Port Vale fan Phil Sherwin has his say on events at Vale Park

WELL that certainly made a change – a win on a Saturday for the first time in more than three months.

Overall we deserved it and the performance was more like the one that this squad should be capable of producing. Not jaw dropping, just a bit better than the bottom six of League Two standard.

Louis Dodds was in his best position, in a striking role, and what can we say about Rob Taylor? Saturday was only his second start in a league game, and he has scored three goals.

Apart from that impressive statistic he played quite well and caused Darlington problems, so just why have we seen so little of him?

I know the fans don't see him every day, but on the rare glimpses we have seen of him, he has looked a decent player. Hopefully, now he will get a run of games under his belt.

I know the manager said we needed four wins to be safe from the drop, but personally I don't think we need any more wins to avoid it now. A couple of draws maybe, because I can't see Luton or Chester getting 40 points.

It just shows how results affect everything, because the anticipated after-match protest turned into just a trickle as virtually everybody went home happy. If we avoid defeat at Accrington tomorrow night perhaps we should be selling season tickets on Wednesday morning while the going is good! In reality though, as welcome as Saturday's win was, it doesn't mean that everything is suddenly rosy again.

We've taken four points from our last two away games, but that form will get a bit of a testing as we now embark on four away games in a row. Hopefully it won't rain again at Accrington, like it did last time, as we attempt to prevent them doing the double over us.

I hope that Dean Glover earned a lot of money for Comic Relief last week by bringing Sam Stockley on against Dagenham, because after five days of wracking my brains, I can't think of any other reason why he did it.

Picture the scene, you are 1-0 down at home and take off an ineffective right-sided midfielder (Brown). Who do you replace him with? A right-sided midfielder who has scored five goals in 25 appearances (Richman), or an ageing full-back (Stockley) who wasn't even on the bench until Lee Collins pulled out injured, and even then play him out of position! Priceless.

Lee Sinnott's legacy was Slater and Perry, whereas Glover's will be 'the Stockley substitution'. A shame really because he should be remembered as one of our greatest ever players.

Talking of Sam Stockley I was perturbed by one thing he said in The Sentinel last week. He said he played at centre-half at Notts County because "one of the other lads wanted to play at full-back". Excuse me? Are the players deciding where they play now? No wonder we are in a mess.

The current state of the club will be debated at an open meeting of the supporters club on Thursday night, in the Leopard at 7.30. That could be a bit lively.

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