The Wonder Of P.V.F.C.: January 2008

Sinnott Signs Another New Player

Port Vale's new striker Tobias Mikaelsson believes he can follow Aston Villa team-mate Chris Herd's example and become a success at Vale Park. Mickaelson, aged 19, became Vale's second loan signing from Villa in eight days when he joined for a month this afternoon. The Swedish centre-forward, who has scored eight goals in 10 appearances for Villa's reserves this season, goes straight into the Vale squad for Saturday's game at League One leaders Swansea. The teenager hopes he can bridge the gap from reserve to first-team football as successfully as Herd after the Australian starred in Vale's 3-1 win over Millwall last Saturday.
Mikaelsson said: "I spoke to Chris about Port Vale and he said good things about the club. That made a big impact on my decision. I think he has shown that he can play at this level. First of all I want to see how I can cope with first-team football here in England. Hopefully I can help the team score goals. I've seen the table and we need a few points to stay in the league."
The Gothenburg-born striker is out of contract at Villa at the end of the season having moved to the Premier League giants from Sweden three years ago. He said: "I am a link-up player. I like to think of myself as an intelligent player, with decent technique on the ball, good movement and a bit of pace. I am quite tall, so that helps as well. I am very pleased to be at Port Vale. I need first-team experience now and I think this is a very good opportunity."
Vale manager Lee Sinnott said: "Tobias is top scorer in Aston Villa's reserves. I have seen him a couple of times, as I had Chris Herd, and he is the right player at the right time for us."
Mickaelson joins three trialists given a chance also by Sinnott this week. He will be joined in training with Alan Smith, Mark Byrnes and Matt Deegan.

Vale Sign Chasetown Duo

Port Vale today signed a striker and centre-half from their FA Cup conquerors Chasetown.
Forward Kyle Perry, aged 21, and 23-year-old defender Chris Slater have joined Vale on 18-month contracts for an undisclosed nominal fee. The deals also include "substantial" sell-on clauses. They caught the eye of Vale boss Lee Sinnott when playing starring roles in Chasetown's shock FA Cup victory over the Valiants last month.
Vale chairman Bill Bratt said: "They were impressive in the FA Cup games against us. Both have played for league clubs and we are confident they can make the step back up to this grade."
Perry, a graphic artist who was resigning from his job this afternoon, is a product of Walsall's youth scheme. He signed for Chasetown from Willenhall Town in the summer. He said: "This is a dream come true after being released by Walsall at the age of 19. For a club like Port Vale to come in for us is unreal."
Slater, a block paver, had trials at Tranmere, Blackpool and Walsall on being released by Wolves before joining Chasetown. He added: "It has always been my dream to get back into league football. Hopefully we can help to turn things around and start going in the right direction."

Rocastle Loaned Out

Vale midfielder Craig Rocastle has joined League One rivals Gillingham on an initial one-month loan. The 26-year-old has failed to nail down a first-team place at Vale Park since joining on a free transfer from Oldham last summer. His departure should give manager Lee Sinnott more room for manoeuvre as he looks to further boost the Vale squad.

Vale Swoop For Duo

Vale today completed a double swoop for 18-year-old Aston Villa midfielder Chris Herd and 25-year-old Scunthorpe defender Dave Mulligan. Herd has joined the League One strugglers on a month’s loan while Vale have taken over Mulligan’s contract until the end of the season.
Herd is highly rated at Villa, where he has been offered a new two-year contract ahead of his current three-year deal expiring in the summer. But he is looking forward to gaining valuable first-team experience at Vale Park, and looks likely to make his senior debut during Saturday’s home game with Millwall. He said: "It is really good to be here and I am looking forward to the chance to play first-team football. I only heard yesterday about Port Vale’s interest, but I was looking to come out on loan. I want to gain some experience here and help get Vale out of the relegation zone."
Herd can play all across the midfield and at right-back, giving Vale boss Lee Sinnott some welcome options. Vale were competing with another League One club and two League Two teams for his signature, but the Melbourne-born player had no doubts about joining Vale.
He added: "Port Vale came in for me first. I had a look at them and decided I wanted to come here. I am up to the challenge and am looking forward to helping them out."
Mulligan, a New Zealand international, is know as a right-back, but can play anywhere in defence. His last game was at the end of a seven-match loan spell for League Two Grimsby Town – a 2-1 home defeat by Chester City on October 2. He has previously played for Barnsley and Doncaster Rovers.

