• 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.

Shambles 0 Pirates 1

Ian

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What a complete joke. They should all be ashamed of themselves. That wasn't football, it was a complete mess. Long balls to no-one, just aimless pointless play. Couldn't string two passes together and I don't recall their keeper making a save all game.

We'll be dragged back into this relegation dogfight just like we were last season when we should have been clear of danger. Idiots, they'll never learn.

Christ, I didn't think it could get much worse after that Yeovil game, how wrong I was.

I think Les sums it up by saying, "It was awful".
 
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Alan King, Barry Dyson
It sounded pretty dire. Even Les says they deserved to win. It's alarming when everyone on the pre-match thread anticipated defeat. We have now picked up just two points from 18. Amazingly, we are still clear of the drop zone, but three of the six teams below us won tonight and we can't go on like this for much longer.

At least Les has put his hands up and has offered no excuses. I just hope we can get things moving forward again soon.
 
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Liam Palmer
Oh dear, where to start. What a non-event. What a let down. What utter, utter garbage.

We started slowly and ground to a stop. The last 20 minutes were the worst. Not only did we fail to make their keeper make a save, we hardly mounted an attack.

Les took the brave decision to remove Taylor before half-time, an admission that a change was needed. McGurk had been on about three minutes when the moaning started at him too. When Joss went off in the second half we had no height in midfield, which suited Bristol fine.

Andy Robinson played in about four different positions over the 90 minutes.

Unlike Yeovil, Bristol didn't park the bus instead looked neat, sharp and up for it. They looked like they wanted to win it and they looked quite a capable side. Having said that, I still believe if we could have taken the initiative and scored first their confidence would have been broken.

We'll never know.

We're back in the relegation mess alright. We have some really tough away games, but that's not the problem: we cannot beat sides around us.

Knowing Rovers we'll probably win at Brighton, but to be honest, so what? There will only be about 100 Rovers fans there to see it. It's the people who pay good money at Prenton Park who deserve a lot better than that dross.
 
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I think the players and management have to share responsibility for that utter mess unfortunately. The players for a complete lack of courage whenever we play a side below about eighth in the table at Prenton Park. I don't mean anything to do with running through brick walls, but the courage to actually attempt a ten yard pass to a teammate rather than simply hacking it aimlessly down field, or on occasions straight out of play. The football in the second half was just horrific at times, as it has been at PP on a number of occasions in the last eighteen months.

Sadly, I also have to charge the management with complete tactical ineptitude when we play moderate / weak oppsition at home. 4-3-3 works great at Peterborough and Charlton, but not at home to Yeovil and Bristol Rovers. This was acknowledged tonight when we switched formation half an hour into the game, but why did we not simply begin the game with 4-4-2 ? Why did we not start against Yeovil with 4-4-2 (and for that matter, Hartlepool, Orient, Brentford, Walsall.......) ? Okay, we did make the tactical change tonight, and given how poor the individual performances were we may have lost regardless, but surely at home to a team that has won twice in 20 games you should be seeking to pressurise them, peg them back from the kick off, not lie deep and give them the time and space to knock the ball around and slowy but surely grow in confidence ?

I wish I shared Tartan's confidence about Saturday, but as he says, picking up the odd battling away point is irrelevant when the fare at Prenton Park is as awful as it has been at many games this season. If we are going to consistently lose at home to crap sides, we could at least do it with a formation that gives us a chance of having a couple of shots on target in the ninety minutes, and try and string a couple of passes together in the process.
 

Boz

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Iain Hume
Utter garbage and I'm reluctantly coming round to the view that Les is not the man to get us out of this. The starting point should have been to avoid a repeat of the Yeovil fiasco by setting up in a 442 from the off, passing the ball on the ground and putting pressure on Brizzle. Maybe it wouldn't have worked, we could have lost to a freak goal, but at least I wouldn't have felt as p*ssed off after such a gutless and clueless performance.

Thoughts on players.

Warner. One of the few without blame, made a couple of good saves to keep the score respectable.

Cresswell. Much more error-prone than normal and a decent free-kick aside contributed little up front. Btw what was the point of the stupid tactic of keeping everyone out of the box at corners?

Goodison. Didn't seem his usual imperious self.

McChrystal. Abysmal. Aimless hoofs, back-passing when he had time and space to carry the ball forward. Play Ash, Max, even Nick Wood ahead of Mark if he's going to carry on like this.

Weir. Had a tendency to hit the ball against an opponent and put us into danger. An error just after they'd scored aside, I didn't think he was that bad, but others I overhead on the train coming back disagreed. At least he kept battling away, but think Kay or Max a better bet at right-back.

