• Nigel Adkins has been given the Tranmere job on a permanent basis signing until the end of the 25/26 season. Continue the discussion here.

Tranmere 0 - 0 Colchester

DixieDean

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22 Sep 2005
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539
thought Colchester were a decent side, playing some decent football. 5 across the middle was always going to make it difficult for us.
Brian countered in the 1st hald by moving Roberts inside so that we had 3 against 3 in the middle of the park. Once he did that we seemed to pick up and finished the half the stonger team.
Second half was a bit of a non event.
both teams battled away and to be honest I thought Colchester looked the more likely to nick it in the end.

Brian "went for it" by going 4-3-3 with Davies Zola and Facey up front but I'd have kept Greenacre on and left Zola on the bench.

The kids on the Kop need to learn that booing while the sub runs on is not a good thing to do and won't have done Davies' confidence much good. I know they were booing the decision but that's not how it could have come across to the youngster.

Anyhow, overall verdict is we worked hard but it's just another game that shows that we simply aren't good enough. Many times during the game we looked like the away side, lumping long balls up to Facey with no link between midfield and attack. In fact we didnt have a link betweeen defence and midfield either.
 
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PaulCook'sMagicLeftFoot

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Piss poor, thought both sides were awful.

As for the choices to come off for the double substitution. Little's totally lost the plot.

As one bloke yelled at Little "Are you not seeing what we're seeing"
 

smilingmart

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22 Sep 2005
Messages
95
Piss Poor just about sums it up for me too.

I thought Sharps was a rock at the back and davies and greenacre (until subbed) did well. A couple of positives in terms of performance but ultimately we need results and drawing home games is a sign of relegation teams.

Not optimistic. Boo hoo. :cry:
 

Boz

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30 Sep 2005
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Iain Hume
Thought Rovers were marginally the better side in the 1st half, an early effort from Greenacre and a decent effort from Aiston being the high-spots.
The 2nd half was fairly mundane until the inept substitutions. Taking off two of our most industrious players and the ones who'd come closest to scoring seemed very strange. I take the point about the booing, which obviously wasn't directed at Steve Davies. The manager also received a fair bit of flak from the Home Paddocks, waving his hand dismissively in response. From thereon in, things fell apart for a while as the tracking back which Chris & Sam had done, wasn't matched by Zola, while Facey fell asleep on a few occasions, allowing Colchester a few openings. For most of the last 10 minutes we were under the cosh and a side with a more clinical strikeforce would certainly have made us pay.

Overall;

Keeper. One excellent point blank save from Johnny A near the end and did nothing wrong.

Defence. Agree Sharps had a good solid game, linking up with the attack to drive things forward on occasion. Jacko quieter, but ok. Neither Linwood nor Goodison looked comfortable in their roles, though Paul did make a crucial clearance near the end.

Midfield. The central pair did ok, Jennings needs to learn how to impose himself on the game from the start, but grew more confident as time passed. Sam did fine when he stayed out wide, less so when he tried to bring the play inside. Gareth Roberts is a left back, he has done ok in the midfield slot in the past, but today was the worst I can ever remember seeing him play for us.

Attack. Chris Greenacre is the best striker currently at the club and a decent manager would work out a system of feeing his strengths. Delroy Facey wasn't as bad as I'd expected, having read posts about the last two games, but either lacks concentration or is lazy, he faded considerably in the 2nd half.

Subs. Steve Davies did well, a couple of efforts from balls flighted into the box were our best hope after he came on. Zola was poor today. Steven O'Leary seemed composed on the ball, but too early to tell if he'll make any impact in his loan spell.

Management. Think the going back to the Oldham team, or as near as, was daft. For a start, Delroy Facey is no Iain Hume! Also we were poor in the 1st half of that game, until the Chris Greenacre wonder strike. For me, 3 up front like at Bristol would have been a better bet. The subs were wrong, either take off those who are playing badly Roberts/Goodison or have faded; certainly not Greenacre.
 

bolton_hater

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Greenacre at the mo, all time is Aldo!
aload of fookin sh!t, we drew against colchester at home, thats a discarce we never even scored against them. I think maybelittle should consider his position because he made the wrong subs and minimised his goals, he said hes pleased with the point, what a clown. I'm really pissed off this best be sorted out cos this is worrying.
 
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ChiefRich

Guest
Did he actually say he was pleased with a point??

I know we've been on bad form and want a result from somewhere etc, but in our division we should never be satisfied with anything less than a win at home. Teams only do anything in a season if they win at home.

Still, it is an improvement in results terms alone; something to start with.
 

NeverBeatDaveHiggins

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22 Sep 2005
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Dire.

Simply awful. The most exciting thing about the first half was one of their players messing up a throw in.

The most exciting thing about the second half was, umm our keeper and defence clearing off the line a lot?

Subbing off our two most effective players on the pitch was madness. Greenacre, Aiston, Roberts and Linwood were our only players in the first half - and Achterberg, Linwood, Sharps and Jackson were our only players in the second.

Four CBs, Two DMs, and a LB equals seven defensive players. Surprise surprise we didn't look like scoring even if the match went on all week.

Some lovely crossfield passing from our midfield of Facey and Greenacre in the first half, but somehow we always managed to lose possesion, or find a way to pass it backwards.

Set pieces were a disgrace.

I'm still 100% convinced the rot in the first team stems from two things - 1) motivational 2) Goodison at left back, Roberts out of position.
 
Joined
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another joke of a performance.why o why was facey left on that pitch?am not just pickin on the guy but he was absolutly awful on satarday and i think he made one contribution and it was an excellent cross apart from that he did bugger all!greenacre was always willing,he always tries hard and for god's sake he's our leading goalscorer!it was an awful decision by little to take him off.

on the booing of that decision by the majority of the prenton faithful,i think davies will take no notice and just get on with his game.i think even he knows it was for little and not himself!

on our other players i thought jacko had an indifferent game along with goodi,linwood,roberts,aiston and ranks.and i thought jennings had is worst game in a rovers shirt.on the substitutions i think they did well but obviously not well enough!i know we harp on at little for playing players out of position,but how about having davies on the left wing?i thought he did really well out there and put in some decent balls.he is left footed after all!

just reading a sunday paper as i type and i've just noticed that there was little over 6,000 at the game,THAT'S DOWN TO LITTLE AND HIS NEGATIVE ATTITUDE AND TACTICS.
 

bolton_hater

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Greenacre at the mo, all time is Aldo!
aldos worthy i completely agree.

i think its time for a change.
 
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PaulCook'sMagicLeftFoot

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Deffo.

If we were playing good footy and the results just weren't going our way, i'd still back Little, but i'm really starting to loose my patience with him.

His missing more than just passion now, I think he might have lost the plot.

What we desperatly need is a Manager with a link to the club, who the club means something to, someone with a passion for both winning and the club.

And quick.
 

smilingmart

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22 Sep 2005
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Aldo's Worthy makes a great point about playing Davies on the left wing. That would free up gareth to play full back. Totally agree with that.

At this stage of the season it's a case of getting the most out of what we have and davies should figure somewhere imo.
 

Ian

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Greenacre didn't look at all happy with being subbed..
You cant blame him :?
 

bolton_hater

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Greenacre at the mo, all time is Aldo!
I know theres pics I've seen little giving him a hug when he goes off and greenacre just barges past him.
 

Joe_TRFC

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Wasn't impressed with this match... but thanks to our win at Donny im not as angry... but we were pretty poor against Colchester.
 
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