Bristol R v Tranmere

[TheBunnyBellEnd]

Another tough game this one, especially if you consider what damage to confidence was done on tuesday night. This is where Les and co will earn their money. I heard Les talking on radio city this morning and he stated that he was very unhappy with the way the team performed on tuesday and felt it was one of the worst performances the team had produced under his stewardship. He went on to say if we continue to play like that for the rest of the season we will get beat by everyone and will be back in the bottom 4 in no time.

Possibly not what the players need to hear after what happened or perhaps it is. Les understands that he need to provoke some sort of reaction from the players on saturday and perhaps questionning their commitment is the right way to do it.

Changes need to be made to the team that played on tuesday that looked tired. As I say Bristol will be a tough nut to crack but Les has managed to get reactions after other poor results this season and I hope he can do the same here however I think this game may come to soon.

Bristol 2 tranmere 0

I know this is somewhat pessimistic but I think after this game we go on a little run of games that are winnable. Whatever happens on the weekend we will still remain out of the drop zone.\\/

 

[Ian]

Yeah, they are all tough games really, but away from home, what can we expect? It's nice to know we cannot drop into the bottom four whatever the result, but I'm worried that the gap we had is now being closed again. Our record at the Memorial Stadium is also a little hit and miss.

http://whitereview.co.uk/matchday/opponent.php?opp=86

I'd be happy with a draw. 1-1.

Les may think about changing the squad after Tues too. Some players such as Mahon, Barnett, Logan and Bas who have been out of the side for some time, are pushing for places again so the competition and choice is a nice one for Les.

 

[TRFCJason]

I'd also be happy with a draw but I would like to see some changes, such as McCreedy on for Broomes

 

[Ian]

I don't understand the point of getting McReady on loan to the end of the season? Expensive cover when you don't have much money to spend. We've used him once. A better player than Broomes IMO, but Les seems to favour him.

 

[TRFCJason]

I totally agree with you Ian, I'm also not sure why we kept hold of Barnett where not using him and at the beginning of the season there was loads of hype about how good he was and we must keep him, But I guess I know nothing

 

[SonkORLY?]

Whatever happens on the weekend we will still remain out of the drop zone.\\/

Pardon my standards but I don't think an "achievment" this mediocre is any cause for celebration.

Bristol are strong at home, but if Les can show the character to drop one or two "untouchables" then I think we can grind out a draw.

 

[bigmart]

i cant see us getting anything out of this game just hope southend v exeter ends in a draw.

 

[Boz]

SonkORLY? what realistic target would you aim for then? I'd happily settle for staying out of the bottom four and even at my most optimistic can only see us going to the final game at Stockport mathematically safe.

A couple of months ago, I thought we'd get something out of this one. However Brizzle seem to have come into some decent form, culminating in a thumping 0-4 at Swindle last weekend. For now damage limitation should be a priority.

I'd like to see Rovers line up something like this;

Daniels
Bakayogo McCready Goodison O'Neill
Edds Welsh Barnett
Curran Savage ITM

I don't think Ash Taylor is likely to be fit or would say that he should start in place of Edds

 

[TheBunnyBellEnd]

SONKORLY I disagree staying out of the relegation zone is indeeed a thing to celebrate. If we were to slip back in there I honestly dont know if the lads have the strength of character or determination to drag themselves back out of it again. I agree with Boz to me we are aiming for going into the last game of the season mathematically safe.

Just another thing for folk to consider, IF southend get wound up then the games they have played are wiped from the record. Where would that leave us.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

One thing I've notice about the posts this season is how rubbish we all are forecasting results. Looking at the pessimism above, I hope the trend continues.

Re the morale of the team, I'm not worried. Whenever we have lost, the team has bounced back. We never seem to get on a sustained run. But again, I'm not worried. We seem to be getting a win, a draw and a defeat every three games. This may be frustrating for the fans, but it would be enough to keep us up.

 

[evo_trfc]

I'll be at this one saturday and i will be dissapointed with a defeat, I think a draw is the least we should be aiming at, Rovers really arent very good, I know there league position suggets otherwise but their squad is on par with ours, Felling confident about this one Im going 2-0 Tranmere Welsh and Logan!

 

[OneNightInGayParis]

Re the morale of the team, I'm not worried. Whenever we have lost, the team has bounced back. We never seem to get on a sustained run. But again, I'm not worried. We seem to be getting a win, a draw and a defeat every three games.

Just checked the league results and didn't realise how true this is from December onwards. Good spot! This means we are in the 3rd game of the current cycle and having beaten Saints and lost to Leeds we MUST draw against the Pirates. 1-1; it's a nap ...

 

[SonkORLY?]