Welsh. Anonymous, went missing for long periods, no leadership.

Ash Taylor. Doesn't seem the same player since coming back from injury

Labadie. Little impact in this match.

Zoum. Thought he did ok, one or two nice touches.

Robinson. Would have been better deployed as a striker, was too far away from Enoch, but probably our most dangerous player; though that's not saying much.

Showumni. Looked in need of a rest. While I'm not a fan of the high-ball, did feel that he could have made more effort to use his height.

McGurk. Early introduction, looked quite bright in the first half, harshly adjudged to have handled in a good position, then a penalty shout, but faded after the break.

Elford-Alliyu. Limited impact when he came on. I'd have preferred Welsh to have been subbed rather than Joss to keep some height in the middle, given the Pirates were big lads.

Akins. No impact, pointless substitution.

While I could see us getting something at Brighton, that would only be with wholesale changes in personnel and attitude.
 

SonkORLY?

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The 4-3-3 is much more of a 4-5-1 really. Good teams can switch between the two because they don't play such direct football, but if we must insist on hoofing it up to Enoch at home then those operating either side of him really need to get much further up the pitch and closer to our target man as a starting position. As it is he's really isolated trying to win 50/50 balls with nobody around him to either latch onto the ball when he does win it or challenge for the second ball when he doesn't. Basic stuff.

We were poor tonight and the system doesn't help, but we have performed better versus better teams than Bristol with the 4-3-3, so I'm wary of scapegoating the system too much. More than anything, we were let down by individual performances. Credit to Bristol for turning up with a great attitude. For the most part they looked fairly well organised and fit, and we could learn a lot from their refusal to sit-back after going one up. They spurned a few good opportunities and could have won by a greater margin.

I thought Robbo did really well to be honest. Everyone else performed somewhere between average and awful, with the majority leaning towards the latter.

I will judge Les at the end of the season. If we do stay up - and we will as the table currently stands (plus games in hand) - then hats off to him. We should haven started in a 4-4-2, but fair play to him for changing things fairly early on. I appreciate that we're a decent side when we don't have the ball in posession - hard working and generally well organised - but I get the impression that Les's obsession with this aspect of our game makes the players feel that they're able to be lazy and thoughtless when we're in posession. What we do on the ball needs to be put under a lot more scrutiny. The distribution from our center-halfs is absolutely woeful.

Ash Taylor's inability to weight simple passes makes me want to rip my season ticket seat out of the ground and smash it over my own head.
 

Rob

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Clint Hill
Atrocious is all I can say, probably the worst football match I have ever been to see.

The Borough Road are finally becoming more vocal in their anger at the manager and team and its about time.
 

Sparky

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Chris Greenacre
Les is, and always will be, a club legend - but I think finally, some of the chickens are coming home to roost in terms of his lack of skills and he is not immune from criticism. Yes the players must look at themselves of course but ultimately the manager takes responsibilty.

Sonkorly is right in that the 433 works away from home because it becomes 451 - and we have picked up some decent results. But when you are at home, to a team on an awful run who have conceded loads of goals (yes they sacked their manager) but even so - to start with a left back as part of a front 3 is a joke.

To play Zoom ahead of Lateef even if Lateef has had a bit of an off patch is a joke. Similarly Weir ahead of Kay - Weir offers nothing and Kay although again had a couple of dodgy moments recently, played well before that and Les just drops him.

Why was Robbo put in the middle ? Joss wasnt playing well but no one was. It gave us no height in the middle against big Chris Lines for them.

Lateef should have started if not come on for Zoom at half time. Should have been 442 with Robbo/Lateff on the wings and Enouch/McGurk up front. I feel sorry for Adam - he has never had a run in the side and for people to get on his back its a joke. I am not totally against the 433 at home as we have had some good wins (Sheff Wed recently) but even in that game we didnt create much - we just took our chances - but it means sometimes we dont create much and at home aganist poor sides, we need more

Les really has to look at himself here and decide whether both the same tactics/formation etc at home and away really works

I was fuming last night and still am - the worst thing was the manner of it in that we were totally outplayed and 0-1 flattered us. If we had nicked a point it would have been a travesty!

rant over...
 

Ian

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We were lucky not to be 3-0 down, that's how bad we were. Bristol Rovers played quite well, for all their problems and atrocious league stats, they played quite well.

