[Simplistic]

Now I know I have my opinions, but I always try and remain baised, even when watching the team I support....

With the Spartans game called off I decided to head just along the road to St Marks. Got to the game a little late and it was already 1-1 after about 15 mins. I didn't see either goal.

Vale in the first half looked in control, but for a mixture of some great and lucky goalkeeping from Craigy vale could and should have been well in front. Craigy came into the game only in parts but scored a fantastic goal just before half time to make the game 2-1.

With the pitch being wet there was a lot of slide tackles going in and there was a fair few bookings too. You could see a red card coming

And soon enough it did. The Vale number 6 who all game looked great on the ball (rattle the bar in the first half with a sweet strike) but very hot headed off it, just into the second half put in another hard tackle and the ref, who had warned him about 5 mins earlier had no choice but to send him off.

That was the end of the game as a contest. Craigy stepped up a gear, some very nice passing and some very effective finishing and they breezed into a 5-1 lead.

My Flatmate, a vale fan, won the vodka at half time, which made up for the rather poor pie (3rd pie at st marks in a month and the forst one thats been rubbish) but over all very good win for Criagy who do look a good team that kept up their energy until the end. Vale looked good but their finishing was poor. They signed a few Peebles boys, but from the display it doesn't look like they got the good ones!!

My only gripe was the lino on the far side where I was standing. Basically big mouthy biased idiot. If the ref gave something against vale he would shout how disgraceful the call was. He was having a go at some of the Craigy players and was mouthing off throughout - maybe im an idealist but if your going to put yourself in the position to help out, dont act like a nuckle dragging moron and try and use it to your teams advantage. I talked about me having opinions, this is not me having a go at vale, just this one guy. Its just a shame some people can't see the bigger picture, or is it me thats missing the point?

MOTM - Craigy number 5 - just for an amazing run that lead to the fourth goal. He played well all day, he is a decent young centre half.

On the way out heard a guy in fron mention all the goals were really good, especially the first two........gutted!

[SaintGroanin']

Spot on, Simplistic, agree with your assessment. I'm obviously biased as well but, on the balance of play in the first half, had Vale gone in at half time something like 3-1 up, I don't think Craigy would have complained. Over the whole game Vale probably actually made more chances than Craigy, but as you say, poor finishing did it for us, while Craigy took theirs. To be honest, I felt that the game was slipping away from Vale even before the sending off (ex-Peebles player Michael Osbourne, btw!), but once we were down to ten men, it was just a case of how many Craigy were going to score.
Didn't have a pie at the game myself, but if they were rotten, they certainly made up for it after the game with some tremendous hospitality at the Victoria Park Hotel on Ferry Road - they put on quite a spread. We nipped in for a pint before the game too. If anyone's going to St Mark's this season, I'd thoroughly recommend it.