time we started playing crap and winning games just shows we are finally gettting some football luck. UTM

Are you based abroad Bigdog ?

Jolley confirms concussed. Thats 2 weeks out...

In the car and delighted with the goal and points.
Vale are everything i hate, footballing dinasaurs, lump it to bruisers, dive and cheat. On that basis alone we deserved it!!

Nothing good about a trip to Vale Park

Have to say very big well done to all the players but special mention to Alex Whitmore, who has impressed me all season to be honest. When Davies went off he seemed to take control of everything that was sent into the box late on, not easy to do when your the only recognised centre defender playing a team with Vales threat with long balls.

Whilst Vale certainly had most of the play which was dominated by long balls we didn’t look in to much trouble other than a couple of spells in the second half, and the inevitable air raid in the final minutes. Albeit they did mount pressure at various points.

We certainly need to put our foot on the ball a little more and play through midfield when under pressure, something we’ve done well if late but not today.

Very impressed with how this team is blending and what it’s turning into - can win well (5-2, 4-0 etc) and can win ugly like today. Really do think Jolley is starting to get his message and influence across.

Roll on Exeter, which with our defensive injuries will be very tough.

Great result. What the intercourse are we gonna do about a back four? Expect 2-3 to come in New Year’s Day?

Do we know how bad the injuries are, do we have a timeframe for Famewo Vernam Hendrie and Davis who went off today also A Rose limping apparently, obviously we know about Collins

Worried about the injuries, delighted about the points and confused by MJ saying that he's spoken to Jack Ross at Sunderland about EE but there's no news.

6 points out of 6 -  Merry Christmas off on me jolly's (no pun intended!), see you in January!

Just back..played excrement but grafted out a win and you can see the spirit in this team.

Well done lads .

Missed the goal as we had to leave just before the break as my lad was feeling unwell but a goal worthy of winning any game

i thought their No.8 was standout for them...quick, strong physical centre mid which our midfield just couldnt compete with...luckily he was awful at shooting.
Two games in quick succession against two very limited but direct and physical sides....taking its toll on the injury front but 6 points in the bag is welcome...tough test on Saturday for whatever starting 11 we can get out.

Sometimes it's a measure of a good side if they can win ugly. Team's going great guns at the moment and long may it continue. At this rate we're heading for 60 plus points this season, which given where we were before the game at Carlisle i absolutely staggering.....8 wins 2 draws and just 4 defeats is great going in anybody's book.

Contrast today with the defeat at Cheltenham and it shows what a funny old game football is

We deserved the win but lost down in the South West but today we won when on any other day if Vale had had more composure they could have seen us off

Better to get the 3 points from these two away games though than it would have been for two drawn games

Shame we picked up more injuries and particularly sad that Davies is going to miss out for a couple of weeks ( especially the chance for him to play against Prem opposition )

Anyway onwards and more importantly  upwards we go.... thanks must go to Jolley for giving us a team that are now starting to deliver regularly for us hardened fans

Even though he may have come within a whisker of being sacked when we had that winless run, he deserves credit for where we sit at the end of 2018 ( unless your name is Swin  ;) )

UTM

We probably didn’t deserve it today but who cares? A brilliant goal by Wes from an excellent ball forward by Whitmore. The last five minutes was very tense under persistent bombardment. Happy with that and as FOOW said it makes up for the dropped points at Cheltenham.

How can people say “we didn’t deserve it”? We scored an unstoppable goal by a brilliant pass and a brilliant hit, they just hoofed it out of play most of the game and created very few chances.

UTM!

Scoring good goals doesn’t mean you deserve to win football matches. Off the top of my head by that logic we should have beat Leeds in the JPT about 9 years ago.

And Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup 22 years ago. That goal was definitely better than all their 7 added up.

But port vale didn’t score any goals....

Was there glass windows in the away toilets ?

Quoted from LH

Scoring good goals doesn’t mean you deserve to win football matches. Off the top of my head by that logic we should have beat Leeds in the JPT about 9 years ago.

Whilst all that’s true, today one team tried to play football and failed. The other team didn’t. And still failed. One moment of quality meant we won.

We’re not a perfect side, but we’re becoming increasingly resilient whilst attempting to play the game the right way. We’ve got some way to go yet, but a scrappy away win under Jolley somehow feels more genuine and meaningful than it would have under previous regimes.

Quoted from Mariner Ronnie

But port vale didn’t score any goals....

So if we didn’t score a worldie and they didn’t score either did we still win?

Quoted from Poojah

Whilst all that’s true, today one team tried to play football and failed. The other team didn’t. And still failed. One moment of quality meant we won.

We’re not a perfect side, but we’re becoming increasingly resilient whilst attempting to play the game the right way. We’ve got some way to go yet, but a scrappy away win under Jolley somehow feels more genuine and meaningful than it would have under previous regimes.

I agree

Mostly all said on previous posts; great team effort with well organised (injury weakened) squad and that all important element a real desire to play football and win.  One performance not mentioned enough imo was Fox.

The last twenty minutes we absorbed an amazing amount of pressure... I was sitting just behind the Vale dugout with an old mate and Vale pressure up that right flank (Whitfield?) was constant and relentless.... but Fox was awesome with some brilliant well timed tackles and a real grit and determination.   My MOM (for the last third of the game at least)  :)

Excellent day out with the excellent local ale Titanic being a great metaphor for Aspin's boys!

UTM