Why have Enoch up front battling on his own surrounded by 3 opposing players? Ridiculous tactics at home, especially considering Les said this:

"We've got to be getting three points tomorrow. We've got to go out, take the game by the scruff of the neck and get three points, then we'll think about who we're playing on Saturday.
Ohh dear.. #-o

2 points from the last 6 games. It's not looking good.
 

amplesou

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loaness ,players on short term contract etc last night we witness the result of pj,s economic reform @ pp
But you fans just go along with it because you have no bottle for a fight so save the club not from div 2 but complete oblivion and that is where pj is leading this club slowly.......
Les only knows the bottom of this league
whats the point in him carrying on and now haveing a pop at the players
no wins in 6 that is the coaches fault imop
 

Ian

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But you fans just go along with it because you have no bottle for a fight so save the club not from div 2 but complete oblivion and that is where pj is leading this club slowly.......
what do you suggest we do?
 

evo_trfc

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23 Sep 2005
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We strang a couple of win together and everyone on here was thinking of the play offs, Make no mistake about this, if we dont beat the teams around us they will overtake us in the league. We will get dragged into this relegation battle for sure, Still its in our hands with games like dagenham notts county, I have a horrible feeling last game of the season against Swindon whoever wins stays up
 

SonkORLY?

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Do a demonstration at the next home game, hopefully get the recrime removed !

And who will remove him?

Why do you think PJ has made so many cuts in the first place?
 
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To give Les credit where it is due the squad this season is much better than last, despite the constraints, and we have several decent players, but that is where my problem with his approach begins. Having seen virtually every side in the division now this season I can say in all honesty that we play less football than any of them, apart from possibly Dagenham. This is not because we have the worst players in the division, but because our players are simply not encouraged to, or don't have the confidence to, pass the ball. Labadie, Robinson, Jennings, Goodison, Lateef, Zoum and Cresswell could all form the basis of a decent footballing side, yet it is a side of their game we rarely see.

I am not for a minute suggesting that we should be reverting to Barnes style total football, just that the balance in our approach is wrong at the moment. Several sides in our division with miniscule budgets play better football than us, and still compete at this level: Rochdale, Exeter, even Hartlepool to an extent. Bristol, although I believe we have better players than them, attempted to pass it last night, as did Walsall and Plymouth when we played them when they were at rock bottom.

I can perfectly accept struggling in the league and losing to lower teams at home, but it was the combination of elements in last night's performance that made me despair at times. Too much of our football at Prenton park is ugly to watch and gives absolutely no incentive for the extra 3,500 at the Yeovil game to come back.
 

amplesou

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And who will remove him?

Why do you think PJ has made so many cuts in the first place?

The cuts are because people like me are not prepared to go any more and more will follow imop and pj will make more cuts to follow that on and on...

Fans will wise up too late imop ,should have happened way back in the old Division 1 days !

If pj does,nt. put up! why wait around trying to get his donations (5.5 million) back !

What about all the other directors who have put money into tranmere rovers over the last hundred years or so ,are they waiting in the wings trying to get there dosh back?
Of course not!

If it was a gift and don,t forget pj will have had plenty of tax relief against his investment here, you can bet your bottom dollar on that one hey mar Accountant !

The club is only worth what some one will pay for it and a captain of capilistism like pj totally over values his shares in this run down football club!

There must be other reasons why nobody wants to invest in this club properly too many complication with the deal at pj end i guess!
 

Ian

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I'm not sure what staying away from Prenton Park is achieving?! Christ, if we all did that there would be no Tranmere Rovers. Is this your personal protest?
Fans will wise up too late
Do tell us ohh wise one we're we've all been going wrong? :roll:

And PJ isn't waiting around trying to get his 5.5m back. He's stuck with a club he can't sell whether he likes it or not.
 
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Stay away fans are the ultimate cause of all of our present problems. In 2008-9 Ronnie Moore took us to within 90 seconds of the play-offs and we averaged 5,800, our worst attendance figures for 20 years. If the 8-9,000 who came every week just five years ago were still attending now, we could comfortably compete at this level, appoint a more experienced manager if we so wished, and play a more attractive brand of football.

As it is they choose not to, and it is left to us poor buggers to keep the club afloat.
 

amplesou

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Dave Higgins
Cash has to invested first then they / we will come back!
they don,t want to be associated with object failure ,i don,t have that in my personal life why should i be a poor loyalist again here ,leave that to the other poor buggers !
you lot !!
Did that way back 1968/74 and learned my leason well !!
Ronnie M came and deleverd nothing at the end of the day after 3 years!
football is all about making the right desition and i don,t think pj since he took over has made one good one yet imop
 
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