Tranmere 1-0 Crewe

[Ian]

Poor first half, don't think we had one shot on target in the first 45. Ronnie said a few choice words at half time, much better second half. Had quite a few chances, some shocking misses from Savage and one from Zola in the first half. Some things never change!

Thought it was heading for extra time, so glad we got a late goal. Think we deserved it over the 90 minutes as we had Crewe pended back for long periods in the second half.

Ronnie played a much stronger team than I had guessed. It's obvious he wants to get as far as possible in the competition. I was a bit dissappointed not to have seen a few of the younger guys in action such as Curran, Waterfall and Barnett.

But a wins a win and it's onto the area quarter finals! Hope it's at home again!

 

[roverstillidie]

A dismal match but a good result was disppointed that Curran, Barnett and Waterfall didn't play. The goal was typical of the match but were in the next round and thats what counts. Man of the Match was a bit tricky (Lack of Contenders!) I would give it to either Goodison, Taylor or Shotton who all had fairly solid games. Jennings was terrible and looks completely disinterested as if he's going once he's 24 and got a few boos when he was subbed.

It was great to see Zola get a great round of applause when he was subbed which he responded to and acknowledged with a thumbs up to the crowd. The only problem was I would guess about 20 - 50 idiots booing him in the left of the main stand I think - correct me if i'm wrong. If those I am referring to a reading this - your a disgrace! Calvin despite his endless injuries and shall we say incosistent finishing always gave is all, so to boo him is simply unacceptable. Thornton and Davies are the two who deserve a booing.

 

[SonkORLY?]

first half was pretty bad, crewe remind me of us a few years ago, nice tidy little football team who cant get results. we gave them far too much space to play and shotton/chorley/goodison reverted to hoof ball far too quickly. that said, i thought kay and jennings were absoloutely pityful in the center of the park throughout, and rarely gave our defence an option to play the ball forward along the floor. jenno looks like a shadow of last seasons brilliant player and kays lack of pace really shows in that central midfield role. hes very very slow indeed.

i thought shotton did well despite a few unneccessary long diagonal balls to greenacre, andy taylor isn't in his best form (by his high standards) but did his best to contribute and get forward when possible. goodison did well, while chorley spent the first half hour making mistake after mistake. i thought savage was useful and was my man of the match, won almost everything in the air and was one of the more composed players on a night where for long periods we struggled to keep the ball. greenacre was utterly ineffective and i was surprised when i saw craig curran walk past me in his suit and take his seat in the stands - criminal that he wasnt even on the bench tonight, that included not a single striker.

...but a good result! i think we'll need to perform better in the next round to get through though.

 

[Boz]

I wasn't able to go in the end due to transport difficulties, from all your reports it doesn't sound like a great match. Goodison seems to have done a Lazarus, having been given little chance of being fit by RM in the Echo. Agree 100% with SonkORLY about the lack of strikers on the bench. In a cup going to penalties after 90m, which history shows we're poor at, would have thought you must have attacking options on the bench. Sounds like we got lucky this time

 

[Ian]

Worst player for me was Jennings. Made no impact at all, and as said, look uninterested. Then again, so did Shuker for the half time draw. lol

Shotton had another sold game, decent passing, good defending and worked hard. I felt a bit sorry for Greenacre. He worked hard for the entire game, he always does, but nothing really fell for him. Frustrating as a player I'm sure.

Crewe really should have punished us in the first half with their possession. SonkORLY? summed it up nicely, by saying they are a tidy team that cant get results. Coyne was tested only a few times, whereas when we had the play in the second half, their keeper had to make a couple of good saves.

Again, another tight affair, they always are these JPT games, but at least there's progression in this cup.

 

[Tartantranmere64]

Think Curran's got an injury, groin I believe.Maybe that's the reason he wasn't quoted?

Think you're being harsh on the team - ok first half was poor but we created enough chances to kill them off by the hour mark. I didn't think it was a dire match. What was dire was that there was only one pie stall open for the whole Kop and Paddock. Shocking!

 

[SonkORLY?]

thanks for the info re: curran. we should have kept gornell if the intention was to play greenacre, savage and moore on the pitch at any one time. one injury leads us into a situation where we have no strikers available for the bench which is pretty dire.

re: "harsh criticism"....they didn't create a lot but they hit the post, went very close again from 20 yards and chorley giften zola a 1 on 1. comparably, we had savage's header, moore's left footed volley that floated wide and the goal. there wasn't a lot in the game. i don't think we're being "harsh" on the team by picking holes in our performance, given that we scraped a 1-0 at home against a side second bottom in the league who had several first team players out injured, and who managed to outplay us for at least half of the game.




also, **** me, i hope we dont draw shrewsbury. beat wycome (current league 2 leaders) 7-0 away. shane sheriff on the scoresheet again. wtf?!

 

[roverstillidie]

also, **** me, i hope we dont draw shrewsbury. beat wycome (current league 2 leaders) 7-0 away. shane sheriff on the scoresheet again. wtf?!

There in the southern section so we would only get them in the final, if we get there.

 

[SonkORLY?]

i didn't know that! surely shrewsbury is further north than leicester!? :-k maybe my geography is failing me...bizarre...

 

[Ian]

7-0 is a ridiculous scoreline. I'm pleased for Sherriff though, he's doing well there.