SONKORLY I disagree staying out of the relegation zone is indeeed a thing to celebrate. If we were to slip back in there I honestly dont know if the lads have the strength of character or determination to drag themselves back out of it again. I agree with Boz to me we are aiming for going into the last game of the season mathematically safe.

For a team that finished outside of the top 6 by the narrowest of margins last year, survival shouldn't be celebrated, it should be assumed. Regardless of our league 1 status next year, steps need to be taken at the end of the season to make sure this season's rapid rate of decline isn't continiued or we will be relegated in 2011. The buck basically stops with PJ, we can't afford another managerial failure next year. Quite a holistic approach, but hey ho. Finishing 20th isn't good.

Would be well made up with a draw on Sat. Though as long as we put in a decent performance and don't get battered, steady the ship a bit after Leeds, it's probably alright.

 

[OneNightInGayParis]

Completely disagree, SonkORLY?. IF we survive this season it will be a MAJOR achievement bearing in mind the position we were in when the dynamic duo departed. On the day that survival is assured, whether it be last game or before I, for one, will be celebrating.

If we had been just outside the play off positions in November then survival would not be an achievement - but we weren't, we were ROCK BOTTOM ...

If anybody suggests that Les has not had a successful start to his managerial career if we avoid the drop they are away with the fairies ...](*,)

 

[SonkORLY?]

Assuming you read my post, what exactly do you disagree with? There is no "bearing in mind" about it. This season has been a joke - blame needs to be shouldered, the same mistakes can't be made again.

 

[Boz]

The team that narrowly missed out on the play-offs were then shorn of 4 key players in Coyne, Chorley, Kay and Jennings, so even if Ronnie had stayed, given the wage cuts, it's unlikely we'd have been that close again.

Barnes recruitment policy was a disaster, of the players he brought in only Bakayogo can be termed an unqualified success. Les inherited an unbalanced squad and with little of the player budget left to spend.

I've reservations about whether Les is the right man to take us forward. However, if he keeps us up and if he wants the job then he should be given the chance to see what can be managed starting with a clean slate for next season.

 

[SonkORLY?]

We're where we are predominantly because of poor decisions at board level. Yeah Jenno, Kay and Chorley left (Daniels is better than Coyne) but their departure alone shouldn't cause such a dramatic downturn that we go from playoff contenders to relegation material.

We freed up a significant amount of our wage budget when Greenacre left and others took pay-cuts. I always beleived last summer was important player-recruitment wise because we had so much of it to do; Moore's strength was player recruitment, then we sacked him. I have every belief Moore would have guided us to a similar position in the league this year, minimum top half. If we sack him then his replacement has to be capable of at least this, else he is catagorically a failure. Barnes ended up taking us to the bottom of the league. This season has been **** and we've taken about 100 steps back.

Les was brought in as an emergency, he's a physio. Garno and Allison seem to be running the show behind the scenes. Let's offer Chief a coaching contract and bring in a proper manager as soon as the season's finished.

 

[Boz]

We're where we are predominantly because of poor decisions at board level.

This season has been **** and we've taken about 100 steps back.

I totally agree with the points quoted above.

It's a moot point whether Daniels is better than Coyne. At times under Barnes, Luke was like a coconut at a shy and his confidence was understandably shredded. He's come on leaps and bounds since the defence was better organised.

My guess is that we'd have finished about mid-table under Moore. Certainly there would have been a more balanced recruitment policy, though we'd still have brought in Mahon. Peter Shirtliff was quite influential behind the scenes apparently, so his replacement as no 2 would have been another factor in how well we fared.

John Barnes was allegedly a "proper manager", yet I'd hope that you'd agree the current set-up is an improvement on his time at the helm. There wasn't a queue of prospective managers applying to take over, probably due to the financial constraints, league position and the unbalanced squad Barnes had created. It's hard to gauge from the outside how much influence each of the trio have on team selection, tactics and the like. However, if we stay up, they are likely to remain in charge.

 

[roverstillidie]

Let's offer Chief a coaching contract and bring in a proper manager as soon as the season's finished.

I would offer the Chief the managers job but that's a debate for another day...

 

[SCooperSomersaults]

Answering a few of the earlier posts about the McCready loan deal. The majority of his wages are still being paid by Northampton, and it was vital we got someone in as cover. Chris knew this when he signed, and should anything happens to Goodison (like it did when we went to Gillingham) then we have decent cover to fill in.

Bristol R seem to be on a good little run and are strong at home, it's not a great ground to go to there either. Hope more than expecting a result but like has been mentioned by most of you, don't seem to be going on long losing runs like under Barnes and bouncebackability has been good under Les.

Fingers crossed. Come on you whites (or lime greens depending on kit clashes lol)!