H(P)arry Houdini 2 - 1 Leyton Orient

[NeverBeatDaveHiggins]

Huge result. Delighted with the level of derision aimed at Thornton, couldn't have happened to a more deserving person. Made my day when his own manager subbed him off for being useless! There's only one greedy b&***rd!!

Ref was dog awful, as they tend to be, but how the heck he managed to give them so many free kicks around our box really is a mystery. I suppose the only explanation is that he had the game down as a draw at the bookies!!

Not many Tranmere fans in attendance, although I didn't miss the always out of time drummer!! Yes the atmosphere was quite muted, but when that final whistle went I just had the feeling that the Tranmere fans in the stadium were the die-hards who well deserved to see the victory, and also that every one of them was delighted and relieved in equal measure.

Being brutally honest about our performance, in the last ten minutes we were awful, sitting much much too deep and could easily have thrown it away. Daniels made some truly outstanding saves to preserve the win and for those he's my man of the match. McLaren was oddly excellent in the first half, perhaps the best half I've seen him play all season, but it was clear that his legs had completely gone by the end.

The league table will make for interesting reading tonight!

 

[DIW]

The league table does look much better right now, up to 17th! However that's only 2 points above the drop zone so let's not get too excited. Psychologically though I hope it will give everyone a boost to be out of the relegation zone for the first time since August.
Today's game = weird. Totally dominated the first half, scored 2 good goals. I think commitment levels dropped second half and we ended up clinging on in a game we should have been very comfortable. 2 excellent saves from Daniels, particularly from that free kick.
We need to keep picking up points at home, but I'm starting to believe now.

 

[Tom]

Was there today thought we were good first half but that Orient goalkeeper was atrocious, I was sittinh quite close to the away end goal near their goalkeeper and to be honest atleast Thomas-Moore's should have been saved maybe the second goal as well. Second half we just sat their and defended which was the wrong attitude then the nerves in the last few minutes shouldn't really have been as bad as they were disgraceful referee giving a astonashing amount of last 5-10 minute free kicks to them... I admit I wasnt actaullys ure who Thornton was and was a bit baffled by the abuse until I got home and checked :-[. Still great result overall and our first half performance meant that we probably deserved the points.

 

[bigmart]

think we made it a lot harder for ourselves than it should have been but an important win all the same. We really did invite pressure on ourselves at time by not leaving a man in attack when they had corners and free kicks.
I thought goodison had a really good game and daniels made a couple of good saves but curran had a poor game and gornell was a waste of time coming on as hardly got a kick.
Its starting to look bit better, the more points we get the more teams are dragged into the battle

 

[SCooperSomersaults]

Wow, we climb, what, 6 places with that win? It's a crazy league! It's awfully tight, and if we lose on Tuesday, no doubt we could plummet back down there again. So best not to get too carried away that we're 17th, but it looks a damn sight better, doesn't it?

As for the game, a game of 2 halves. We dominated first half. Orient were poor, we created a few half chances then scored 2 good goals by ITM and young Sordell who looks a bit of a player if you ask me. I'm impressed with the kid and hope we can keep him a wee bit longer (while Bas slowly gets back into the moonwalking).

2nd half was like being in a nightmare. It was horrific. We defended way too deep, there was a defence and a one man attack and nothing in between, so every time we cleared it came back. It took Ian Goodison until the 80th minute to realise, 'hold on a sec, I should tell everyone to push up'. We invited all the pressure ourselves and didn't keep the ball. If you have a 2-0 lead, keep the ball, try to pass it around. All we did was hoof it up to Ben Chorley (who no longer plays for us lads!).

Still... 3 points at the end of the day but I do wish Les could stop performances like that second half. Tactical alterations clearly need to be worked on I think. But we won, we go up to 17th, and we're staying up. And I thoroughly enjoyed Thornton's abysmal display today! \\/

 

[Boz]

First twenty minutes were awful, far too much head tennis. We settled down then and were worth our half-time lead. Second half, agree with SCoops analysis, Les and the gang should have made some changes earlier and told the team not to concede two thirds of the pitch without a fight.

Defence: Daniels kept us in the game with some great saves, needs to work on his distribution. Thought Zoum had a good game, with some excellent crosses into the danger area first half, which weren't fully utilised. Goodison was immense. Broomes was a liability however, a couple of fouls in dangerous positions when he'd had the chance to cut out the danger earlier. I would hope serious consideration is given to replacing with McCready. O'Neill had a good debut, he's a better defender than Logan and not so rash, but doesn't seem to have the attacking element to his game that Shay does. Interesting choice when both are available.

