Town hammer the less than Valiants
Three bursts of intensity buried an abysmal Vale side to give Town a potential platform for an assault on this mediocre league in 2026.
One game remains of a dismal 2025, with another win on home soil surely within fairly easy reach for a confident squad finally showing their obvious, but so far almost entirely elusive, quality.
The uncertainty of Castledine’s loan spell is the only cloud in the Terriers’ immediate future. His blossoming talent has come to the fore in the past few weeks, providing threat, goals and genuine excitement to a labouring team desperate for a turning point.
Following hot on the heels of the equally rancid Rotherham, the visitors from the Potteries provided the perfect opposition for a manager whose career looked to be hanging by a thread just two weeks ago, as they duly rolled over for a festive thrashing.
Starting quite brightly, Vale had their best spell of the game in the opening three minutes and saw a Waine effort hit the side netting before their hosts had woken up.
It didn’t get any better for them in the next 87 minutes and, once they allowed Castledine to run at them without challenge following a ball from Harness, who had won a midfield battle, the Chelsea loanee steered home an easily placed shot to give Town a lead they never looked remotely like losing.
Within ten minutes, that lead was doubled when Castledine, who was in the thick of everything, was fouled on the left and Ledson got in front of the flimsy Vale defence to flick home.
It should be said that the referee, who let a lot of debatable challenges go throughout, missed a possible foul on the halfway line before the phase of play which led to the goal, but there was little stopping this revitalised bunch.
No stopping them until, that is, there was, and after the second goal went in, Town entered one of their rather weird flat periods, during which time little happens. The danger is that against more capable opponents, the drop-off can and will be punished.
Just before the half hour, however, Town stepped up the pressure again and Vale had to face a torrid final 15 minutes.
Eventually, the pressure paid when Castledine was again allowed to run at the beleaguered visiting defence and his deflected shot could only be parried by Amos into the path of Radulovic, who tucked it away with ease.
The overworked keeper had to be alert to a flicked header from May, which looked bound for goal, and smartly blocked the same opponent’s attempt to set up a colleague from the byline after following up on a weak stop from a Gooch shot.
Gooch in particular tormented the visitors and one fabulous run and pull-back set up Castledine for a snap effort, only lacking enough power to test the rather flaky Amos in Vale’s goal.
That effort was the final assault on the traumatised visitors, who were probably thankful for only being three down, definitely relieved to be going in to regroup and, you would imagine, looking forward to Darren Moore’s inspirational team talk.
A half-time switch by our erstwhile coach gave the Valiants more of an aerial presence, if not threat, in the second half, but two early and quite fabulous goals sealed their fate before they had any chance to readjust.
The first, Town’s fourth, came as a result of a carelessly conceded corner when Low got into a curious mess trying to play the ball back to Nicholls from near the touchline, only to skew it over the dead-ball line.
Vale’s attempt at a short corner was easily repelled, as was the second phase following the initial clearance. Gooch carried the ball out of the area and found Radulovic, who raked a perfectly weighted cross-field pass to Roughan, who had a lot of acreage in front of him.
Accompanied by May overlapping on his left, the Irishman waited for exactly the right moment to set up his colleague, who placed his shot past Amos with ease.
Even better was to come when an incisive, fast raid involved Balker winning the ball, Ledson moving it on to May who, in turn, found Castledine to maraud forward yet again.
His ball into Radulovic found the Serb with his back to goal, but he returned the ball with a flick into the path of Castledine’s continuing run, allowing him to take it in his stride and stroke it into the top corner for a quite excellent finish.
Who knew that quick, incisive passing and getting the ball forward rapidly to two strikers, supported by progressive midfield players, would bring success?
Pragmatically, Grant made four substitutions after the hour, with the excellent Radulovic being replaced by Charles, followed ten minutes later by the withdrawal of the other main architects of Town’s emphatic win in Gooch and Castledine.
A change of shape allowed Balker to withdraw, though Roughan at left-back with Roosken in front of him reduced Town’s threat down that side (Ashia’s late cameo confused things further), though Sorensen added something different down the right.
Understandable as the changes were, they immediately disrupted Town’s flow and the game as a spectacle suffered. A nicely weighted Alfie May cross to the far post, headed over by Sorensen, and a clever run by May which nearly created an opening were the only bright spots of the final 20 minutes.
Churlish to complain, perhaps, after a five-goal victory, but the paucity of entertainment on offer throughout this calendar year perhaps deserved to be recognised with the side in relatively sparkling form. Hopefully, curtailing the rather disappointing crowd’s entertainment will pay dividends in the crowded days ahead.
More importantly, Grant’s belated but welcome conversion to a shape allowing two strikers, and a reduction in the sterile passing around the back, seems to have created momentum. Losing Castledine will be a blow if it happens, but we should never become attached to loan players.
The platform for a successful season should now be in place.
Happy New Year everyone.
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