Rovers 0-1 Coldham

[SonkORLY?]

Not very good at all. First half was a scrappy affair and we could easily have found ourselves two nil down after some poor defending; thankfully, Abott blasted a free volley over from 12 yards. Typical Tranmere, conceding a goal from a standard set piece.

Second half Oldham sat deeper, scrapping and hacking to keep their lead; that's not a criticism, it's an effective way to play against us when we have someone like Mclaren in the engine room who is always looking for excuses to disappear from a game. If I had things my way he wouldn't play another game for us, absolutely useless. Neither Welsh or Edds were much better, but you know they'll always put themselves about and won't hide away from an important game.

Captain fantastic Thomas-Moore struggled to have any effect (as usual) and Gornell was equally useless. Curran put himself about but didn't actually do anything and possibly deserved to be booked in the first half for what looked like a contrived attempt to win a penalty. Only Taylor, Goodison and Sordell (who looks very promising IMO) had particulaly good games. Barnett made an immediate impact when he came on too; his first touch was a crunching tackle, his second involvment was to set up our best chance of the game after some great interplay with Sordell, and his contribution from set pieces was more impressive than previously offered by Mclaren.

Playing at home against a team who have won only once in 9 games we should expect no less than 3 points - especially so at this stage of the season. Other than Sordell our strikers look utterly ineffective, not helped by the poor quality of service offered by those currently favoured by Parry to play in midfield. Get Mahon and Barnett starting every game ASAP because things are quite serious now. We need some actual quality in key midfield positions rather than a bunch of "hard working" defensivley minded players all doing the same job (to an average standard at best).

 

[evo_trfc]

To me thats it, Our season over, Anything over then relagation to me now is beyond possiblilty, The best we can hope for is we hold onto some of the players who wil lbe good enough in league 2, Keep Shuker Edds Bakaygo and we should go straight back up they'd be the players who would get you cruising in that league, and hopefully Mahon would be too good for that league!

Just hope we stay up

 

[bigmart]

A very bad performance to say the least, i expected us to be quick out of the bloxks play with a high tempo and have a really good go at them instead we were slow and second best.
The midfield was truly awful how mclaren keeps getting picked & playing the 90 minutes is beyond me, shuker was just as bad. Curran put the effort in as usual but his end product is poor, to me gornell is not even close to being good enough for this level hes not strong enough to keep hold of the ball he doesnt win many headers and isnt that quick.
Thought sordell looked quite promising and ideally would look usefull upfront alongside a target man if we can get bas back fit.

A huge week now and we have got to win at least one of the away games. I would drop mcclaren shuker gornell & curran bring in mccready move ash into midfield alongside edds and play mahon and barnett on the flanks with moore & sordell up front.

 

[Ian]

Christ, well that was awful wasn't it. I think we all expected a bit more than what was on show and then we get brought down to earth remembering we support Tranmere Rovers.

Very frustrating to lose at home in that manner. We had a couple of chances and that was it. The first half was drab and the second a little bit livelier after Sordell came on who actually looks quite useful. Seems to have a brain something most of our players are lacking.

It was so unproductive and predictable. Balls were being hoofed anywhere and there wasn't no decent footwork or ball play. Oldham to their credit battled hard, very gritty. They were dirty and wasted lots of time. They'll be delighted with that three points. Like SonkORLY says, they should have been 2-0 up and cruising.

Gornell a waste of time but that's not the first time I've said that. Curran not much better. ITM anonymous. Midfield weak. We missed Zoom at the back and Shuker was dreadful. Ohh, happy days!

What's really annoying is that all that hard work last week coming away from Charlton with a decent 1-1 draw doesn't count for much when you lose at home to another struggling team.

The fight is on!!

 

[SCooperSomersaults]

Today was dreadful really wasn't it. Like some of you have already said, drawing at Charlton was great but then thrown that good work away by losing today against a poor Oldham team.

Oldham simply out-muscled us. They had Reuben Hazell (who has seriously bulked up since his time with us 10 years ago) and Gregan at the back who bullied ITM and Gornell. But high hopeful balls played up there to them both, they had no chance in winning them really against them 2. But did we change things, not really.

We lacked quality in the final third. Shuker was in general poor. He has his good points but he's simply too inconsistent and it seriously frustrates me. Too many bad days outweigh good days imo. We missed Zoom. Cresswell came in and did ok but he's not as good imo.

Plus points, we're still only 3 points off safety (next Tuesday's game is absolutely HUGE now, must not lose), Sordell looks a very promising player with a bit of flair about him, a good left foot and was unlucky not to score from his 2 shots at the end.

