Port Vale vs Lincoln

[valefan16]

Pretty much what I was thinking. The top three this year would have been pushing last year's top three, and would likely have finished above them. After that its not a great league so far but that's probably down to underperformance from teams I expected (given their budgets and squads) to be up there pushing for automatic. Notts, Mansfield, im looking at you. It could be that the automatics are sealed off very early this year.

You’ll win the league, Exeter and MK will join you. They three have looked a class apart from anyone else we’ve faced and by that a significant gulf apart.

In terms of the FGR comment.. we do look decent when Oyeleke is fit and that’s the problem, with him in the team we’ve lost one league game... without him we haven’t even got a single point. He is crucial to us in a way we couldn’t have imagined really, no shock both dire spells this season have been in his spells out. Aspin is confident to play the formation and personnel that works but without him he does this random defensive idea.

To sum up the issue yesterday we lined up like this:

Four centre halves across the back four with one of them an EFL debutant

A 35 year old central midfielder on the left wing and a full back on the right wing (arguably the best player we have!) a winger in central midfield and two mainly wide players up front!

Essentially we had Scott Brown in goal, Legge and Smith in central defence and Conlon in central midfield as the only players in their natural position. How can you expect to compete with 7 players largely out of position!

 

[Chris FGR]

Title is still Notts' to lose imo, tipped them at the start and still think on paper they have a better squad then Lincoln despite the massive record breaking spending by the Imps.

Yes they need a good run to do it from here but it's still early days and nothing is impossible at this point.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

Football is about pride, passion, belief and spirit. Lincoln doesn't have a depth of history in the top flight but has a wealth of moments in the clubs history.

So would I rather be in County's shoes right now....or mine? Just had our highest away win since 1932, our best start to a season since 1987, our highest average home attendance since 1953...I could go on.

Doesn't make Imps fans any "better" than Vale fans, or Cods, or anyone else- but, after decades of stagnation occasionally sprinkled with short periods of joy, I'll take my 5 minutes of happiness right now over anything County will experience in the next 20 years.

Well right now thats obvious lol, there is a league table to help everyone out on that score. I’d rather be a Poppy fan than a Imps fan now and so on.

Of course you should enjoy every minute now, nobody said you shouldn’t

All I was suggesting was every club goes through ups and downs, every fan of a club in the current L2 has been in Vale’s, Notts’ position. It’s nothing new, it’s cyclical

The only difference is some clubs highs are higher are others, and other clubs are lower#stain

 

[Conker]

So far I’d judge MK, Exeter and Lincoln as looking more impressive than Accy, Wycombe and Luton to be fair, that said we have Luton a beating similar to the one we took yesterday so got them on an off day. Accrington both times I came away thinking how did we lose that, they were clinical. Wycombe over two games against us had a good 20 minutes.

What I would say though is outside them three the rest look average.

Accy were unbelievable last season and still are a division above.

 

[Conker]

Tricky to comment as I've not seen all the teams play, but you could be right. That could be down to a couple of teams like yourself, county and Northampton underperforming so far on what was expected pre season. We have significantly improved from last year where we just battled our way to the playoffs. Coventry were the best team I saw coming to sincil Bank and obviously Luton and Accy were good teams. I imagine they would be at the top of the league this year as well, but that's why they got promoted.

Yeah Notts County and to a slightly lesser extent Mansfield were expecting to be right up there.

Still time yet, Mansfield squad is seriously talented and our summer signings have generally been really good, we have been playing top football but just can’t get it quite right.

If Flitcroft/Flitdraw manages to shake his bottlejob mentality away from home we would be a serious force. Exeter are going to be up there all season though, they are due promotion.

 

[Mark kavanagh]

Was it me seeing things or were the vale players laughing with the lincoln players at 2-6 , if that was tranmere playerslaughing in those circumstances i would be fookin livid

 

[valefan16]

Was it me seeing things or were the vale players laughing with the lincoln players at 2-6 , if that was tranmere playerslaughing in those circumstances i would be fookin livid

Whitfield was caught on camera laughing with Toffollo at full time which hasn’t gone down too well. Not sure if they know each other but either way not the best tact. Aspin didn’t even apologise either.

Only Scott Brown has come out and really said anything of class blasting the performance and to a degree his team mates in front of him and the apology.

They had a dressing room lock in for nearly two hours after so not sure what was said or how they will approach it from here.

 

[Davidimp]

Bournemouth links them ,youth team players there I think?

