Rovers 1-1 Brighton

[Ian]

Really good, exciting, entertaining game that was. Rovers were unlucky not to win this one from their second half performance.

Denied a penalty, blatant in my view. The excellent Showumni hitting the post with a deadly strike and plenty of other chances abound.

But glad we got an equalizer, it was the least we deserved.
Brighton pinged it around well in the first half but were a different team in the second.

They are a good side and looked dangerous on the break. The pass it around well and on reflection, this was a good result.

Wootton had an excellent game in defence alongside Goodison and he'll be a great addition to the squad even if it is for only a month.

Dale Jennings was also excellent, again. Great movement on the ball and a player with real ability. Has a good touch, isn't afraid to take people on and can create chances. He's exciting to watch and Les shouldn't be afraid to play him.

Gulasci still looks a little shaky, not sure if he's suffering with confidence. Labadie had a great game in midfield, lots of energy, good tackling and some nice runs forward.

The team and performances are getting better.
It was nice to see a buzz at full time. People with smiles on their faces saying how much they enjoyed the game.

 

[Boz]

Rovers 1 Brighton 1

A good well-earned point for Rovers today. Brighton had started the first half the stronger, but their goal came out of the blue, long punt forward from their keeper, ball fell nicely for Murray and he wellied it into the net from about 30 yards out. Brighton then had about 3 chances to put the game out of reach and fluffed them.
Second half was much improved from Rovers. Great move resulting in Enoch hitting a post, goalmouth scrambles, more than one decent penalty shout being turned down by the clueless Mr Miller. If we hadn't got something out of this, it would have been a travesty, but you did get that "one of those days" feelings. Thankfully with 4 minutes left, a free-kick from Cressa made contact with Wootton/Akins, hit the back of the net and we were level. Both sides had chances in the dying minutes, but it finished 1-1.

Gulasci. Could he have done better with their goal? He tends to save by pushing the ball back in the direction of the forwards a lot, thankfully not taken advantage of today.

Defence. Good debut from Wootton, strong in the air and some good tidying up. Goodi had an indifferent 1st half, improved after the break, though got a needless (5th) booking which will keep him out of the Saints game. Blanchard had a tough time, but kept battling. Cresswell was solid defensively and made telling contributions further forward.

Midfield. Labadie battled well seems to be getting closer to last season's peak. Welsh and Mendy were patchy, they should have been looking to keep hold of the ball more. It was the right idea by Les to bring Fraughan on, with a view of more ball to feet, but things didn't work out for Ryan in his limited time on the pitch.

Attack. Akins had a good second half, got past his man a few times, now just needs to perfect that final ball. Showumni, now his fitness is honed, looking good and was unlucky to get on the score-sheet. Dale Jennings wasn't afraid to try things, sometimes they didn't come off or he ran into dead-ends, but when they did, there were flashes of true class. Please can someone get him a smaller pair of shorts though, he looks like a throwback to a 30s footballer at present.

Great atmosphere in the 2nd half today, haven't enjoyed a home game as much in terms of the fans getting behind the side in a good while. 5,421, more than the equivalent game last season. Don't know whether the C category low ticket price, south coast glory hunters or no game for our friends over the water helped boost the attendance, but hope today's game is the type that will get people wanting more.

 

[Ian]

Ohh and one more thing. That clown, Gus Poyet. Saying we were lucky to still be in the game. Yes, they had chances in the first half but he failed to mention the numerous chances we had in the second. They were lucky to come away with a draw. :roll:

 

[DIW]

I think Ian's got his match report pretty much spot on there. Showumni was excellent, for a big guy he has good touch and a bit of pace, and one hell of a shot as the post will testify! Jennings is very promising - small like Shuker but with far more attributes, raw pace for a start which the Brighton right back looks increasingly more scared of as the game wore on. Looks very exciting when he gets into the game. Labadie, was excellent and the new lad Wooton played well and looked a far better bet than Wood.

It was a nailed on penalty in the second half, the ref had a bit of a shocker. It was good to get a point, but I was disappointed because after the second half I think we deserved to win. More performances like that and we will be alright but we have to start putting away more of those chances.

