Dear Roker Report,
Like thousands of others, I genuinely believed the days of us ‘doing a Sunderland’ were well behind us. The beating by Port Vale was inexcusable.
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I was quite dismayed when I heard Luke O’Nien (whom I greatly admire) stating that the team would move on quickly.
Well, good for them, but we as fans will get hammered for years about this — especially from the unmentionables up the road. Whilst I don’t care what they spout off in general, we’ve given them plenty of food to chomp on after this disaster. The fans were there in numbers, and the performance was just terrible.
Yes, the pitch was horrendous, but come on, we had ninety minutes to get past that excuse.
We simply never looked like winning and Port Vale, rock bottom of League One, turned us over. I feel sick, angry and really upset for the fans who went down there only to be served half-hearted garbage.
I bet Régis Le Bris has learned a lot about certain players after Sunday’s debacle.
Peter Milton
Dear Roker Report,
Never seen a more disgraceful performance as there was at Port Vale — they should give their wages to charity.
Ian Frame
Ed’s Note [Phil]: Hi, Peter and Ian. Thank you for your letters.
I’ve had a little bit of time to reflect on the shambles that unfolded at Vale Park and I still feel as annoyed about it as I did at full time on Sunday.
For me, our loss came down to a lack of application and an attitude that was nowhere near good enough for such a game.
These lads have worked very hard for the majority of the season in order to get us into such a promising position in the league, but they looked half-hearted and simply not up for the challenge against Port Vale, missing a brilliant opportunity to progress in the process.
We can criticise Régis Le Bris for his gameplan and use of substitutes but I do feel he was let down by his starting eleven — a real disappointment and not reflective of the standards the Lads have set during 2025/2026.
We now need a major response against Brighton on Saturday and I’m hopeful that we’ll get it. There’s still a lot to play for but Sunday was a major disappointment and I hope there have been some harsh words Andy home truths spoken behind closed doors. You can’t gloss over that kind of display and I hope they haven’t tried to.