• 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 v daggers

Ian

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Going very well. Harris doing a good job at right back. Only one team in this at the moment. Hope it continues second half.
 

Boz

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Harris as right-back and doing ok so far. Cole has taken Jennings’ place on the left with Connor moving into the middle.

Find it a really hard game to call now. Norburn’s goal came after a spell of Daggers possession and deflated them a bit. So far they haven’t been a major threat on our goal, but think that could change. I’d like a 3rd.
 
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An excellent performance and a well deserved victory for Rovers. I thought we completely outplayed Dagenham today, which shows just how much we have improved in the last few weeks. We created chances throughout, were strong at the back and restricted The Daggers to scraps, their first shot on goal coming in the 66th minute.

Harris was brilliant as a makeshift right back, but the injuries did affect us insofar as we were lightweight in midfield without the ball after Hughes went off, with Jennings and Norburn as the central pairing. However, the back four were so strong we were never really threatened. We seemed to play a more direct game today and Cook and Norwood worked well together, the former winning a lot of flick-ons and the latter getting in behind the Dagenham defence on numerous occasions.

Individually, there were some terrific performances. Both centre backs had good games, with McNulty in really good form at the moment. Harris was excellent out of position, and Ridehalgh produced some great deliveries from the left hand side. Norburn had a relatively quiet game, aside from his superb strike for the second goal. Both DMH and Cole were excellent when they came on, the former with some terrific bursting runs, the latter with some sublime touches of skill: the back heel in the first half and the jinking run which left three Dagenham players for dead in the second were a delight to watch. Keeping those two beyond January is going to be really important to us I think.

However, my man of the match was James Norwood who worked tirelessly, and got things going with the opening goal. Good to see a decent crowd in PP as well and the atmosphere was excellent.

We are now up to our highest position in the league since the second game of the season and look a confident, well-organised outfit. Onwards and upwards.
 
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drwhoman

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Brilliant Rovers and no goals conceded! A few weeks myself and others were of the view that Mickey was finished. Credit to him for changing the tactical approach. It was a big decision to loan out two strikers he had only signed a short time before and to replace them with young loanees. Some would say he was just correcting a recruitment error but even so....
 

Boz

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It was a surprisingly comfortable win in the end, despite the injuries. Good gate too. Will post in more detail when home.
 

Ian

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Can’t add much to RLC assessment of the game. Seems like finally we are coming into some form and putting in solid performances. I’d would certainly echo RLC when he says keeping DMH and Cole for as long as possible is really important.
 

Sparky

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An excellent performance when u consider we were playing a decent daggers side and the team was disrupted with 2 enforced changes in the 1st half.

We were good value for the 2-0 lead at half time and the only criticism would be we should have had more. Cook worked tirelessly and won so many headers. He played Norwood in who should have done better though - twice he put chances wide when he should have hit the target at least in the 2nd half. If daggers had got one back it would have been nervy but as RLC says the defence was outstanding, Davies not having much to do - but doing what he did have to do very well.

Special mention for Harris and CJ who were both excellent out of position. I thought Cole and DMH did OK in patches but would like a bit more end product.

Mom for me was Richie Sutton. An unsung hero with Big Mac usually getting the plaudits but Richie was
Fantastic.

Results not going our way but important to keep our good form going and beating a top 6 side which we didn't do much last season apart from the play offs. Onwards we go.
 

Ian

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Harris was possessed at right back. Some of his tackles were fantastic. I felt it a bit for Cook. He worked hard but he tired as the result of him sitting on the bench numerous times this season.
 
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I agree with sparky about Sutton. He has arguably been our most consistent player this season. Always reliable.
 

drwhoman

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Is Cook tired because he has been sitting on the bench or is it because he is a big unit who struggles to maintain 100% intensity for 90 mins? In my mind, this is one reason why Mickey is attracted to a more mobile front man with a different physique. Do not get me wrong I am a big fan of Andy but he is naturally more solid and maybe tires more easily than some of our other strikers. I would hope he starts against Posh. BTW, I see that Alabi scored for Dover although Waring did not get off the Halifax bench.
 
