• 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.

Rovers 0-1 Cheltenham

Ian

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Wow, what a load of of rubbish that was. Awful performance from Rovers.

They should be embarrassed after that. Cheltenham were better in every respect. They played football, looked hungry to win, had chances on goal etc etc. We had none of this.

Their keeper had maybe one save to make that I can recall in the second half from a good Robinson free-kick. Robbo was probably the best of a bad bunch.

The play was dire was us. We couldn't string two passes together and resorted to hoofs down the pitch which when you have only one up front actually comes to nothing. This resorted in Turyaki/Enoch running round like headless chickens or flicking the ball onto nobody. Complete rubbish they served up today and they just missed out on 18.5k and the 2nd round.

Nice one lads.. ](*,)
 

bigmart

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Totally agree with your comments Ian we were toally inept from start to finish and we deservedly lost.

We are in a worrying spell at the moment and need to get out of it quickly if the season isnt to fall apart.
 
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Yes, that was absolute garbage. The last two games have been the worst performances of the season, and today we saw some of the worst elements of last season's play return: unable to string two passes together, no cohesion, and aimless balls hacked forwards to Tiryaki and Showunmi, who was utterly dreadful when he came on.

I think we went into these cup matches with completely the wrong attitude and have paid the price. Losing becomes a habit.

Cheltenham had a good shape, won all the individual battles, played good passing football for the level they are at, and deserved to win. In the first ten or fifteen minutes of the second half I thought we were improving a bit, until Enoch replaced Tiryaki, and then we simply hoofed aimless long balls for the remainder of the game. Until the last five minutes Cheltenham looked as likely to score a second as we did to equalise.

The only positives were Robbo's performance, and Devaney's return. I thought he looked sharp when he came on, and maybe he should be starting again now.

I would not go so far as saying the season is falling apart, but we certainly need to arrest this slide quickly with the tough series of games we have coming up.
 

Boz

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Largely agree with the above. The first half was as bad as, if not worse than the dross served up at last season's home games with Yeovil and Bristol Rovers. Cheltenham were a big side, so why the hell did we spend so much time with the ball in the air rather than keeping it on the deck? Things got marginally better at the start of the second half, when Robbo brought a decent save out of their keeper from a free-kick, but that was our lot.

Few players can take that much pride from their performances. I thought Ash Taylor kept his head up in difficult circumstances and played a few decent long passes and Andy Robinson who was the architect of some of our better moves, while drifting in and out of the game. Raven, Weir, Welsh and Akins were well below par and Tiryaki was deployed too deep, but had little service.

To my mind Les should have used the subs to change the system and given our opponents something to think about. Agree Devaney looked sharp when he came on, but felt perhaps he was too keen to score against a former club and didn't always make the right choice.

As Ian states we have missed out on the money by not getting through to the next round. I am not optimistic about where we go from here.
 
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To my mind Les should have used the subs to change the system and given our opponents something to think about.

I thought we could gone 4-4-2 with Enoch and Tiryaki up front for the last 30 minutes, as we did at Chesterfield. Given we were playing really poorly and were desperate to score, this might at least have occupied their centre backs, who looked pretty comfortable all afternoon.
 

bigmart

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We should be starting 4-4-2 at home to the weaker teams in our league and against lower league teams in the cup as our favoured system doesnt work often enough, just look at the goals scored total at home this season
 
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Surprised no-one has mentioned the penalty. Absolute joke. Doesn't cover up our garbage performance, but it's laughable. 20 years ago that would NEVER have been given.

One observation: why do we never, ever, try to get beyond the full-backs and cross pr cut the ball back? All our wide players cut inside. No matter what foot they are on. it's just bizarre!

The club out of three cups in five days. Sad.

Still, I expect we'll be back to our best next weekend as we're not playing a team with 20 fans from the nether regions!
 
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Surprised no-one has mentioned the penalty. Absolute joke. Doesn't cover up our garbage performance, but it's laughable. 20 years ago that would NEVER have been given.

Yes, Lucas was watching the ball when the Cheltenham player ran across him, and the contact was clearly accidental. However, he caught him and given the standard of most refs at our level, you wouldn't expect a considered decision.

As regards 4-4-2, I wouldn't ever suggest starting with that formation with our current personnel. 4-4-1-1 works fine when we are passing the ball. Today we didn't pass it , however, and swithing to two up front in the second half would at least have put a bit of pressure on their back line.
 

tea for two

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i was at vauxhalls watching my nephew play for vauxhalls.it was a good game.not many people turned up but a good advert for conference north.the weather was good.my nephew played right back though he is a central midfielder.:whistle:

hopefully Tranmere can get themselves sorted for Saturday at home to the owls.
hopefully i can sleep now someones having a party by me hopefully they gone to bed:whistle:
 

Ian

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Taking turyaki off and putting Enoch in place was just daft. It didnt change the way we played at all and made absolutely no difference. Considering we were 1-0 down and not looking capable of getting close to scoring, Les should have put two up front or at least pushed more bodies forward.

The cup games have been a disaster and I don't think their hearts have been in it. Especially today, were was the passion, the drive? No-one stepped up to the plate. Very disappointing.

