I don’t get it. What’s the endgame here? What possible logic leads the owner of a football club to stare down the barrel of relegation and simply… shrug? Do absolutely nothing? Before the new year has even bothered to dawn, Carol has accepted the drop as if it were some unavoidable act of God. But it’s worse than that, isn’t it? This isn’t passive acceptance. This is choice. This is intent. Keeping Darren Moore in post is choosing relegation.

The moment to act came and went with the Plymouth game, four long weeks ago now, four weeks of drift and denial. And still nothing. No sign that the owner and the CEO have any intention of trying to fight off what has now become inevitable. They’ve allowed this to happen.

I just do not get any of it. Why would this be the preferred option? It’s baffling. And it leaves you wondering what, exactly, they’re waiting for. A miracle? Divine intervention? Do they genuinely belief that Moore turns all this around? I don’t think I’m angry about it anymore, I accepted relegation last month, no, I’m just curious now. What do Carol and Matt discuss in their Monday morning meeting? What’s on the agenda? What do they chat about after a match? What am I missing?

The game yesterday slipped into that now-familiar Vale rhythm: bright for a quarter of an hour, then slow suffocation. Opponents settle, we lose our way, Moore throws on substitutes, changes players around, makes us worse, they score, we fold. It’s the same tired script we’ve sat through all season. Rinse, repeat, despair. Twenty games in and just three wins. It’s an absolute embarrassment.

And let’s be honest, Peterborough didn’t even have to be good. They coasted. They should have had more.

Midfield? Almost non-existent. We missed Byers and Ojo massively. To a lesser extent we missed Garrity. Croasdale was anonymous. Stockport saw this coming a mile off when they went up, they knew he wasn’t League One standard and cut him loose. He’ll graft at League Two, but this level is exposing him. And Walters… if ever there was a game begging for him to step up, this was it. Instead, sideways, backwards, safe, safe, safe. Ninety minutes on the clock and still no urgency. You can see the talent in flashes – that pirouette, his little raison d’être moment, always lovely to watch, but one twirl doesn’t win you a midfield battle.

George Hall was the only spark, raw pace down the right, a proper nuisance. But even he needs a bit more polish on that final ball. And then Moore drags him to right-back once Mitch is done. Why? What possible universe does that make sense in? And Mo Faal thrown on up top… again, why?

I’m not expecting a statement from the club tomorrow. They’ll say nothing, do nothing, pretend nothing’s wrong. But it’s hard to shake the feeling that we’re being taken for idiots. Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?