 

[valefan16]

Bournemouth links them ,youth team players there I think?

Possibly then yes.

 

[Plumbob]

Title is still Notts' to lose imo, tipped them at the start and still think on paper they have a better squad then Lincoln despite the massive record breaking spending by the Imps.

Yes they need a good run to do it from here but it's still early days and nothing is impossible at this point.

You'd better get over to Skybet and take the 150/1 before it goes!

 

[valefan16]

You'd better get over to Skybet and take the 150/1 before it goes!

Not sure if that is tongue in cheek but I can't see Lincoln dropping the points required for Notts to overhaul them realistically, even if County lost 5 games lets say the rest of the season Lincoln would need to lose 11 or 12.

 

[Chris FGR]

Not sure if that is tongue in cheek but I can't see Lincoln dropping the points required for Notts to overhaul them realistically, even if County lost 5 games lets say the rest of the season Lincoln would need to lose 11 or 12.

All teams have a wobble, Notts have had theirs early Lincoln’s is still to come. If Notts can get the gap down to 7 or 8 points by Christmas I’d make them favourites.

 

[Topher]

if a player puts a cross in and the defender plants a leg early and takes down the player after the cross goes in, is that a foul? Pretty much all the time it is, but keepers are treated differently.

I'm not sure it is, can't remember that happening too much. If the ball's gone and all the defender's done is try and fail to block it then there's not gonna be a foul. If the attacker's trying to keep possession for himself and gets caught then obviously it is despite the defender's best intentions.

 

[Plumbob]

Not sure if that is tongue in cheek but I can't see Lincoln dropping the points required for Notts to overhaul them realistically, even if County lost 5 games lets say the rest of the season Lincoln would need to lose 11 or 12.

Mine certainly was. I hope, for his sanity, Chris' was too.
Not saying we will win the league, but I'd be more likely to invest in us as 11/10 (ridiculous odds at 1/4 through the season) than I would at the 150/1 on Notts.

 

[Luke Imp]

So far I’d judge MK, Exeter and Lincoln as looking more impressive than Accy, Wycombe and Luton to be fair, that said we have Luton a beating similar to the one we took yesterday so got them on an off day. Accrington both times I came away thinking how did we lose that, they were clinical. Wycombe over two games against us had a good 20 minutes.

What I would say though is outside them three the rest look average.

We found it difficult to properly judge those three last season.

Accrington we beat 3-0, then they went on a run where all they did was seem to win and played them right at the end of the season.

Luton looked a really solid side at our place, then the reverse fixture both teams were down to 10 men in the first half, which ended up suiting their attacking game like it probably would do for us this season.

Wycombe was our first and one of our last games where they didn't seem to perform in either.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

Stanley’s rum was phenomenal.
Luton destroyed teams, was up there all season and only stuttered at the end.
Wycombe were ugly but effective enough

 

[Optipez]

Absolutely no chance of Notts winning the league this year. We were actually joint top of the form tables over five games last week, 11 from 15. That didn't get us a single point closer to Lincoln and only one closer to Exeter in second.
I do think we can make the play-off but even that is going to require us to maintain a pretty high level of form, there's just no room left for a bad patch, we've used those games up.

 

[Mark kavanagh]

Lincolns first half performance was a cut above anything ive seen at prenton since sauuufend mullered us about 6 years ago. The only thing that could let them down is cowleys plan b of hoofing it up,to rhead , good centre backs like fatty mcnulty can handle that all day . County wont win the league they are 7 wins behind the imps , i cannot see lincoln losing another 7 games let alone notts going on a good enough run to take advantage .

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

Win the league? Us? We haven’t totally impressed in a league game to date according to reliable sources

A FGR fan suggests it and it’s taken seriously it wasn’t long ago we had 2 points! Two !

 

[jbet]

Fair play, Lincoln. You're a club on the up, with belief and a strategy. The exact opposite to us. Enjoy it.

 

[Chris FGR]

A FGR fan suggests it and it’s taken seriously it wasn’t long ago we had 2 points! Two !

it wasn’t long ago everyone had 0 points. So what’s your point?

 

[StrangelyBrown]

Fair play, Lincoln. You're a club on the up, with belief and a strategy. The exact opposite to us. Enjoy it.

Whatever the solution at Vale Park, I hope it's found soon- traditional club with traditional support and does deserve something better.

 

[denzel ecfc]

All teams have a wobble, Notts have had theirs early Lincoln’s is still to come. If Notts can get the gap down to 7 or 8 points by Christmas I’d make them favourites.

