- Joined
- 8 Sep 2008
- Messages
- 1,916
- Player
- Eddy Sonko
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).
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).