Vale Lose Out On Laird

Port Vale's on-loan midfielder Marc Laird is set to sign for Millwall, dashing the Valiants' hopes of landing him on a long-term contract. Vale manager Lee Sinnott says, barring a change of heart, Laird will sign for the Lions today. The news is a huge blow for the manager, who has been impressed by Laird since the 21-year-old Scot joined Vale on loan from Manchester City in November. Sinnott said: "It is 99 per cent certain Marc will sign for Millwall. We did everything we could to get him to sign, that's something his agent has said as well. We made the offer as competitive as we could and put Marc in a quandry by what we offered. We worked damn hard on it, but it seems it is not meant to be. Marc is a lovely lad and I know he was torn. He has enjoyed his time at Port Vale and is the kind of player we are looking to keep in terms of both his age and his ability. But I think we stretched Millwall as far as we can."
An attraction for Laird at Millwall was his former Manchester City coach, Kenny Jackett, is now boss of the Lions. Should he complete a deal at the New Den, Laird could line-up against the Valiants for Millwall at Vale Park on Saturday.

Pair Leave Vale

Striker Calum Willock has turned down a new contract at Port Vale to sign for Blue Square Premier Club Stevenage. Vale manager Lee Sinnott revealed the news after watching his side blow a 2-0 half-time lead on their way to a 3-2 defeat at Carlisle this afternoon. Sinnott has also revealed he has decided not to renew midfielder Mark Salmon's loan from Wolves.

Willock's departure, after five months at Vale, makes signing a striker even more of a priority for Sinnott. He said he was keen to keep the former Brentford hit-man at Vale Park, but the deciding factor was Willock's desire to be nearer his family in the south. Willock, who has been on a short-term deal at Vale since August, decided to turn down a new 18-month contract because he wants to be closer to his three-year-old daughter in London. The striker said his decision was no reflection on Vale or Sinnott, but he felt he had to put his daughter first. He said: "I have enjoyed playing for Vale and scoring goals. But in the six months I have been here I have only seen my daughter three times, and I didn't see her over Christmas. I had to consider that, if I did sign, I would have been away for another 18 months. Myself and her mother are not together, if we were then perhaps we could have worked out some arrangement. I just want to be there more often. She is three-and-a-half and it is an age I don't want to miss."

Carlisle United Vs Port Vale 5th January 2008

Lee Sinnott sets great store by statistics but, for the sake of his sanity, shouldn’t dwell on the fact his team are now Vale’s worst since three points for a win was introduced 27 years ago.
The previous holders of the dubious honour were the class of 1983-84, who were relegated from League One (then Division Three) after new boss John Rudge failed to halt a slide which had started under John McGrath. That side, remarkably, managed only six points before Christmas. However, a mid-season rally lifted them to 19 points from 25 games, two better than the current squad have managed from the same number of matches. It is becoming ever harder to believe this team won’t share the fate of the 1983-84 side and end the term with relegation to the basement division.
Sinnott is planning major changes by January 31, but being nine points adrift with more games played than their rivals is fast making his task mission impossible. There would have been at least some reason for hope had they claimed a win, or even a point, from Saturday’s trip to promotion-chasing Carlisle after leading 2-0 at the break. The manner of the defeat was cruel to the Vale faithful, particularly as their side also blew a two-goal lead on their way to a 3-2 defeat in this fixture last season. Back then, the possibility of relegation was merely a cloud on the horizon. A year on and Vale are getting soaked to the skin. However, their failure to win is not for want of trying.

