Port Vale Forum Pre Match Interview / Report vrs Oldham

[Robbie Earle's Perm]

Hi,

 

I'm the pre-match reporter for the Port Vale Fans Forum One Vale Fan.

 

Part of my role is to contact fans of our forthcoming opponents to ask them a few questions and gain their views on the upcoming fixture between our sides in order to produce a report which we release on the site a couple of days prior to the game.

 

I wondered if up to three of you have a few minutes and would be prepared to share a few views if you would kindly offer your feelings on the game by answering the following few questions;

1. Tell us a bit about yourself & history as a fan?

2. How are your team doing (current form and in relation to the expectation of fans at the start of the season)?

3. Where you think you will finish in terms of league position?

4. Who should we watch out for (one or more danger player/s)?

5. What are your thoughts on your manager?

6. What are your thoughts on your board & off field club activities?

7. Any views on the current Port Vale team & specific players?

8. Did you attend the reverse fixture earlier this season? If so what were your thoughts on the game?

9. Any views & memories of players / managers that have been involved with both teams?

10. A score prediction (and potential scorers for both sides)?

 

Please also feel free to include any other information you feel worthy and I will knock it into a report as per the example below regarding contribution from Plymouth fans from our game with them;

http://www.onevalefan.co.uk/site/opposing-views-plymouth/

 

To enable me to produce this in good time I need a reply by Saturday and the report should appear on the website a day or two before our fixture.

 

Please also let me know if you would like me to include your name on the article.

 

Many thanks for your potential support in this matter.

 

Best Regards,

 

 

 

REP

[HarryBosch]

 

 

 

 

1. Tell us a bit about yourself & history as a fan?

My dad took me to my first game when I was 3 in 1978/79.

I started going regularly at age 12 or 13 in 1987/88 which was perfect timing to have suffered just enough dross to be able to fully enjoy our imminent glory years.

I missed most of 2 or 3 seasons in the mid to late 90's (lucky me) due to living away but have pretty much had a season ticket ever since.

2. How are your team doing (current form and in relation to the expectation of fans at the start of the season)?

Recent impressive wins against two decent sides in Notts County and Swindon have been offset by poor defeats to Barnsley, Colchester and Orient.

Which kind of sums the season so far up.

We've been flirting with the play off's for much of the time and, thanks to the ineptitude of teams around us, we're somehow still in with a chance.

Many of our supporters would have been perfectly happy with progress from last season, i.e. mid table, but the manager and players have had the attitude since back in August that we're good enough and should be aiming for promotion.

3. Where you think you will finish in terms of league position?

I think we'll sneak 6th.

When we've been good we've been better than we've been for at least 5 or 6 years and I reckon we just need to find one more decent run of form to see us over the line.

We're playing many of the sides around us in the table, yourselves included, which seems to suit us better than the lower lights of the league and means our fate is in our own hands to a large extent.

4. Who should we watch out for (one or more danger player/s)?

Jonathan Forte has lost form a bit but has 14 goals and must surely add to them sometime soon.

Carl Winchester is a beautiful footballer & scorer of great goals and has recently found his shooting boots again.

Liam Kelly on form is as good as anybody in the division and when he plays well we tend to win.

5. What are your thoughts on your manager?

He's doing a great job.

We're 9th as I write this and, as disappointing as ultimately missing out on the playoffs would be, a top 10 finish would represent massive progress.

His signings have predominantly been good and he seems to have talked the board round to the merit's of handing out 2 year + contracts which can either allow us to benefit from some continuity for the first time in years or benefit from some half decent transfer fees.

His involvement, or lack of, in the Ched Evans debacle is shrouded in a bit of mystery & it's unclear whether his being linked with various managerial vacancies of late is of his own doing or a by-product of his relative success.

He's a class act with the media and usually says the right things post match win or lose.

6. What are your thoughts on your board & off field club activities?

The aborted Ched Evans signing had us in the news for all the wrong reasons and many are still angry with the powers that be for even entertaining such a hare brained idea.

Not least because the apparent driving force behind the deal was our Supporter's Trust's representative on the board who in the aftermath subsequently stepped down from the Trust only to be given a seat on the board in his own right!

Our owner Simon Corney makes no secret that the club is for sale to the right buyer but he continues to do his best under difficult circumstances and has the backing of the majority of fans.

