MATCHWATCH : Port Vale (a)

[stealthpapes]

Off pitch

Burslem have some of the toughest home fans only rules I’ve ever encountered before a match. 12:05 and that Titanic Brewery pub were a firm nope. Micro pub opposite had a solid offer, waddling duck pale and a darker beer for Green. Wander around square to Post Office Vaults, great little pub single room, pub dog, Ossett white rat plus a few other hand pulls.
Get recommended “there’s a new place, proper beer place, around the corner”. The other three options are firm home fans only as well, bouncers on doors, plus the long closed Red Lion, famous for its links to Take That vibezman Robbie Williams. So we find the Sorting Office, a ‘beer emporium’ that turns out to be drinking in a shed and the two beers on we can neither taste nor find online.

“Pit Fire? Do you mean Spitfire”

Someone page Trading Standards to thread.

Rain and the ludicrously placed fanzone mean we take a breather at HT. that pint of cruzcampo not missed.

Bus to Stoke centre, pint of Citra pale in the Glebe, cracking pub with a few flaws - no outside area, not enough seats. Busy though and good beer and deco.

There’s what looks like a micropub not far from here. Looks deceived, and it was so empty the barman came out to persuade us to come in. Karaoke night, disco lights and an ok Guinness. There’s not much on the ground in Stoke. A couple of generic boozers, a mildly threatening biker pub, the station bar is ok but that’s cheating. God, that Wetherspoons looks like it’s in an old Woolies.

But this coffee shop, The Bluebird, is still open, got to be worth poking our heads in. Turns out it’s a cocktail bar, lovely owner, nice spot, but unexpected to be fair. So a bottle of ale and a modern coconut twist on an Old Fashioned put Stoke/Burslem to rest.

A few unpolished gems but not one I’d seek to do again.

[stealthpapes]

Could it be the lack of Academy players in the side.

Early Selles era, a team stock full of academy players, would get the same post-match abuse.

My memory might be cheating but I don’t remember it being this bad for that near-decade of mediocrity we had fighting relegation in the Championship. I’d barely see us win away for seasons at a time, went to almost every away game in the run-in to relegation and not a whisper, yet now when we’re actually in a good position, it’s suddenly toxic.

Anyone care to explain it?
I guess in the relegation years we could blame the EFL?

[windermereROYAL]

Why the hell does LR try and mend something that isn`t broken by taking off half your defence that has kept a clean sheet for 80 minutes?