Three Points Is Three Points…

Tuesday night at Macclesfield was a sobering experience, all the joy and hope gleaned from two draws in the league and a 1st round win at Sheff Utd in The Carling Cup cruelly snatched away from us in ninety miserable minutes at the Moss Rose.

Still, no point in crying over spilt milk, Tuesday night has gone and there’s no point in dissecting the many inadequencies in our squad made abundantly clear by a physical Macc side.

Visitors Darlington arrived yesterday at Vale Park without a single point from their opening three games, and a clutch of hardy fans who had made the long journey down. Ex-Vale midfielder Jeff Smith also made the journey with Darlo, but spent the ninety minutes on the bench.

Vale made two changes from our midweek calamity, Adam Yates replacing Sam Stockley at right-back, and Louis Dodds coming in for Anthony Griffith in the midfield. Our supposed 3-5-2 formation is still actually a 5-3-2, Yates and Kris Taylor playing as orthodox full-backs, not wing-backs as Micky Adams would have us believe.



I could have easily had a kip during the first half, only the mindless chatter of a couple sat behind me, and a goal from Marc Richards staving off my desire for a quick forty winks in the Burslem sunshine.

The football was poor and unimaginative, as you expect from two teams who had failed to win any of their opening three games, however, Vale were definitely the better team – Darlington were staggeringly hopeless – and deserved to lead at half-time. The chances created all fell to Vale, Dodds went close with a header on ten minutes, the ball flying wide of the left-hand post, although he really should have hit the target. Richards hit a decent twenty yarder that was saved by the Darlo Keeper, Richards also saw a free-kick deflected just wide.

The goal came after half-an-hour and was the best move of the game by some distance, Doug Loft feeding Rob Taylor out on the left, and his cross was smacked home by Richards – his fourth goal of the season.

Over than that nothing above mediocrity occured as twenty two footballers slugged it out in extraordinarily tedious fashion. Half time couldn’t come quick enough for me, the chance for a much needed coffee, a cigarette and a slash.

Half-time: Port Vale 1-0 Darlington

Things started to liven up in the second half, Vale creating some good attacking moves particularly down the left with Kris Taylor. Unfortunately our finishing was weak, Richards, Doug Loft and Louis Dodds all guilty of delivering lame efforts on goal when they had time and space to produce something with far more venom.

Skipper Tommy Fraser was pulling strings in midfield and at the back we looked solid, although it has to be said that Darlington were not exactly offering much of a test for Owen, Collins and McCombe.

In desperation Darlington replaced Dean Windass – who had contributed Jack Zip to the match – with kevin Gall, the non-scoring striker who had ‘enjoyed’ a loan spell at Vale Park last season, playing seven games and failing to score in all of them. Previously he had failed to score at Linoln City on a loan spell. In fact, so startlingly un-prolific in front of goal is Kevin Gall even Kyle Perry has been known to poke fun at him. Anyway, suffice to say that Gall never looked like ending his two year drought yesterday.

Vale also made changes; James Lawrie and Claus Jorgensen coming on for Doug Loft and Rob Taylor, later we would see Geoff Horsfield replacing Marc Richards.

Darlington could – and should – have equalised with ten minutes left. Substitute David Dowson broke through the middle, only to be upended by Gareth Owen. Gary Smith stepped up to take the penalty, and promptly ballooned the ball comically into the bemused Darlo fans at The Hamil Road End.

Darlo continued to press in the final stages, and with Vale losing the plot and resorting to hoofing the ball aimlessly around Vale Park the full time whistle brought welcome relief to the Vale faithful.

Not a great display, but our first win of the season, and three points is three points.

Click here for the report from Vital Darlington…

Click here for Burslem At Its Finest