Bad points, Oldham aren't a great side and they beat us. We could have been level or out of the drop zone had we won. We played our worst game in arguably one of the most important games of the season.

There are so many poor teams in this division that despite a game like today's, I still believe we can do it.

 

[Boz]

We're all doomed

Understandably not a lot of optimism around after this showing. Our first half performance was very poor, although Oldham got away with a lot of physical stuff. I thought we might have had a chance to re-group if we kept it at 0-0 until half-time, but we let in the goal and could have conceded another. The fog was probably our best chance of saving the game, but even that wasn't enough. Second half we had more of the possession, but still didn't seem to trouble Oldham that much (from what I could see through the mist)

I thought Goodison started very nervously, misplaced passes in the danger area and misdirected headers creating more trouble for us. As he's usually a bedrock, it was an indication of how things would go. Welsh and McLaren were anonymous, Shuker a mixed bag, though he did take on and beat his man a couple of times. Up front we were toothless, an argument for Marvin to start the next game, though imo there was little to choose between Curran, Gornell and ITM, so it's a moot point who he should replace.

Don't know if Welsh was injured, otherwise McLaren should have been the one replaced. I don't think Mahon has the physical presence for the opposition we faced today.

MoM I thought Daniels had a decent game, couple of fine saves and some good distribution and sweeping up. However Ash Taylor, who was everywhere shaded it for me.

Very poor crowd today, 5.5k for a key game with localish rivals, even allowing for the scouse derby. Maybe the stay-aways were psychic, foreseeing the nature of the game.

I'd say we need to get something from the Gillingham game and win either that or Southend. However, until staying up is mathematically impossible, we should carry on believing that we can escape, however unlikely that seems just now.

 

[DIW]

First game I've missed this season (and I was meant to be on the R factor as well).
Very disappointing - these are the games we need points from. After shipping goals like no-ones business in the early part of the season it's ironic that eventually that probably won't cost us as much as the inability to score. In every game we play now, unless we score first I can't see us getting anything out of it. 3 goals in the last seven games says it all. ITM out of form, and looking slow and past it at this level, Gornell tries hard and battles but not in the box. As for the service, we must have the slowest, most pedestrian midfield in the division.

 

[The Bootle Rover]

Glimmers of Light

I need not add to the comments on the Oldham game and result, but we all have our hobby horses and mine is getting rid of shuker the shocker - can anyone still have any doubt as to how piss poor he is and unbelievably hes actually getting worse.

And the glimmers of light;

1. Sordell being positive and having the confidence of youth, he carried the ball FORWARD, will others please take note
2. Barnett, tackling and making chances in the few minutes he got on the pitch, please Les, play these two in place of shuker the shocker and ITMoore - he too has become a liability
3. The continued improvement in Ash Taylor

Still only 3 points away from getting involved in making a fight of things with a number of clube being dragged in so despite no points on Saturday one good result can revive hopes. Here's Hoping

 

[Sparky]

Agree with most that Barnett showed he should be given a chance and Sordell did well. Have not got the time to spend time persisting with strikers who are not scoring so give Sordell a try. Cant do any worse than ITM, Gornell at the moment.

I was a bit surprised with Parrys post match comments - in that he thought we would struggle after such a good performance at Charlton (did this feed into the players in his pre match build up I wonder?).

Also he signalled out Cresswell saying how we missed Zoom.

I would prefer Zoom but thought Cresswell did okay and was no worse than anyone else. He is only a young lad and after starting the season fairly well, you wonder what his confidence will be like after being singled out publicly

 

[Ian]

I think Les was trying to give some credit to Cresswell after coming in and playing reasonably well, without taking away the efforts of Zoom who's been consistently good in that position and let's face it, is a better player than Cresswell.

Just not sure it came out right. It will be good to have Zoom back.

I'd like to see more of Sordell on Tuesday, seems to have a little more in the bag.

 

[SonkORLY?]

And Barnett!

 

[Boz]

Couldn't see much of the left side in the 2nd half due to the mist, but Cresswell put in a decent turn in the first half, some decent crosses into the box which the forwards wouldn't gamble on. Particularly in away games, I'd like to see Zoum at left-back and Cressa left-wing, which will have the benefit of an extra defender on the pitch and utilise Cresswell's ability at set pieces.

 

[Mal]

Well I must say I prefer the lose 1, win 1 to draw 2. After Gillingham we are now within two wins of almost mid-table, especially when you see that Brighton play Norwich at the weekend, we play Southend and Exeter has played a game more, 2 points ahead. Dum de dum, de dum de dum de dum de dum, Dum de dum, de dum de dum de dum de dum always look on the Bright side of life