Who’d have thought after the first game of the season that we’d be in this situation after six games? This is a must win game for Lee Sinnott. Make no mistake about it, the pressure is on.
We are still losing games and thats the problem. Sinnott came to Vale Park last November with a mammoth task ahead of him, and right now it doesn’t seem like he’s managed to make any headway. There is some definite unrest amongst the Vale Park Faithful.
Two weeks ago I was looking forward to this game, we’d just beaten Bournemouth 3-1 and everything was starting to look a little bit rosy for us, whilst Macclesfield were looking as if they might well lose every game this season.
Since then Macclesfield have discovered the winning touch, beating both Luton Town and Bournemouth (the two teams that we have beaten so far) whilst we have suffered back-to-back defeats against Bradford City and yesterday Darlington.
For those travelling from Macc please click Welcome To Vale Park
The Macc Connection…
Ok, lets start with Brian Horton, a Vale player during the seventies who became the manager at Vale Park between 1999-2004. Horton subsequently went on to unsuccessfully manage Macc, was sacked and replaced by Paul Ince. Ex-Vale player Ian Brightwell went on to manage Macc – for a short time – and is now match summariser on Vale’s games on BBC Radio Stoke.
Who else? Paul Harsley, Danny Whitaker, George Abbey all came to us from Macc, and we managed to offload Michael Husbands on to them.
Currently Macclesfield have two ex-vale players in their team – goalkeeper Jonny Brain and Centre-half Richard Walker. Both are utterly useless, and when you also take Husbands into consideration we defintely have stitched them up!
Port Vale Team News:
Sam Stockley and Chris Slater were both missing last Saturday through injury, but will probably be available for this game.
Shane Tudor, Paul Edwards and Steve Thompson are not expected to be fit.
Vital Vale Line up:- Anyon(GK), Stockley(RB), Collins(LB), McCombe(CH), Slater(CH), Dodds(RM), Griffith(CM), Taiwo(CM), Taylor(LM), Rodgers(CF), Richards(CF)
Player to watch: Luke Rodgers…
Got his first league goal of the season at Darlington, and he desperately needed one for his confident. He’ll build on this.
Macclesfield Town Team News:
For all the latest on Macclesfield Town Click Here…
Player to watch: Jonny Brain…
This clown could well save Lee Sinnott from a lynching! Jonny’s useless, he really is. His goalkeeping is truly contemptable.
Current Form…
We’re not looking too hot at the moment, we’ve lost our last three games (Darlington, Bradford, Stockport in Paint Pot) and the natives are becoming a little restless. We still lack any creativity in midfield and Joe Anyon is looking shaky at the moment.
Macclesfield made an appalling start to this campaign losing their opening four games – including a fearful 6-0 drubbing at home to Darlington. 14 goals conceded, and none scored. But things are on the up for Macc, they’ve won their last two games and are now just a point behind us. Ex-Vale trialist Gareth Evans will be missing from their front-line after getting a red card in the 1-0 win over Bournemouth.
Match Prediction:
Port Vale 2-1 Macclesfield This may well be quite a physical battle and I’m not expecting to see anything remotely creative happening out on the pitch. We’ll nick it with goals from Rodgers and Dodds.
Next Fixture…
Sat 27th Sept Gillingham (a) 3pm
People had big expectations for the team this season and the 6600+ season tickets sales created a massive wave of optimism, but in reality we have a young squad who are limited in ability, I think they can improve as the season goes on but I doubt its going to be a promotion year for us.
A 4-1 drubbing! What is going on?