Our new stand is almost finished and should be open for next season which will be a massive boost in various ways.

7. Any views on the current Port Vale team & specific players?

You seem in a very similar position to us and it should be a close game and possibly a real 6 pointer depending on this weekends results.

Tom Pope scored against us last time & we'll need to keep a close eye on him.

8. Did you attend the reverse fixture earlier this season? If so what were your thoughts on the game?

I don't remember much about it but pretty much the same side, barring Jonson Clarke Harris who left for Rotherham & keeper Rachubka, has since taken us as high as 5th. I'd take another 1-1 draw, especially as looking back at results our best run of form all season started two games later.

9. Any views & memories of players / managers that have been involved with both teams?

I'm sure we'd both give various body parts for another Darren Beckford.

10. A score prediction (and potential scorers for both sides)?

3-1 to Oldham. Forte, Jones & Elokobi. Pope for you.

[Ryan]

1. Tell us a bit about yourself & history as a fan?

 

I'm 16. My Dad took me to my first Latics game aged 8, on the opening day of the 2007/2008 season, which was a 2-1 victory against now Premier League Swansea City. Craig Davies scored a 90th minute winner and I was hooked from that point, I've missed few home games since. It was a fairly decent season with some flirtation with the play-offs but we eventually finished a solid eighth with a memorable FA Cup victory at Goodison Park that will stay with me forever. I'm yet to see that position bettered after our miraculous decline at the tail end of the 08/09 season. I've missed about five games in total this season so I consider myself a regular, I try to get to every game but that's obviously not possible due to things out of my control.

 

2. How are your team doing (current form and in relation to the expectation of fans at the start of the season)?

 

It has been such a frustrating season, we seem to be unable to obtain any points against the worst sides in the division with us being thrashed by lowly Yeovil and Leyton Orient. We've pulled off some very good victories such as that against high-flying Swindon. I really can't put my finger on what it is which makes it all the more infuriating, perhaps there's an element of complacency within this side. One positive is that pretty much all our remaining games are against those teams in and around us. Our current position is also much higher than that of recent seasons and maybe some of this minute success is going to our heads...

 

3. Where you think you will finish in terms of league position?

 

I think we might just do it and grab that final play-off spot; we're yet to lose at home to anybody above 19th, virtually all of our remaining home games are against the sides around us.

 

4. Who should we watch out for (one or more danger player/s)?

 

There's the obvious threat of Jonathan Forte providing he plays down the left; he's very ineffective down the middle. Carl Winchester has been a revelation this season, he really is a class above. Joe Mills is a very good left-back at this level and is one of our main threats going forward, his defending is also more than competent for League One. I'm going to stop here as I've just realised that I could write about our full starting eleven as they're all, bar Danny Philliskirk and Brian Wilson who have been horrendously out of form for quite some time, very good on their day.

 

5. What are your thoughts on your manager?

 

I really like Lee but his seeming inability to spot the most clearcut things is rather irritating. There's obviously something there as he's assembled a very competitive League One side on a League Two budget which is commendable. There are flaws but overall I'd say he's done a good job; other teams are starting to enquire about him.

 

6. What are your thoughts on your board & off field club activities?

 

It's not something I wish to go into detail about but I'm not a big fan of our current board...

 

7. Any views on the current Port Vale team & specific player

 

I see Vale as a good League One outfit and expected you to be easily around that top six this season after a good year last time around. Obviously you had a bit of a dip in form but you seem to be picking up again and are still very much in the running for that sixth spot like ourselves.

 

8. Did you attend the reverse fixture earlier this season? If so what were your thoughts on the game?

 

I did, I seem to remember a fairly even game at a decent standard. You were in form and we were very much out of it, an astonishing miss by Jonson Clarke-Harris sticks in my head.

 

9. Any views & memories of players / managers that have been involved with both teams?

 

I suppose there's Hughesy but I wasn't really old enough to fully understand what atrocity he'd committed when he signed for us.

 

 

10. A score prediction (and potential scorers for both sides)?

 

Vale 2-3 Latics.

 

Murphy, Forte and Winchester with the Oldham goals.

[Robbie Earle's Perm]

Two cracking replies guys thanks for contributing. I will create my article from this and it should be up on our site if you want to check it out on Monday.

 

Good luck for the rest of the season, after Tuesday of course!!