10 points from 10 games and we will need 50 to stay up so we need to turn some of these draws into wins.

 

[Filed Under Rockford]

I agree !!

Ohh and one more thing. That clown, Gus Poyet. Saying we were lucky to still be in the game. Yes, they had chances in the first half but he failed to mention the numerous chances we had in the second. They were lucky to come away with a draw. :roll:

Well said Ian, although I would use a stronger word than "clown" if I were allowed!! Hopefully his arrogance will return to haunt B&HA!! We were superb in the second half although I understand one or two concerns about Max playing out of postion and Gulacsi's handling but only on occasion.

A major concern is Goodi's suspension though, as always he's the glue that holds our defence together and it's a big ask for kids to step into his boots. To be fair, if the usual trend continues, superb win, battling draw, depressing defeat we're due a kicking in the first half at Southampton so let's "break the chain" of results that Fleetwood Mac said they would never do over the tannoy on Saturday!!:-D

 

[SCooperSomersaults]

Poyet's comments were unbelievable. His side were outplayed for the first half hour, we gifted them a goal and lost our heads until half time and they had 2 great chances to extend their lead.

But after th break we had so much possession and created so many chances, that we should really have won the game. By far the best that I've seen Tranmere play in some years, we were excellent. I just wish we could find the consistency to keep that level of performance up for the whole season as I think we have some good plaers who when we play like that, could finish in the top half.

 

[Ian]

If the backbone of the side play well, you'll generally get a good performance. Players such as Goodison, Welsh, Labadie and Showunmi. All important players in their positions, that really make a difference to the side if they are firing on all cylinders.

The squad has been inconsistent with injury problems, but if Les can keep a solid XI together, then the performances will improve. Players such as Akins, Blanchard and Mendy will all get better and grow in confidence the more they play and then you've got the youth and exuberance of Jennings starting to coming through.

 

[SonkORLY?]

Having Jenno wide on the left and Labadie further forward behind Showunmi makes a big difference. We've moved beyond the 4-3-3 of old and look good in this new 4-2-3-1 type thing. Labadie is the most important player in our team, and performed superbly on Saturday. When he plays well, we usually will.

Still pretty unimpressed with Mendy and Akins. Would like to see Fraughan come in for the latter and probably switch wings with Jenno, who looks to be a bit handy with both feet.

 

[Rob]

Good game but its dissapointing to see the total lack of effort in the early parts of the game followed by excellent late performances, the inconsistency is a problem that needs to be addressed quickly.

Mendy/Akins - both are absolutely dreadful and shouldnt be anywhere near the first team, totally clueless charging around like headless chickens with awful spacial awareness
Jennings - excellent performance again and it would be nice to see another nippy player in the attack with him
Showunmi - cult hero
Wooton - absolutely superb and you can certainly tell he's on loan from a big club
Gulasci - Not too bad but his distribution of the ball is terrible

Overall the performance was pretty good and as soon as we got stuck in and stopped letting them fanny around with the ball we were on top for the majority of the second half.

In a fully fit team of the players we have seen this season I would have to go with:-

Gulasci, Cresswell, Goodison, Blanchard, Wooton
Jennings, Fraughan, Welsh, Ladabie
Showunmi, ITM

 

[Ian]

Yeah, Mendy and Akins aren't wonderfully talented footballers, although I do think Akins had his best game for us on Sat, so there's something to work with. These guys need a good run of competitive games (something they've never had before). Then we can see if they have something to offer. They certainly aren't the worse players I've seen in those positions. And are we missing McLaren? I don't think so..

 

[bigmart]

I thought in the first have especially gulasci was poor, twice he parried a shot straight to the brighton striker and was lucky that they missed.

 

[SonkORLY?]

Gulasci isn't playing well but you have to give him credit for being a good keeper. He was solid for Leicester when they won promotion to the C'ship 2 years ago.

 

[Ian]

Yeah, he is a good keeper. Just needs a few more games to warm up, seems to be lacking a bit of confidence. Great arial ability though. He never spilled this many shots when he played for us last season. But maybe we were tighter at the back towards the end of last season.

