Freeze fames - Port Vale away

I went to the match, a rarity for me, and then only because my neighbours, father and son, are big Vale fans and took me with them on the thirty mile journey. When you are actually at a match you can really appreciate what a difficult game football is to play at professional level. Not only do the players need skills and strength but above all they need vision and sound decision-making under constant pressure from opponents. Quite often all a player has time to do is head the ball a few yards in the direction of the opposing goal or, if he's lucky, get his foot to it and lob it a short way in the right direction. For Vale's first goal Beckles made the, what turned out to be wrong, decision to tackle a Vale player making a cross-field run. Beckles missed the ball and so was on his backside when the ball went out to the Vale winger and as a result was way behind the action when the cross came in. I'm not saying that the goal was entirely his fault as the first image shows but his missed tackle certainly contributed.

For James's goal a Vale player makes a short square pass to a team-mate while facing his own goal and literally does not see James who is able to intercept the pass and move forward to score what was a brilliant goal.

For Vale's second Happe makes the wrong decision to play the ball out towards a team-mate, the ball is intercepted and goes on to the winger whose pass sets up the goal. (I suspect that this was what Pratley was referring to in his interview about sometimes needing to put the ball in the stand or, even better, over the stand).Again, though, the responsibility is not Happe's alone: as the fourth image shows several players make the decision to guard the near post, perhaps expecting an aerial cross, while no one has the awareness to fill the space further out.

For Vale's third I played back the highlights from the EFL show in slow motion and it shows literally half the Orient team towards the halfway line. I don't remember the preceding passage of play but I would guess that they had been anticipating an Orient attack. It has to be said that the crossfield pass to the Vale right winger was brilliant but when defending a point in the last couple of minutes of play surely the right decision is for most of the team to fall back and defend the box.

Taking the match overall I think any of the three results would have been a fair outcome. Orient were poor in the first half but for the second were dominant and also played some very good football. It seemed as if one bunch of eleven players went off at half-time and a completely new set came on to replace them, such was the contrast in the way they played. Vale are a good side and I think they have the squad to maintain a high position in the league throughout the season. Orient have the potential to be up there but need to sharpen up their thinking if they are to match the best. It is a tight league this year. Crawley in fourteenth are only two points behind Orient. There won't be many easy games and small margins will count.