Sinnott was tearing his hair out at the defending, but resisted the temptation to single out individuals. He said: “The easiest thing I could have done over the last nine weeks or so is come up to you gentlemen, or say in the dressing room, ‘you are a *^!@**! and you have cost me the goal. It is the easiest thing in the world to do, I have been there and been on the other side of the fence. “Players know when they make mistakes, and I knew when I had made a mistake. “But it is counter-productive for a manager to come in and say ‘I am big and hard’. It has always been expected in football to say to a player, ‘right, you are the problem, you have cost me and cost everyone else’. “No. It is about knowing how to win games and set up a winning mentality. To set up that mentality, a manager can’t make it ‘me, me, me’, which means ‘I didn’t make a mistake’, he is the problem and he cost us.
“Successful teams are all in it together. They have an ethos which is a bit like the Three Musketeers – ‘one for all and all for one.’
There wasn’t much of the Three Musketeers about Vale’s second-half collapse, although there was a certain swashbuckling manner about the way they played for 15 minutes or so after taking the lead through Paul Harsley on 28 minutes.

Despite having the wind in their favour, Vale had started nervously, but seen Carlisle blow their only clear chance of the half, on 24 minutes, when the unmarked Danny Graham planted a six-yard header wide. Vale made them pay with their first dangerous attack as Mark Salmon wriggled free before playing in Adam Eckersley down the left. He crossed beyond the back post where the ball was heading for a goal-kick until Danny Glover acrobatically hooked it back across goal. Keeper Kieren Westwood was stranded and Harsley did the rest as he swept home from two yards. Like a shy teenager snogged by the prom queen, Vale’s confidence rocketed as they began to believe they weren’t there just to make up the numbers.
They started to pass the ball around and, although their second goal flattered them on the balance of the half, no-one could argue with its quality. Jeff Smith’s corner was hammered clear to Mark Salmon on the right of midfield and he held off his marker before sending a 40-yard crossfield ball over the last defender and into Danny Whitaker’s path. The midfielder stepped around the keeper before drilling the ball, left-footed, inside the post.

The two-goal lead was all the more remarkable as Vale had only one fit senior striker, Glover, who played as a lone striker with Whitaker just behind in a 4-5-1 formation. However, the scoreline didn’t save them from a half-time rocket from Sinnott. He said: “I had a go at my players at half-time. We found ourselves 2-0 up, but I thought we were fortunate to be in that position. “But I said to them, ‘maybe because of the way games have gone lately, you are getting your bit of luck’. But I said, ‘if you perform in the second half in the way you did in the first, you will lose this game’.”
He didn’t take any pleasure in being proved correct, particularly as his prediction began to come true just five minutes after the break when Zigor Aranalde’s long throw was flicked on at the near post for substitute Luke Joyce to bundle over the line. Vale did have a chance to go 3-1 up, on 57 minutes, when Salmon slid the ball through to Glover, but the striker over-ran the ball enough for Westwood to make a brave save. Glover was soon joined up front by a fellow 18-year-old as Sinnott threw centre-half Charlie O’Loughlin into the attack for the final 26 minutes. However, the switch had no time to work as, within a minute, Graham walloped a long ball from just inside his own half and Simon Hackney got goal-side of Mark McGregor.
The ball sat up for the former Nantwich forward, who crashed a volley past Joe Anyon from 16 yards.
Sinnott said: “I thought Charlie would help us from corners, but it was more from open play, so that hopefully the ball wouldn’t keep coming back. That was the last thing we wanted, especially as they had the wind, as we did in the first half. “We wanted him to be more of a physical presence up there, but, let’s face it, the second goal was a long punt from 50 yards. “Their player got behind us and, bang, it was 2-2.”
Carlisle’s winner, four minutes later, wasn’t much more complicated as Joe Garner gathered the ball on the right before sending over a deep cross. Hackney was unchallenged to meet the ball with a left-foot volley, and made no mistake as he hammered the ball back across goal and inside Anyon’s far post from 14 yards.
That appeared to be game over, but Vale rallied and could have snatched a late equaliser on 80 minutes when O’Loughlin met substitute Craig Rocastle’s inswinging free-kick with a glancing header which was turned over by Westwood. The youngster came even closer five minutes from time when he rose to meet McGregor’s cross and sent a header wide, from 12 yards, with Westwood beaten. A narrow defeat away to a side who have won nine of their 11 league home games is no disgrace. However, Vale’s second-half ordeal was more evidence of the problems Sinnott faces.
A look back in the history books does offer some encouragement as the 1983-84 relegation side spent only two years in the basement division before claiming promotion under Rudge and then reaching the Championship in 1989. Those are high standards for Sinnott to try to match. At least the possibility offers some hope in the depth of Vale’s bleakest season in years.