Midfield: Like others, not usually a fan of McLaren, but he really worked hard today. Edds was steady, but Welsh was below par, a number of half-hearted tackles and poor distribution. I'd have liked to see Barnett on earlier at his expense.

Attack: Goal aside, ITM had a quiet game and Curran's ball-control let him down on occasion. I don't know quite what to make of Sordell, he took his goal well, but was nowhere close to troubling their keeper with his other shots and he isn't that effective in the air. Also lacking match fitness. Feel a bit sorry for Terry Gornell, because of the way the match was when he was introduced. I suspect he may have made more of some of Zoum's crosses in the first half than any of our forwards on at the time.

Agree in part with NeverBeat's comments about the crowd. However numbers wise as Oldham brought over 650, whereas there were about 200 Orient fans today. Given the crowd was a few hundred down on Oldham, there were actually more home supporters in the ground today than against the Latics.

 

[DIW]

All fair points Boz - the issue with Les and making changes does concern me. Immediately after orient scored it was obvious that McClaren was injured. Given that we were about to face at least 5 minutes of pressure as they went for the win the last thing we needed was to be a player down. It then took them 5 minutes to get McClaren off (he spent the whole time hobbling about) and Barnett on. Seems obvious to me.

 

[SonkORLY?]

First twenty minutes were awful, far too much head tennis. We settled down then and were worth our half-time lead. Second half, agree with SCoops analysis, Les and the gang should have made some changes earlier and told the team not to concede two thirds of the pitch without a fight.

Defence: Daniels kept us in the game with some great saves, needs to work on his distribution. Thought Zoum had a good game, with some excellent crosses into the danger area first half, which weren't fully utilised. Goodison was immense. Broomes was a liability however, a couple of fouls in dangerous positions when he'd had the chance to cut out the danger earlier. I would hope serious consideration is given to replacing with McCready. O'Neill had a good debut, he's a better defender than Logan and not so rash, but doesn't seem to have the attacking element to his game that Shay does. Interesting choice when both are available.

Midfield: Like others, not usually a fan of McLaren, but he really worked hard today. Edds was steady, but Welsh was below par, a number of half-hearted tackles and poor distribution. I'd have liked to see Barnett on earlier at his expense.

Attack: Goal aside, ITM had a quiet game and Curran's ball-control let him down on occasion. I don't know quite what to make of Sordell, he took his goal well, but was nowhere close to troubling their keeper with his other shots and he isn't that effective in the air. Also lacking match fitness. Feel a bit sorry for Terry Gornell, because of the way the match was when he was introduced. I suspect he may have made more of some of Zoum's crosses in the first half than any of our forwards on at the time.

Disagree with the bolded parts, agree with the rest. Logan is quick and good at dribbling, but remains a very poor crosser of the ball and is often let down by poor decision making in the opposition half. O'neill's passing, both short and long range, was much more accurate than we're used to from our regular right back. He's also taller and more physical, which I've always thought are important qualities in a full-back in this league given the amount of long balls and general physicality. There difference between having Taylor and Shotton as fullbacks last year - both over 6 foot - to starting the season with Cresswell and Logan - good players, but both midgets - was definetly noticable IMO. I think some teams targetted it as a weakness.

Anyway, I missed the first ten minutes yesterday, but for the second part of the second half we actually played some alright football. Mclaren and Edds were dominating the midfield (!) and at 2-0 up things looked ok. Second half the midfield typically disappeared and we could easily have finished up with a point. Parry should have brought Barnett and Mahon on at around the 70 minute mark, his resistance to make any changes to his "holy trinity" of average, senior midfielders was infuriating.

I don't disagree with what you said about Curran, on the ball he had a bit of a mare yesterday. But yesterday we owed much to his general work ethic, and I have to say he's probably the fittest and most dedicated player I've seen play for the club.



BTW, did anyone else think Sordell just didn't look that arsed yesterday?

 

[roverstillidie]

he's probably the fittest and most dedicated player I've seen play for the club.

BTW, did anyone else think Sordell just didn't look that arsed yesterday?

I personally think Curran is the worst player in the team at the moment he can run all day but he has no first touch, no poise, no goal scoring threat, no ability in the air, no composure, no dicipline apart from charging round like a headless chicken - drop him for Savage when he's back. If the basis for him playing is his work rate why dont we sign a marathon runner. A footballer needs to be able to play football not just run up and down the left/right side doing nothing.

Curran - Fittest, probably - most dedicated, no. That honour belongs to Ian Goodison. As for Sordell he has a very languid style which might make you think that.

 

[SonkORLY?]

No offence, but I can tell the difference between a player who is languid in "style" and a player who is lazy/disinterested.