 

[bigmart]

sonko i think you will find that was david martin in goal for leicester.

 

[Boz]

I'm not going to reiterate what I said on the other thread, merely react to things which have been posted here. Guess Ian has been too occupied sorting out access to the site to merge the threads.

Gulasci. No problems with his kicking, given he's directed to aim it to wide front players, indeed Collister also seemed rather better at that than Daniels last season. However Peter does not seem to have had the same level of confidence/authority as last season and I don't think he's done that much better than Joe this time round.

Mendy. He had one very good game (Peterborough), but gives the ball away too readily. However while I thought bringing Fraughan on was the right move on Saturday, Ryan made little impact either in terms of holding onto the ball.

Akins/Jennings. Personally feel that the criticism of Lucas is harsh. I don't think he had a great 1st half, but after the break was taking on and beating players, carrying the ball to the by-line and putting balls into the box. While work needs to be done on the quality of that final ball, there are some promising signs imo. Dale is undoubtedly a better player and at a young age, but there were a number of times he ran into trouble v Brighton and arguably last Saturday Akins had more influence on the game.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I just thought I would make some belated comments on Saturday as I haven't been able to get access for a week because of the technical hitches.

I think the second half was the best we have played for many, many months, certainly since Ronnie departed. I agree with the comments regarding the change to Labadie's role being crucial: when he plays in behind Enoch the two of them are really difficult for the opposition to deal with, due to their strength and ability on the ball. I actually thought Akins had an excellent game on Saturday. Les has said that his major problem so far this season has been lack of confidence, and that seems to be growing a little now.

Cresswell's deliveries were very good again and caused mayhem in Brighton's back four at times, while Jennings is an absolute revelation. I don't think we have had a natural winger with so much skill, pace and directness since the days of Nevin and Morrissey.

Poyet's comments were utterly laughable. If a four nil win was what his team merited, why did he make three second half substitutions to shore up his creaking defence ?

Returning to one of my familiar themes, I think Saturday demonstrates that the pricing system turns many uncommittted supporters away: Charlton was arguably a more attractive game on paper than Brighton, yet there were 700 fewer fans in the ground for that match.

More generally, I found the level of abuse directed at Les after the Colchester game (not necessarily on this site) incomprehensible given the financial constraints. We are horribly inconsistent, and I don't really expect that to change, but to suggest that there has been no improvement since the Barnes era is ridiculous: if nothing else, Les's sides do have character, as shown by the way we responded to the Yeovil and Colchester games.

 

[Sparky]

People might compare this with the Barnes era as like it or not, like when Barnes was here, we are in the relegation zone, albeit not in 24th place, but still in a worrying position.

That said, we should all take heart from the level of performances against the likes of Peterborough, Charlton and Brighton. 5 points out of 9 against these is a decent return and whilst with a young side with quite a few loanees means we will be inconsistent, things are much better that last season even if the league doesnt show it yet.

Back to Saturday I agree that Gulasci doesnt appear to have great confidence but that will hopefully come and he is a better option than Collister IMO.

Akins is by no means the finished article but has some potential and with a bit of pace/power, may make that wide position in an attacking 3 his own.
Its good regardless that ITM has a bit of competition and that we have some decent attacking talent, especially when Savage and Gornell have been banging the goals in recently!

 

[DIW]

There is no comparison with the Barnes era really. At this point last year we were bottom, the team was devoid of all shape and confidence, clearly hated the manager and we were definitely down.

This year, whilst we are struggling I have seen enough to suggest that this team can survive with more to spare than last year. Easily.

 

[SCooperSomersaults]

I thought Akins was superb. He ran at the defender and got past him time after time. Hope he has the confidence to carry on doing that as defenders don't like it. It's a lot more difficult to defend against, and lets hope he can continue and put good balls into the box for Enoch, Jenno and ITM to get on to and lets start scoring some goals.

 

[SCooperSomersaults]

Ps, hope you don't mind a small plug. The article I wrote was based on the amount of good chances we created on Saturday, but we still only have scored 9 from 10 in the league...

http://www.givemefootball.com/league-one/goals-all-thats-missing-from-les-parrys-men