Considering how woeful Notts were and how good Lincoln were when we played them that would be the biggest comeback since Lazarus.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

it wasn’t long ago everyone had 0 points. So what’s your point?

I’m talking more about how long it took my beloved Stylish Magpies to pass the 3 point mark. Did you bet on us to win the league before a ball was kicked like many did Chris?

 

[Chris FGR]

I’m talking more about how long it took my beloved Stylish Magpies to pass the 3 point mark. Did you bet on us to win the league before a ball was kicked like many did Chris?

Yep.

 

[valefan16]

Fair play, Lincoln. You're a club on the up, with belief and a strategy. The exact opposite to us. Enjoy it.

They’ve shown what can be done, won the conference and had the cup run, 99 times out of 100 those fans then disappear the next league games but they’ve clearly got to spot on to hook in the fans and give themselves the platform and finance to push on.

Now I don’t know the exact figure the cup run made them... indirectly with the three fold increase in fan base probably millions but compare that to Vale who have made millions in the past two years with the Grant and Alnwick sales and the sell on from Hugill going from PNE to West Ham... add in then that four of our youth team have gone to Man City, Wolves and Stoke for decent money and yet little of that has been re invested at all.

Notice they have a decent fan zone and things to attract families and stuff at Lincoln, assume the marketing has been spot on and of course they’ve followed it through last season and again into this with success.

As a club who’ve struggled in non league and not even had a run out the bottom two divisions over the last few decades fair play to them, deserve the success. Our owner could learn a lot from the Imps.

Compare the Lincoln sides and followings that came to us in our previous spell at this level around 2008-2011 and it’s chalk and cheese.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

Yep.

I bet on Lincoln, Exeter and Vale.
2 outta 3 ain’t bad and I’m in with a shout

 

[StrangelyBrown]

They’ve shown what can be done, won the conference and had the cup run, 99 times out of 100 those fans then disappear the next league games but they’ve clearly got to spot on to hook in the fans and give themselves the platform and finance to push on.

Now I don’t know the exact figure the cup run made them... indirectly with the three fold increase in fan base probably millions but compare that to Vale who have made millions in the past two years with the Grant and Alnwick sales and the sell on from Hugill going from PNE to West Ham... add in then that four of our youth team have gone to Man City, Wolves and Stoke for decent money and yet little of that has been re invested at all.

Notice they have a decent fan zone and things to attract families and stuff at Lincoln, assume the marketing has been spot on and of course they’ve followed it through last season and again into this with success.

As a club who’ve struggled in non league and not even had a run out the bottom two divisions over the last few decades fair play to them, deserve the success. Our owner could learn a lot from the Imps.

Compare the Lincoln sides and followings that came to us in our previous spell at this level around 2008-2011 and it’s chalk and cheese.

Great perceptive post.

One example of the affinity from top to bottom of the club. This may be common practice for all I know but our Chairman is South African and flew over for the game yesterday- except he didn't sit in the Directors box at Vale Park...he sat with the Lincoln fans in the Hamil Road stand. It isn't the first time he has done this either.

Really is a top bloke.

 

[Tinnion's right foot]

As a club who’ve struggled in non league and not even had a run out the bottom two divisions over the last few decades fair play to them, deserve the success. Our owner could learn a lot from the Imps.

Thank you. We're blessed with a combination of a good chairman and excellent manager, and between them they've resurrected the club over the past three years. Lincoln could so easily have gone the way of York, or Torquay.

People complain about the style of football, and sometimes last year - yes, fair enough. Matt Rhead should have been sent off ten minutes into the trophy final. But Cowley plays to his team's strengths, and this year we can afford some pretty good players, and we've played some teams off the park. And the money we're spending has mostly been earned by our performances on the pitch - we're not squandering a rich man's money, unlike some.

Good luck Vale.

 

[Imp in Branston]

Great perceptive post.

One example of the affinity from top to bottom of the club. This may be common practice for all I know but our Chairman is South African and flew over for the game yesterday- except he didn't sit in the Directors box at Vale Park...he sat with the Lincoln fans in the Hamil Road stand. It isn't the first time he has done this either.

Really is a top bloke.

I have met him, he is indeed a top bloke and one of the most unassuming people I have ever met, we are lucky to have him at the club. I think he and the other business people we have subsequently attracted will carry on making good decisions (hopefully) for our club long after the Cowleys leave.