Final Score Carlise United 3 - 2 Port Vale

Port Vale Line Up

Joe Anyon
George Pilkington
Jason Talbot (Charlie O'Laughlin 64)
Keith Lowe
Mark McGregor
Adam Eckersley
Marc Salmon (Joe Cardle 77)
Paul Harsley (Craig Rocastle 77)
Robin Hulbert
Danny Glover
Danny Whitaker

Subs Not Used

Chris Martin
James Lawrie

Todays Attendence: 6,413

Man Of The Match: Marc Salmon

Goodlad Retires

MARK Goodlad will make a final appearance at Vale Park after announcing his retirement today. The 28-year-old goalkeeper will make an emotional farewell to fans by going on the pitch before the home game with Millwall on Saturday, January 12.
The keeper has been forced to quit football after failing to recover from an Achilles injury he suffered away at Bristol City in December, 2006, which has sidelined him since. But after making 247 appearances for Vale in his eight years at the club, he wants his to show his appreciation to the supporters.
He said: “I have had loads of support while I have been injured and have always had a good relationship with the supporters. I will be there to say goodbye and thanks.”
Goodlad has decided against further surgery as specialists were not convinced another operation would save his career. A scan three weeks ago showed the injury has not healed properly, leaving Goodlad to reluctantly retire.
He said: “When I got the MRI results, I sat down with the physio and my family to discuss it. It came down to whether I was comfortable having another operation. I had already tried to come back from one and the surgeon couldn’t tell me another would work. It was a very difficult decision to make. I had a lot of things to assess, but had to look at what was best for me in the long term.”
Vale manager Lee Sinnott said: “Mark has given it a good shot. He has thought about the equation and he has come up with an answer he feels settled with. That is what I have said to him – regardless of anyone else, you have to feel settled with the decision you make.”

Cheltenham Town Vs Port Vale 2nd January 2008

Lee Sinnott could not have been less impressed when the match video was thrust into his hands before his press conference in the Whaddon Road visitors’ dug out.“I’ve seen it all before,” he said, “about 10 times”. The same surely goes for Vale’s 212 travelling supporters who have suffered the same tired old script against Tranmere, Walsall and Luton in the last 18 days.

To summarise: Vale battle hard, Vale miss chances to win, Vale slip further into the mire. The only addition to this re-run was an injury crisis which would have included Sinnott had the manager succumbed to the temptation to repeatedly bang his head on the dug out roof.He is fed up of the hard luck stories, and knows supporters feel the same.“People don’t want to hear this, they want a change in fortunes,” he said.“It is about keeping the faith, but I am as frustrated as I ever have been in my life. I am not being flippant, I will look at it extremely candidly and I will not look at the situation through rose-tinted glasses. “If I may be honest, and Cheltenham won’t appreciate me saying this, I thought there were two poor teams on show this evening. They were two teams who looked where they are.”

