Nobody’s doing us any favours, are they? Peterborough, Exeter, Plymouth and Blackpool have all won league games over the last two nights. We didn’t lose because it was chucking it down and Vale Park has never coped with that. The only game during the midweek to be called off due to a waterlogged pitch. An expensive drainage system is no match for what’s going on beneath the surface in Burslem.

We are rock bottom. Five points adrift of those in 21st, 22nd and 23rd. Six points shy of the safety of 20th. And we’ve got Luton Town, Peterborough Utd (20 Dec, at home, a season defining game), Huddersfield Town and Bradford City to play before we reach 2026. How anyone can view this as anything other than a crisis is beyond me.

By the end of December, we could feasibly have just 14 points from 22 games. It would be unsalvageable – although personally, I believe that ship has already sailed. The home defeat to Plymouth on 22nd November was the moment. And yet, regardless of how that game turned out, they had no intention of sacking Moore. We could have attacked December with fresh leadership, fresh ideas, fresh motivation. Carol and Matt chose not to do this. A missed opportunity to turn our season around. They have to own this when the time comes. When they act, IF they act, it will all be too late. Dithering while Rome burns.

The circus rolls into Luton on Saturday, giving League One its first chance to see our 4-2-3-1 formation in full effect. Will it bamboozle our opponents as it has in the mighty Vertu Cup and against League Two strugglers in the FA Cup? We’ll find out at the magnificent Kenilworth Road – a stadium slap-bang in the middle of its community, as all football grounds should be. These are the grounds I love. Not those soulless, characterless identikit all-seater jobs that sprang up on the edge of towns and cities from the early ’90s onwards after the Taylor Report. Eyesores. We should consider ourselves lucky we still have Vale Park.

And Luton? Back in League One after successive relegations from the heights of the Premiership and the Championship. That’s some fall. Imagine how gutted you’d be after that. You could take the drop from the Premiership, but then to burn the house down again the following season? I’d be livid. This season they’ve won a bunch of games and lost a bunch. Inconsistent. Currently sitting in 7th. They’ll have already chalked up the three points. Only complacency can deny them.

What are we thinking about the line-up for Saturday? I’m going: Amos in goal (decent in those last two cup games and kicks better than Aussie Joe), Kyle John at Right-back, Headley at Left-back, Heneghan and Humphries in the centre of defence, Byers and Walters holding the midfield, George Hall, Ruari and Ben Waine as the three behind Devante Cole.

We haven’t scored a league goal since 11th October. Two whole months dry. Six consecutive league games. Cut adrift, the sea will swallow us. Prepare for League Two is the mantra.