We've missed Devaney's quality out wide. His crosses are dangerous and he gives us a bit more creativity in that position. Good to see him back.

Falling apart might be going a little OTT, but I guess it all depends how the team react after these last few games. Sheff Wed up next. Big test.

And yes, the penalty decison was a joke.
 

bigmart

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RLC the problem weve had for a couple of seasons at home is against the bigger teams we do well but against lesser teams when the onus is on us to attack we struggle to win so surely its worth a try at 4-4-2.

Too often our centre forward gets the ball and is too isolated its not a coincidence we dont score many at home with this system.
 

Boz

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Tiryaki won relatively little in the air yesterday, so to that extent I could see the point of taking him off. However, my preference would have been to try the 442 as soon as we didn't make any impact at the start of the second half. The two didn't have to be Mustafa and Enoch, Adam or Lucas could also play up front. What was tactically stupid by Les was, having substituted 3 of the 4 players who are forwards, to then put Goodi a central defender up front for the last 10 minutes.

Didn't get a clear view of the penalty. From what I've read since, it's not disputed that Lucas clipped his heels, inadvertent or otherwise and the question is was the ball in the control of the player clipped or did he have a chance of retrieving it before it ran out of play? If yes to either then it would be a penalty.

It was the same ref as Oldham and we didn't complain too much about him then. Aside for letting the Cheltenham defenders hold our players without sanction, yet penalise Enoch when he used his strength to lever them off and perhaps the penalty, he wasn't that bad. Rovers lost due to their own ineptitude and Cheltenham's greater determination and skill, not because of the ref.
 
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RLC the problem weve had for a couple of seasons at home is against the bigger teams we do well but against lesser teams when the onus is on us to attack we struggle to win so surely its worth a try at 4-4-2.

Too often our centre forward gets the ball and is too isolated its not a coincidence we dont score many at home with this system.

In my view our success this season is largely founded on the 4-5-1 and our ability to restrict the opposition to few chances and monopolise possession in the middle of the field in a number of games. We don't have a prolific striker and we therefore we need to be solid in the middle of the pitch, which we may not be playing a 4-4-2. We have beaten Chesterfield, Walsall, Wycombe and Oldham at home this season, and our home record is perfectly respectable. No team wins every game at home against lesser opposition, even Charlton and Huddersfield.

If the formation was switched to 4-4-2 you then also have to wonder how we would accommodate Robbo and the impact this would have on the quality of our football. Last season the fans complained of our inability to pass the ball in midfield. Les and the coaching staff have introduced a formation which allows us to do precisely that (and has got us to within 2 points of the play offs).

I am not a fan of the idea of switching systems for different matches either, as I think our success this season has been built on having continuity and stability in the side (look at the state our defence got into with the changes made at Chesterfield).
 
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Didn't get a clear view of the penalty. From what I've read since, it's not disputed that Lucas clipped his heels, inadvertent or otherwise and the question is was the ball in the control of the player clipped or did he have a chance of retrieving it before it ran out of play? If yes to either then it would be a penalty.

My gut instinct at the time, which has been confirmed by seeing the replay, was that the striker would never have reached the ball.

However, in truth it would have been a travesty for Cheltenham if they hadn't won the game.
 

bigmart

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We are not even averaging a goal a game at home so its not that succesfull, as for robbo he could easily play left midfield in 4-4-2.

We are too predictable at home at the moment we play the same formation with the same tactics and more often than not the lone striker is too isolated. When we have to make the running we struggle badly.
 
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If Robbo played left midfield I doubt he would have anything like the same influence on the game. Also he doesn't have the pace to beat the full back in that position at the age he is now.

Tiryaki was too isolated yesterday due to Robinson dropping far too deep searching for the ball. In our successful October, Baxter played much closer to the striker which is perhaps what Robbo / Baxter should do again in future.

We are not prolific at home, but we have only conceded four in the league, so the current system certainly has its benefits. There is no guarantee we would be much more prolific playing 4-4-2, as we don't have a top quality striker.
 

SonkORLY?

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Ask Buchanan how he'd feel about the prospect of having Robbo left mid.

The assumption that we will score more goals in a 4-4-2 is pseudological. Football doesn't work like that. We don't score many goals because we don't have many goalscorers. We do generally create chances with this system and being stable at the back means that we will usually only need to score 1 goal to win these games at home.

The "being too predictable" argument is bizarre. Most of the top teams stick to one system.
 

WildRover

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Well, we would have drawn Luton away, so probably wouldnt have got any further anyway....:roll:
 

SonkORLY?

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i was at vauxhalls watching my nephew play for vauxhalls.it was a good game.not many people turned up but a good advert for conference north.the weather was good.my nephew played right back though he is a central midfielder.:whistle:

What's his name?
 

bigmart

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Im not saying we will score more goals if we play 4-4-2 but there is a better chance of scoring with another man in support of the often too isolated striker.

Robbo doesnt need pace to beat a fullback he is skillfull enough to beat him.

We have been too predictable several times at home this season, we get a goal kick or the keeper kicks out of his hands and were does it end up the majority of the time towards Akins head. The tactics yesterday were back to the alehouse rubbish of the past two seasons laucnh the ball in the air to the far too isolated striker.
 
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