Ex Player Jack Stevens

Surely the weakness is obvious. There was no reason to drop Eastwood.
*fight!!*

TBH Eastwood also has trouble with diagonal shots across him from the edge of the box. I was a bit surprised when he was dropped but we did initially look a bit more solid. Now we're letting a lot of goals in Robinson may reconsider.
 
With the third the defence or a player should have closed Carter down so as to not give Carter the time he had to look up and place the shot. Felt Stevens could he a got to that, but it was a good goal.

If you look at the replay, after the goal the right defender remonstrates with Holland who shrugs and appears to go 'who, me?'. Before the goal as we were all shouting 'close him down!' Holland, who's closest, breaks into a run then eases off and ambles toward the player before he shoots.

That and the failure to track or challenge the cross before the first goal are typical of the woeful attempts to defend by our midfield.

If Stevens confidence is shot, it's hardly a surprise. I don't think swapping him out for Eastwood would make.any difference at all as long as we don't seem to bother working on defence. Perhaps it's true, we just don't have a squad that can defend.
 
If you look at the replay, after the goal the right defender remonstrates with Holland who shrugs and appears to go 'who, me?'. Before the goal as we were all shouting 'close him down!' Holland, who's closest, breaks into a run then eases off and ambles toward the player before he shoots.

That and the failure to track or challenge the cross before the first goal are typical of the woeful attempts to defend by our midfield.

If Stevens confidence is shot, it's hardly a surprise. I don't think swapping him out for Eastwood would make.any difference at all as long as we don't seem to bother working on defence. Perhaps it's true, we just don't have a squad that can defend.
It was also a very poor clearance by Kane. He just hooked it straight into the players feet. What's wrong with putting it into row Z when we're under pressure? We always seem to want to keep it in play even if it means giving up possession!!
The first goal, where was Seddon to challenge the cross coming in? And Long has to do more to put Ragget off, it was almost a free header.
Jack isn't stopping either of those tbf. Only the second could he have done better.
We need to defend better collectively that is the problem and not having protection in front of the back 3/4 is also leading to giving goals away.
 
I guess we'll see how he and Eastwood do.

I would have thought if Stevens underperformed at PV, he'd get moved on. And if he did well, we extend his contract. Seems unusual to ship him out to prove himself, while giving him the safety blanket beforehand.
 
Very smart bit of business I think. Facing L1 opposition every week to get back to peak form, and we either get him on a long deal or get a decent fee if we decide to sell. Love it.
 
Good.

After a difficult season with illness etc, this is a perfect opportunity to get his head down and get himself back up to speed, while out of the spotlight glare at oufc.

All then set to return next season and take over properly from eastie who will I imagine be ready to take a step back by then
 
2021-22 was a difficult campaign for him. Illness hampered consistency and when he did play, his standards were down on 2020-21 where he was definitely our #1. The contract extension shows that we still have a lot of faith in him to come good again.

It’ll be sink or swim at Port Vale. They’re unlikely to challenge and favourites for many to go down. Fingers crossed it works out for him.
 
No doubting his ability. He’s a very good goalkeeper, and I think going to another Lge 1 club is a great move for him and the club.

This is a goalkeeper that was wanted not long ago by Aston Villa or at least keeping tabs on him. He just needs to get his head down, and he will find form.
 
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The model pro, good luck Jack, there's a quality keeper in there! Hope he finds his form for Vale.

Edit. Is there an agreement that he must play in goal against us? ..........
 
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Form is everything regarding a keeper, Eastwood was poised for a move whilst on form and we started wetting our beds, Stevens form outshone Eastwood and we started wetting our beds when he was poised for a move, McGinty..............see how the story goes on.
 
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