Tranmere 1-2 Leeds

[Ian]

Ahh, well it's good to be back at Prenton Park. Some things never change do they! #-o

Gutted we lost that game. The lads never really performed in the second half after having such a bright first half.

Dennis Wise has got Leeds playing some real dirty football, so he'll be pleased with that. They spent 20-25 minutes in the second half wasting time and chopping our players to the ground. Even getting some of them booked! :???:

But there was no fluidity that we saw in the first half. Again, the lads need to perform for 90 minutes.

It was also interesting to see only two new faces amongst the first eleven, so in essence, we had the same team out as we did last season.

Rovers need to learn how to defend against set pieces. Both goals being really soft ones to give away.

Don't forget, all forum members can vote for their MOTM @ http://whitereview.co.uk/matchday/matchdetails.php?id=401

 

[NeverBeatDaveHiggins]

Leeds set their stall out in the first few minutes with their number 20 going really late and studs first into Coyne at chest height. How he didn't get booked for that baffles me. We started brightly, playing some good passing football and making leeds look like the cobbled-together team that they were. They didn't get a look-in in the first half except for two wild efforts that were of more danger to the corner flag than our goal. In the main we looked fluid, in control and likely to score. Which we did. Shuker was putting in a great performance as was Jennings in the midfield, Jenno not only breaking down their attacks, but doing some good solid passing to create things for us.

Second half comes around and a few minutes in sure enough we score a second. A good passing move ended with a leeds defender doing a miscued clearance across his own penalty area, and the lively Shuker ran across, collected it, turned in the area from a tight angle, beat the man and slotted past the keeper. Oddly the referee and linesman decided between them that it was a pass from a tranmere player that player in Shukes, disallowed the goal and awarded leeds a free kick. My jaw hit the floor when I saw it, couldn't believe that they could get it so far wrong. He wasn't in an offside position anyway, AND the ball across had come from a leeds player. Crazy.

Took the wind out of our players' sails completely, and was followed by a succession of free kicks awarded to leeds, further and further up the pitch for heinous crimes such as winning a header, passing the ball and looking at that blade of grass funny.. seriously I couldn't find a footballing explanation for any of them. In the end their (referee assisted) pressure paid off, someone at the back lost concentration for a moment, they scored a soft one and our lads looked completely deflated.

Goodison, who had been putting in a man of the match performance up until that point really spat his dummy out and decided he didn't want to play anymore. Just looked like he could not be bothered. Complete lack of professionalism. And their last goal, the one that sunk us, another schoolboy job with neither of the centre halves taking responsibility and going for the ball and then Coyne fluffed the save by letting the ball through his legs.

The lack of grit and attitude showed by us is what's getting under my skin. I can understand being deflated after a goal, it's a setback, but the sheer capitulation by Goodison especially and the team in general was unacceptable and perhaps Ronnie should ring the changes. What they showed me today was how to let go of a strong position, how to lose from a scores tied position, in short how to lose. We are capable of so much better, and as a Tranmere fan today I do feel like "we was robbed". The quality is definitely there in our team and despite the loss today we should do well over the remaining 45.

I do feel for Leeds, not the "club" or their staff or players, but for the fans. They don't follow a fashionable club, for the most part they're good natured, honest fans who follow their club through thick and thin. Like us they have aspirations for a return to football at a higher level. I wish them all the best for the rest of the season, maybe they will overcome all the odds and claim a promotion slot. The one just below us!!

 

[SCooperSomersaults]

Gutted, disappointed, angry, frustrated. They're all words that are describing my feelings about the game today. Same old story though I'm afraid, and we aint going anywhere like that as we saw last season.

Why can we not hold a lead? Leeds are NOT a great side. Dirty as hell, they play exactly as Wise used too, not pretty and not how football should be played, he should be ashamed of his side to be perfectly honest.

The first half we chased, battled and played some good stuff, but only for 45 minutes. Then it seemed a different team came out in white second half and we let Leeds right back into it. Their first goal was a complete shambles. Bad foul for the free-kick, then 2 players pulled off our wall and went to the back post, not one of the Rovers players responded, one of them scored. Very poor. Same for the second one.

Leeds were there for the taking today, would have loved us to beat them. So disappointed we haven't. And I can't see us really challenging for promotion this season. Last season revisited me thinks, mid table.

 

[evo_trfc]

i wasnt there today so cant really make a decision but its the 1st game of the season against a leeds side who have signed certain players far to good for this league. i dont want to comment on how we are going to do this season but theres 45 games left!

Obviously gutted that we lost, i hate sitting in front of the tv waiting for the results and again really wanted to beat leeds. ( partly due to the fact i hate dennis wise )

However looking at all the season previews this year all have said "Thin Squad" "same problem as last season". The racing post preview said we are a huge price for relegation and will struggle.

We could have done with some more players coming in yes, but we have got to do with what we have got.

Lets get the next league game under our belts and get 3 points on the board and get this season up and running :-D

 

[MilkyLUFC]

Hey all, Leeds fan coming in peace. I co-author a similar site to this, but for LUFC (obviously) www.leedsunitedworld.co.uk, and like to drop by our oppositions fansites following a game to view the oppositions reaction, and add my thoughts.

Bit confused by the insistance that Leeds were the dirtier team to be honest. I saw it as a scrappy encounter where both sides had a few dodgy tackles, but no more than I expected in all honesty.