Curran is easily the most dedicated player in the team. Nobody works harder. Lol @ saying he does nothing. He continually tracks back and doubles up, which is especially important when we play Logan who has a tendency to wander quite high up the pitch at times. You might not appreciate his contribution on that right hand side but I can assure you that the players certainly will. How can you say he's the worst current player in a team which has recently featured the equally limp Marlon Broomes, Gareth Edds, John Welsh, Paul Mclaren, Terry Gornell etc...Curran was poor on the ball yesterday and is out of form after doing well initially in the 4-3-3...but even when he has an off-day he contributes. His attitude is an embodiment of the reason why we're now out of the bottom 4. To single him out for criticism ahead of the likes of Mclaren is very harsh IMO.

 

[Boz]

SonkORLY? I don't think there's much difference in our views on Luke O'Neill. He was on my side of the pitch in the second-half when we were mainly defending and I agree his distribution was good. He didn't opt to carry the ball much and doesn't have Logan's pace, but on what I've seen thus far I prefer him at right-back.

Curran was playing left of the three in the first half and there were a couple of occasions when he was given the ball in a position near the touchline and let it slip out of play. I agree that his workrate is second to none and the curler he scored against Bristol Rovers is one of the best goals at PP this season. RTID, your views on players are very polarised and I disagree with you about Curran. Goodison's had a few stinkers in his time at PP, but I can't recall you ever giving him a slating. For me the jury's still out on Sordell.

 

[roverstillidie]

The problem with Curran is he has been going backwards ever since he burst into the first team. Then he had pace, poise and a killer instinct in front of goal. Now he's been turned into a run around everywhere player who's been played for his stamina and no other purpose. He's had several bad injuries and as a consequence as been "bulked up" which has slowed him down and made him try and replicate the style of play of a target man which he simply isnt. Yes he's hard working but a striker's job is to get into goal scoring positions and score goals - not charge toward the corner flag everytime you get the ball. Curran needs to go back to what he was - a striker with a burst of pace playing on the shoulder of the last defender not running 20 million miles everygame and harrasing people like a buzzing fly. You can't base the whole of Curran's selection on one goal against Bristol Rovers- yes it was very good but has he done it on a regular basis? No. Curran needs to be taught to score goals which I think he potentially could be quite good at, not chase the opposing full back/winger around.

Sordell reminds me of what Curran was - promising but erratic.

As for Goodison yes he's had a few stinkers - every player has. However he's one of the best defenders in the history of the club and our record without him is there for all to see. He started the season badly and looked demotivated thanks to Mr Barnes however since his departure the old Goodison has returned. Don't forget he's playing most of this season with a bit of bone in his foot floating around - hardly any other player would play through that.

 

[Sparky]

A vital win but as one or two have said, we could easily get dragged back into the mire. That said, the table looks a lot rosier.

Yes we werent at our best, particularly towards the end but I felt that inevitably as the half wore on we would get a bit deeper and although their 2 subs who came on up front caused us problems, we just about coped.

I don't think anyone can ever talk about Goodison in terms of good/bad performances. He is the most consistent player I have seen at PP in recent years.

I thought O'Neill looked a bit nervous at the start, which you can understand given he is only 18 and was pitched into a game of such importance. As the game went on he looked more confident but is by no means the finished article. I didnt think we needed him when Broomes/Edds could have played there with McCready available to play at the back, but we won the game and not much else matters.

Sordell is a funny one. I doubt he'll ever get many tap ins but neither did his hero Theirry Henry !!! He is one of those young players who needs a bit of nurturing but you could argue we dont have time for that.

But - 7 points from the last 9 available is something we cant argue with.

As for Thornton - I was well surprised with the level of abuse he got. When he has played at PP before (for Doncaster?), he has had a few boos but nothing that severe - not that I am saying i didnt find it hilarious and it created a half decent atmosphere !

 

[Ian]

Great win and a great boost to get out of the bottom four. Didn't understand what they were playing at in the second half which was panicky and lacking any composure seen in the first 45.

You would expect Orient to come out in the second half and give it a go, they had nothing to lose, but like Coops mentioned 'All we did was hoof it up to Ben Chorley' and we were on the back foot again.

Everyone was just so desperate for the win at the end, the crowd were screaming for the team to push forward.

Two good goals from the forwards though and we are moving in the right direction.
Tough one to come on Tues but they are all tough when you are down there fighting for survival.

Thornton going off was worth the admission fee alone, and finally a good word for Daniels. Made some great instinctive saves and had a great game between the sticks.

Confidence is coming back!!

SWA!!!