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I am pleased my forecast was wrong. ;) By any measure, this was a good result against one of the sides likely to challenge us for promotion. Unfortunately, all of the teams above us also won (apart from the two who played each other) and Ebbsfleet's evening win has pushed us out of the top half of the table. However, pointswise we are not too far away from the play-off slots. Ironically, James Alabi's first goal put Dover on the way to another win.

Nerdy though it is, I've been looking at how our results compare with last season. Believe it or not, of our first 13 games we won 12 of the equivalent fixtures with a total of 37 points. This season we managed only 16 points. However, from the last six games we have earned 11 points compared with just 4 from last season's corresponding fixtures. If anything, this shows how well we are doing at the moment and how much we have improved.
 

Ian

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Yes it’s also no coincidence we are winning games and scoring goals with some decent quality out wide. A stark contrast to the flat, dreary football we witnessed early on.
 

Sparky

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I think cook today put in a real shift. He's not naturally as fit as others but even though he didn't score today, his link up play with Norwood was excellent.

I think Micky will shuffle the pack for Wednesday but big Andy and Nors are first choice at the moment. Worth offering him a new deal??
 
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I think Micky will shuffle the pack for Wednesday but big Andy and Nors are first choice at the moment. Worth offering him a new deal??
I would not be surprised if he already has, but I expect both players would like league football next season and there's no guarantee of that.
 

Cowshed Kid

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A new deal on the table for Cookie, for me, is a must.
I've posted before that I don't particularly want my centre forward to be top notch "mobile".
I want him to know where the goal is and be in positions where he can score and he fits that bill. He's naturally a big lad and all the training in the world isn't going to make him Slimmer of The Year.
He put in a great shift today, good hold ups and lay offs. If he's doing that he's not always going to be in the box for the end result though e.g. when putting Nors through.
Well satisfied with today's performance.
Whilst we surrendered possession to a degree with the subs, the team defended as a unit brilliantly.
As Sparky says, Sutton was excellent. In the past I've somewhat willed him to 'get rid' because he could be a liability on the ball. He's improved so much recently and looks far more composed.
For me though, Jay edged MOM. Brilliant. As you would expect of him, within a minute of coming on he clatters one of their lads. Perfectly fairly and I'm sure his enthusiasm shall we say rubs off.
And, of course, he can play football. May not be the last time he fills in at RB?
A word for the opposition and the ref as well.
So nice to have a team at PP who know there is also a ball on the pitch as well as our players and perhaps that was the reason why, unusually, the ref was fairly anonymous.
Second half DMH was brought down in full flow. But it wasn't nasty and ref just had a word. Equally, he just calmed things down when there were a few handbags late on without being card happy.
I'm still singing Mickey's name to Zombie Nation.
Cookie issues aside, it's not been easy for him (and he is one of us) but he and the players are starting to look the biz again.
 

Boz

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There's not much to add. A deserved victory over a below-par Daggers side and had Norwood's goal radar been better tuned, the margin could have been greater. Big positives in the way we coped with the injuries, but with both Buxton and McEveley fit, it would have been better having one of them on the bench. We missed Hughes' aerial strength, for a big lad Norburn is relatively weak in the air, especially measured against the comparative midgets of Harris and Mottley-Henry.

I would certainly like to see DMH stay with us for the rest of the season, his all-round contribution is excellent and he came into the game more as the visitors tired. While it's clear that Cole is a quality player and expect more to come,as he gets fully fit, if we could only keep one of them, my pick would be Dylan. Both would be nice though.

There were a number of contenders for MoM, but Jay Harris edged it for me. I don't think he was flawless at right-back, some positional issues and over-committing at times. However, having to play 85 minutes in what was not his natural position, he put in some great tackles, distributed and generally held his position well.
 

Cowshed Kid

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A word for the goals.
Nors showed he's more an instinctive striker - struggles when he has too much time to think.
Ollie's goal showed he's technically able, not just hit and hope from distance.
Bit miffed they weren't in Kop end!
 
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Well ive just got in now sitting with steak an a beer . Was listening to the game on radio as was working. Sounds like we played well again. And should have had a hat full. Some one is going to be batterd soon. In chuffed noors is scoring . Well played boys im there on wed realy looking forward to the game
 
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