Vale v Westwood

“The mighty Vale triumphed over Westwood AFC on their home ground at Mountblow in game five of the GCCL League.
It was a match for the ages for Vale as they fired seven goals past their opponents to cement themselves with a 7-2 score line to take them to 9th in the league.
It was exactly the response that we were looking for after falling short to AC Kelvingrove in the 5-2 loss last week after having a nightmare second half performance.
The Vale put on a show and made up for that mishap and blew their opponents out of the water on their home turf on Sunday though.
As the result suggested, The Vale were in full control of the match from the very first whistle. They should have taken the lead four minutes in after great interplay from defence to midfield with one touch passes led to a brilliantly executed through ball into the feet of Andy Fulton, who was one-on-one but only managed to force opposition ‘Keeper Piotr Matuisak to parry it clear.
Vale continued to push forward and attack in the early stages but couldn’t manage to force any clear-cut chances.
It was Westwood who then dealt a sucker blow to the home side after forcing a quick counter-attack to put Vale under pressure. Westwood had bodies up and the ball fell to Liam Hiller on the edge of the box, who lined up for a shot and placed his effort in the bottom right corner. The strike had too much on it for Kieran Connolly to deny the goal.
Minutes later, Charlie McNeil was motivated on that left wing to give his side a goal back. He used his skill to dance past four or five Westwood players and was bundled down on the edge of the box for a Vale freekick. This then led to a fantastic double save from Matuisak in goals as he denied the freekick from McNeil and then the rebound shot from Stephen Mulhern too. It gave the Vale confidence though as they looked hungry for that equalizing goal.
Vale managed to find their long-awaited goal on the 35th minute through John Mullen as he fired home from the spot after Sean Smith was fouled in the box by Westwood goalscorer, Hiller. It was no less than we deserved after controlling possession and tempo for the majority of the first half.
The second half created one of the best Vale showings as they fired six past their opponents and it could have been even more.
It was last week’s man of the match, Kyle Gault who fired his side into the lead just after half time after the midfielder found some space on the edge of the box and had an audacious pop towards goal with inform Matsiak between the sticks. The keeper had no chance though and Vale found themselves 2-1 up. It was Gault’s second goal of the season.
The addition of Chembe Chipwatali in the second half was a game changer as the debutant offered a different dangerous threat up front to link with Davide Makokowe. It didn’t take long for the strike force to make an impact.
Vale scored two goals in quick succession as Makokowe got the third and his fifth goal in five games. He then then laid off new partner, Chipwatali to get his first goal for the club a minute after the restart. The Vale were 4-1 up and cruising.
Whist we were in full control, the defence switched off for a moment to give Westwood an opportunity in front of goal and they took it. Connolly did his best to try and prevent it from hitting the net, but it was a skillfully placed shot into the bottom corner.
Vale bounced back and found their fifth as substitution, Ben Baker was waiting at the back post for a lay off and scored into an empty net after Westwood found themselves out of shape. It was the easiest goal to score for Vale’s number 11 but that didn’t stop him from wheeling away in celebration screaming “I’m the best, I’m the best” to the cheering Vale support as they graced the fan favourite. If that didn’t put the fear into the opposition, then I'm not sure what would.
We then rounded off the fabulous performance with Chipwatali adding another to his tally to give him two goals on his debut and Sean Smith got a goal near the end too.
It was an amazing performance from start to finish for the mighty Vale with only a couple of low moments for the goals. The defence was strong throughout though and it is one of the best attacking displays we have seen from the Vale.
We now move on to next week where we face Kelvin Thistle on our home turf again for the second week in a row.“

Match Report by David Robson.