Boreham Wood v Rovers

[Rockford's Love Child]

Mart makes a reasonable point about Mellon's recruitment. However, most of the players on the pitch yesterday were brought here by Brabin and they did not show the desired character either.

 

[Mal]

Micky's gave an honest and frank interview post-match. As frustrated as all of us.

 

[Mal]

To be fair, big mart, Tranmere has the best goal difference in this league and second highest goals for. If four of the away game draws had been turned into wins, Tranmere would be top. So the recruitment , along with Brabin's players, whilst not perfect , has been good enough to get the team fourth. Where I do agree with you, and this has been a trait over many years, the toughness isn't there, particularly in away games. And I do get frustrated when the team resorts to long ball tactics when things are not going so well.

 

[bigmart]

Mal, the standard in the league this year is poor by far the worst in the 3 seasons we have been in it, we should have been in contention to be champions but are way off the pace. The reason most of the team yesterday were brought in under brabin is because of the recruitment under mellon being awful. Our record against teams in the play off positions in this league is dire and I feel a lot of the players do not have the mental toughness to succeed in getting us promoted

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

It is difficult to know what we do about the question of character. Individually, we still have a very strong squad, most of whom would get into the teams of the other top seven.

I wonder whether some of our players see getting to Rovers as the pinnacle of their career and don't have the extra push to get into the Football League. The players at Sutton, Macclesfield, and BW to an extent, will be on far lower wages and will know that this is probably their only opportunity to get into the League, increase their earnings and make a better career for themselves.

It was clear in the first half yesterday several of our players did not want to be there, whereas the home team was well up for the game, whatever the state of the pitch.

 

[Mal]

I cannot disagree with your sentiment. I always try to find a positive which in this case is that they are still in with a shout. The mental toughness has been lacking for the past 20 years, and even under Johnny King when we had a team that I believe should have made it to the top flight.

I don't know what the answer is other than to bed in the youngsters who should have that inner drive but who will then undoubtedly be 'stolen' by bigger clubs. Let us hope the playoffs are reached and we do a 1991

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Mal, the standard in the league this year is poor by far the worst in the 3 seasons we have been in it,

I am not sure that is actually true to be honest. I think the extra play-off positions have encouraged a lot of the mid table sides to spend money, and teams like BW, Sutton and Fylde are far stronger than the teams on the fringes of the play offs were last season.

 

[bigmart]

I am not sure that is actually true to be honest. I think the extra play-off positions have encouraged a lot of the mid table sides to spend money, and teams like BW, Sutton and Fylde are far stronger than the teams on the fringes of the play offs were last season.

Last two seasons we have had Cheltenham and Lincoln who have been very good sides not to mention Grimsby & Forest Green, there are no teams anywhere near that level this season

 

[Sparky]

Don’t forget our record last season against the top 6 wasn’t great and we blew aldershot away in the play offs

(although we didn’t turn up in the final)....

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Last two seasons we have had Cheltenham and Lincoln who have been very good sides not to mention Grimsby & Forest Green, there are no teams anywhere near that level this season

Macclesfield looked as good as, if not better, than Lincoln and Cheltenham when we played them a couple of weeks ago. Aldershot, BW and Sutton are also very strong, at least on a par with the likes of Braintree and Dover who were play off sides in our first season.

I agree that we should be challenging for the title, but I think the general standard is actually higher this season.

 

[Sparky]

It’s not just recruitment Micky hasn’t been great at. We’ve consistently been poor in the bigger games and there also question marks about his player selection.

The farce not playing cook at the start of the season contributed to our poor start and more recently I think Sutton has been dropped unfairly.

Then you look at what has happened to Clarke and our lack of wide options on the left side. Jennings has been good and bad at times but still isn’t a realistic option on the left wing IMO

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

You can question all aspects of Mellon's performance, but I still don't see many better options for us at this level. If nothing else, he has got us in contention again this season which is not a given (look at our performance under Brabin, or Wrexham in the last few seasons).

We were just as poor in big matches under Brabin.

 

[Ian]

I think that’s why people say we’ve done it the ‘tranmere way’ as no matter who is in charge or who is playing, we always seems to underdeliver when is counts. Yesterday we had a great chance to make ground with the top two and they come out in the 1st half half arsed. I just don’t get it.

 

[Boz]

You can question all aspects of Mellon's performance, but I still don't see many better options for us at this level. If nothing else, he has got us in contention again this season which is not a given (look at our performance under Brabin, or Wrexham in the last few seasons).

We were just as poor in big matches under Brabin.

Largely agree with your first paragraph. Think Brabin's away record against top teams was a bit better; wins at Cheltenham, Forest Green and a draw at Grimsby, but no doubt Mellon is the better manager.

Where I do have concerns about MM are his sacred cows who seem undroppable regardless of performance. This contrasts with his treatment of younger players, who get their opportunity, but are too readily dumped.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

We were just as poor in big matches under Brabin.

In Brabin's first season, we were good away, particularly against top teams. We were unbeaten on the road for a year, mainly during GB's time. Gary's failure was at home, particularly against weaker sides. Remember the home defeat against already doomed Welling, which cost us our play-off spot? I think what did for Brabin were the performances at PP, adding to his failure generally to provide a consistent and credible challenge. Apart from our very poor start to 2017/18, Mellon's sides usually beat the lesser teams but generally struggle against fellow contenders. This means we are always likely to reach the play-offs but not gain automatic promotion.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

When I said Brabin struggled in big matches, I was thinking more of the significance of the game rather than the quality of the opposition. In addition to the Welling game, we also lost at home to Wrexham a couple of weeks later when we still had a realistic chance of a play off spot, both pitiful displays.

Under Brabin, I think we actually failed to beat any side in the top five on the date the game was actually played, with the exception of a victory on the final day of the season against a weakened Grimsby team that had already qualified for the play-offs.

 

[drwhoman]

I was interested in RLCs comments earlier in the string about the mentality of our players compared to other clubs, particularly in the big games. They are full time, paid good money for the Division, play at a nice ground with an enthusiastic fan base. Are they too comfortable? Many of them have played at this level for a number of years and they know that stepping up to a higher level, possibly having struggled there before, might be challenging. I am not suggesting that they consciously think this, but it might be lying in the background somewhere? There has to be some reason why these players are ‘freezing’ in the big games, they clearly have the quality.

 

[Mal]

Sparky, I looked at the starting line ups from game 1. It isn't true that cook was left out for the early season games, and in one game he didn't start, he came on as as substitute, in the other, he was unavailable. There were some games when MM tried out Alabi as was to be expected. However, out of first 10 games, Cook was substitute in first game of the season. In that sequence tranmere won 3, lost 4 and drew 3. And scored 8 , conceded 8. With Cook scoring 2. Have a look at the reports on the tranmere site reports. It was after that rather uninspiring start that MM dropped Cook to try something different.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Cook was clearly sidelined by Mellon in the early weeks of the season in favour of Alabi. He did not play regularly, but it is not just about the number of games he played. His partnership with Norwood was broken up and he was used as a lone striker in a front three, which was ineffective. Those decisions cost us.

But I don't want to go over that ground yet again......

 

[Mal]

Fair enough, but it is untrue Cook was sidelined at the beginning of the season. It was only against Ebbs fleet that he was not starting, and he scored twice in 8 starting appearances. An absence from start of season seems to be a myth that has become fact on a number of fan sites. And plainly the combinations were not working. And it wasn't just about forwards.. as you say, Cook was ineffective and not the panacea to all scoring ills in those combinations. It takes more than one player.