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