Port Vale-Exeter City 0-2
Port Vale förlorade tyvärr på tisdagskvällen den så viktiga toppmatchen mot Exeter City hemma på Vale Park med 0-2. Exeter City är känt som ett starkt bortalag, men efter storförlusten i lördags trodde man att deras form i avtagande, men ack så fel man hade.
Exeter City gjorde två snabba mål i den första halvleken och sedan var matchen över. I den andra halvleken stängde man matchen och Port Vale hade egentligen inga bra chanser att reducera bortalagets ledning. Exeter har nu också häng på en av de tre direktkvalificerade platserna till League One och har naturligtvis motivationen på topp.
Många Vale supportrar börjar bli lite nervösa då lagen bakom börjar närma sig och spelet har gått lite i baklås, men er redaktör känner sig fortfarande lugn att det kommer att gå bra till slut med avancemang till League One. Tom Pope har dock tappat lite av formen och har inte gjort ett mål på någon av de sex senaste matcherna. Hans roll i laget har blivet lite annorlunda sen Lee Hughes kom in i anfallet och hans tidigare raderpartner Louis Dodds har varit skadad. Undertecknad är dock trygg och känner sig säker på att han kommer åter i gammal god målform. Närmast väntar en svår bortamatch där förre Vale spelaren Sean Rigg återfinns.
Vi avslutar med en match rapport från vår samarbetspartner onevalefan.co.uk:
Vale suffered their second home defeat in a row as they also failed to score for the third time in four games. Sub Louis Dodds went closest as he hit the post in the dying minutes. Micky Adams named the same starting eleven that defeated Torquay with striker Lee Hughes well enough to take a place on the bench.
The Valiants got off to another of their slow starts and Exeter looked dangerous forcing a number of corners. So it was no surprise that the visitors took a deserved lead when the prolific veteran Cureton netted on ten minutes.
Vale felt they may have got a penalty soon afterwards as Vincent was barged in the box but the ref turned down the appeals. Then Purse had a header cleared off the line and Loft had a drive on goal.
But Vale’s efforts were in vain as the visitors took advantage of more hesitant defending and doubled their lead through Coles on the half-hour mark despite the best efforts of Chris Neal.
Micky Adams made two changes at half-time with Rob Taylor and Louis Dodds coming on. The new-look home side then threatened through Pope and Myrie-Williams but were unable to reduce the visitors’ lead. Vale’s last throw of the dice was the introduction of Lee Hughes at the expense of John McCombe on the hour mark.
Vale continued to push forward and Krysiak made a good save from another Pope effort but Vale were still struggling to create any clear-cut chances against impressive opposition. The visitors were reduced to ten men with ten minutes left as Molelsey was dismissed for violent conduct after a clash with Daniel Jones.
Vale pushed hard against the ten men but failed to find the net as Dodds hit the woodwork with minutes remaining. But that was the home side’s last decent chance as the Valiants suffered another home blip in their efforts to secure promotion.
Vale: Neal, Duffy, McCombe (Hughes), Purse, Jones, Myrie-Williams, Burge, Loft, Vincent (Taylor), Andrew (Dodds), Pope
Subs: Yates, Shuker, Birchall, Morsy
