Crewe Alex 1-2 Port Vale
We should spare a thought for those hapless fans of Crewe Alexandra, because today must have been a tragically miserable experience for them, surrendering to a superior Vale team on the pitch and wildly over-shadowed in the stands by the vociferous and relentlessly magnificent Vale Faithful. They must be heart-broken tonight. This has to be deeply humiliating when it happens on your own ground.
Sure, the kiddy-winks in the Gresty Road End, aided and abetted by the beat of a drum, gave it a good go, but in their main stand it was so quiet and unanimated I suspected I was looking across at shop mannequins, placed there by the club to disguise their embarrassing lack of support. Only when they began flooding out of the ground with five minutes left to play did we see concrete evidence that these were indeed living, breathing human beings.
For us Valiants it was another perfect day, following on from last Saturdays glorious win at Shrewsbury. We certainly didn’t dominate and control the game as we did last weekend, the absence of Skipper Tommy Fraser a contributing factor. I’ve no complaints about the contribution of Tony Griffo and Jason Jarrett in midfield, Griff in particular battled hard, putting in some crunching tackles, but Fraser was a different class at Shrewsbury and we definitely missed that today.
Crewe posed us one or two problems in the first half, Calvin Zola – who fortunately for us went off injured after 40 minutes – was a constant annoyance for our defence, and Joel Grant out on the left gave Sam Stockley a good work out. This was, by no means, the one-sided contest that most of us – including those Crewe fans grounded in reality – were expecting. Make no mistake, we had to work hard today.
The cheeky bitches even had the sheer audacity to take the lead! It was utterly contemptible behaviour, although ultimately that made our victory all the sweeter.
Parity was restored on 45 minutes, Marc Richards powerfully heading home a corner. Crewe looked a beaten side as they made their way back to the dressing room at half-time, staring into the abyss, painfully aware of the inevitable. Ready to throw in the towel.
The second half was a strange affair, despite being in the ascendency we were, at times, disjointed and unsure when in possession, lacking the fluidity that has been the staple of our play in recent weeks. Rob Taylor came on for Louis Dodds and began to execute some direct attacks, eventually it paid off, with Vale penning Crewe back into their 18-yard box Kris Taylor took full advantage of some hesitant goalkeeping, and managed to fire home from a tight angle. The game was won. We partied like it was 1999.
There was however, one last twist to the tale…
…and what a delicious moment it was! 93 minutes played, Crewe throwing everything at us in a desperate attempt to steal a grossly undeserved point, and they get the ball into the net…
The young pups in the Gresty Road End immediately work themselves into an instant primitive frenzy, convinced that they have equalised, blissfully unaware that the linesman has his flagged raised for offside. It’s called premature ejaculation lads, and you may need to get used to it! They looked a beleaguered, bewildered, sorry sight as they trudged out of the ground. It’s a crying shame.
As promised, here is the footage of Vale fans and players at the final whistle. Majestic scenes, there’s only one Micky Adams, and it’ll be on YouTube shortly…
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Thought we weren’t your rivals? Thought it was ‘just another game’? Yawn. I suppose a win at Gresty Road is about the height of your success this decade. Well done.
Great vid and the report is spot on. We were superb Griff was man-of-the-match for me.
Dink – If the result had gone your way I’m sure you would take great delight in rubbing our noses in it, Vale and Alex are rivals, I certainly don’t buy into all that “It’s just another game” b*llocks, it’s a local derby and it matters.
Gooarn Vale!!! I had a brilliant day at the game and in the town centre! Micky Adams Black-and-White Army PVFC!!!!
I was near the Gresty road end and you should have seen them when they thought they had scored. They all came running at us then stopped dead when they saw the liner had his flag up. A kodak moment!
DMG – Shame most of your own fans do buy ‘it’s just another game’ *********….. until three points are in the bag.
If the last week has taught us ANYTHING it’s that Vale fans dislike Crewe more than Crewe fans dislike Vale. I have to admit, I didn’t think that was the case before!
dink stop being a d i c k and take it on the chin you lost to a better team.
And we aint rivals thats just media talk nobody up our end could`nt give a toss about your tinpot club, be thankfull we brought so many more money for your tinpot club.
Dunny’s not too bright. 🙁
dink you really aint too bright your sen are you only because of your excellent come back, go crawl under the stone you just came out of you horrible little boy and learn some english.
Heh. Told to learn English by Dunny. Good joke. 😉
We love you Vale we do, we love you Vale we do, we love you Vale we do, oh Vale we love you!!!
Gooarn dunnypvfc!!!
i`m sick of these crewe soap doggers coming on here and vale mad giving it the big i am, and they are the one`s who lost to the far better team tools the lot of them, we`ll see how many they bring VP in march lets see how big they are.