This win lifts Cheltenham to within five points of safety, but having seen them home and away, it is hard to believe they will find four worse teams in this division.The same applies to Vale who know they aren’t at the foot of the table after 24 games because of outrageous bad luck. That said, Sinnott’s side should have at least taken a point last night, even without injury victims Marc Laird, Jason Talbot, Luke Rodgers and Calum Willock.But the manager is under no illusions that more reinforcements are needed if his team is to have any chance of hitting the play-off form they now need to get out of trouble.

He said: “The main priority is to get the right players on the pitch. We do have a bit of an injury list and that has been added to. “There is work going on behind the scenes to bring players in, but I can appreciate the frustration, not just to myself, but to the people who have travelled down from Stoke to support Port Vale in the first game of 2008.“They will be travelling back disappointed and wondering, as I am, when it is going to turn.“We have to get the right personnel out on the pitch and take it from there. It is attracting the right kind of people, and people wanting to come to Port Vale. There is a lot of work to be done.”

A measure of Sinnott’s problems was that he ended the game with 18-year-old centre-half Charlie O’Loughlin playing as an emergency centre-forward on his first-team debut.Luke Rodgers’s knee problem and Calum Willock’s hamstring strain may have eased by Saturday’s trip to Carlisle, but Sinnott will be without Mark Richards, who was stretchered off with ankle damage 22 minutes from the end.The striker didn’t have a long history of injuries when he came to Vale Park, but has been plagued with them since. His agony last night was shared by the Vale staff who had seen him be their best player until he was forced off.“I thought he had done very well,” added Sinnott. “I can bracket him into a bit of a Mark Hughes in that he has a little bit of everything.“You want to get those kind of players out on the pitch and yet he plays for the first time in a few weeks and is carried off with 20 minutes to go.“I don’t know if there is a gypsy curse on us at the moment, but we could do with finding out.”

Cursed or not, Vale had the misfortune to face an inspired performance from Cheltenham keeper Shane Higgs, who was easily the game’s outstanding player.However, the 30-year-old was stranded on 22 minutes when a Vale corner pin-balled around the area before it was hammered away. The ball broke down Vale’s left where Steven Gillespie rode two challenges on his way into the area before crossing low for Paul Connor to sweep the ball past Joe Anyon.

Cheltenham could have doubled their lead within a minute after Gillespie turned sharply in the area, but saw his low strike from 12 yards brilliantly pushed away by Anyon.Vale rallied and were denied a leveller when Justin Miller’s 25-yard strike was denied by a flying stop from Higgs on 35 minutes.They came closer on 39 minutes when Miller’s cross from the right was allowed to run by Richards to Danny Whitaker, whose drive was brilliantly turned away by the keeper.That save was matched on 45 minutes when Richards met Danny Glover’s deep cross with a header back across goal which was destined for the inside of the post before Higgs pushed the ball away.Richards’s performance deserved a goal, but instead he got a stretcher on 68 minutes when he fell awkwardly after challenging Higgs for Mark Salmon’s cross.With no strikers on the bench, Richards’s departure meant a return for Joe Cardle, fresh from his five-month loan at Clyde. He was used on the left wing, Mark Salmon on the right, and Danny Whitaker pushed up front to partner Danny Glover. The patched-up side almost levelled on 72 minutes when Cardle’s low 20-yard strike was pushed out by Higgs to Glover. The striker fired goalwards from six yards, but was thwarted by a block from veteran left-back Alan Wright.Vale had little option but to gamble, and so Miller made way for O’Loughlin on 82 minutes as the young defender was thrown up front. He didn’t do a bad job, but Vale were exposed at the back on 93 minutes when Keith Lowe lost possession and Andy Lindegaard played Gillespie through on goal. The striker must have thought he had scored from 12 yards, but was denied by a tremendous one-handed save from Anyon. That gave Vale a second chance which they almost took a minute later when Salmon drilled the ball hard and low through a crowded area. The ball zoomed to Glover who deflected it goalwards from six yards, only to be denied yet again by Higgs.The save will be remembered as crucial if Cheltenham stay up at Vale’s expense on the last day of the season. A more realistic prediction is both these teams are going down unless they make major changes over the next month.