Tricky start for the Vale as rivals Rovers return home with points

PORT Vale's bid to recover from their Barrow mauling fell flat as they were beaten by Doncaster. CLIVE YOULTON continues his review of the Valiants' season...

- CLIVE YOULTON

ONE man missing from the 4-0 drubbing at Barrow had been Connor Hall. Port Vale needed him against Doncaster Rovers on the final day of August to help stabilise the defence.

There were doubts over the futures of the likes of Funso Ojo, Conor Grant, Dan Jones, Jason Lowe and even Nathan Smith - as well as others.

Doncaster had just lost 3-0 to Everton in the League Cup.

And some tipsters had gone for Doncaster as promotion candidates following their incredible 20-match unbeaten charge to the play-offs the previous season.

Vale had to bounce back and it was an excellent chance to show the home fans what they could do.

Ridiculously, some dissenters, after just three League Two matches, were calling for Darren Moore's head.

Some obviously hadn't got the previous campaign out of their system while others asked for calm and a lot more games before a judgement was made.

One fan said on social media: "I know people are angry. I know I'm as angry as the next person but we're three games in. Start panicking when we're 15 games in and bottom of the table. We have 40-odd games yet to play, the FA Cup too. Moore out is completely unnecessary. Team is yet to gel and it's so obvious."

They turned out to be wise words in the long run.