Overall, I think we were lucky to escape with 3 points. It was a win you probably deserved, but the siege mentality in the Leeds United camp at present, saw us through, and with a team that's literally been thrown together in a week - I'm understandably delighted!

I don't think you should be too downhearted though. Yes, there were moments when your team had their heads down, and Leeds capatilised, but this worked both ways. It was a nervy encounter, and game 1 of the season - I think you'll build on this as the season progresses, and grow stronger.

From a Leeds fans point of view, I'm delighted with the fans more than anything - As always they sang their hearts out and turned up in numbers despite the recent problems and pre-season fiasco, we remained United, and sang on.

Good luck with the forthcoming season, I seriously doubt you'll get relegated, despite the bookies opinion someone quoted earlier.

 

[Ian]

Hi MilkyLUFC. Good to see you made it on!

Good luck with the forthcoming season, I seriously doubt you'll get relegated, despite the bookies opinion someone quoted earlier.

We weren't that bad in the second half were we! #-o

 

[evo_trfc]

Scunthorpe didnt win any of there 1st 4 games and look what they did last season :-D

 

[roverstillidie]

yeah but they have a decent manager

 

[MilkyLUFC]

Hi MilkyLUFC. Good to see you made it on!


We weren't that bad in the second half were we! #-o

Cheers Ian. Great job you've done with the site. I've visited many independent fans sites over the years, and this is certainly one of the better ones, so congratulations.

Overall you deserved to win I reckon, but it was just the odd moment of bad luck, and possibly your players getting a little downhearted that cost you. Like I say, Leeds have their backs to the wall at the minute, and have alot to prove - No matter how rushed together a team is, and how badly they perform, siege mentality often provails in this game.

First goal was a bit soft, and the offside decision questionable (would have to see a replay to be honest) and Leeds probably got the rub of the green. I think your fans comments on the ref, may have developed from bitterness - They feel they should have won the game, and the ref's an easy victim. However, I don't think the ref was too bad overall, but after the amount of dodgy decisions we've had against us over the years, I understand the frustration.

I think you can take some positives from the game. You have some strong attacking players that will cause problems to most of the division. The manager needs to have a strong talk with the players, lift their spirits and get them back out there and scrapping for every ball. If all goes well this week in training, I think you could be alot happier this time next week.

 

[NeverBeatDaveHiggins]

Thanks MilkyLUFC, I hope you're right that we'll soon have things to celebrate. The leeds fans did themselves credit in their numbers although perhaps not in their volume throughout the match, only showing the noise they were capable of right at the death. I know it's not the most exciting thing for some, travelling to Birkenhead for a League One fixture, perhaps that had an effect on the early enthusiasm level from your fans. And now it's over perhaps some leeds fans can look back and have a new impression of the level of football they are now playing at.

Anyhow.. you do your club credit too, coming on an opposition website and just being straight with us, makes a refreshing change.

 

[Ian]

Anyhow.. you do your club credit too, coming on an opposition website and just being straight with us, makes a refreshing change.

Completely agree. It also gives us a different perspective post match and all of us at White Review do appreciate you taking the time to come on and post your thoughts. =D>

Regarding the referee, I've seen much worse over the years, but I thought he was far too leniant in the first half and then made some wrong decisions in the second. Some of the offside calls were dubious, and I'm still certain Shukes had a good call for a penalty.

That of course still doesn't excuse our lacklustre defending from set pieces. Of course there are still some things to be worked on and it is only one game, so let's hope the lads can learn from it and move on.

Luckily at this stage we are only 3 pts off the top. ;-)

 

[Super_white_army]

I thought that the first half performance was very fluid and very competant. the whole team looked good. However, the defence was never really troubled and when it finally was for a sustained period it became apparent that it was not up to the task. I thought that any of Leeds' attacks in open play were broken down well by Jennings especially but when it was a set piece we were all over the shop. Davies for me was a fair factor in much of the off the ball niggleing which took place. He had several hacks at opposition players off the bal and when Westlake had a go at him suddenly turned on the tears.

From the game I thought that Ronnie had improvedon areas which were o.k last season like attacking and he had almost irradicated 'hoof ball' (until the final 10 mins) but the areas which were our down fall, like defending were still poor. Jennings gave protection when he could but when he couldn't we were all over the shop especially Chorley. I would like to see Kay playing on Tuesday. Another thing which annoyed me was the fact that we still cant play for 90 minutes. Once we conceded the first surely the attitude should have been that the score was 0-0 and we had lost nothing from where we were at the start. I got the impression that we dropped our heads and paniced.

There are definate pluses from the game but I think we still have the same dispositions as we had last season.

 

[nomur]

yeah but they have a decent manager

Can we not start at Ronnie after one game? It's the same every season. We've played one competitive match!

 

[Al Jolson Singing Mammy]

Just got back this morning from a nice long drive through the tourist sites of the m62 and a1

full of confidence i strolled into the club shop and purchased the new home top. even ignored the fact that the letters of Wirral on the front look like they have been made with felt pieces stuck on by a 3 year old.

paid my cat a price and found a seat in the kop. here it was a bright new season, new kit, new opposition and err same old rovers. im not going to give an in depth match review, you've got the sunday papers for that. going to raise a few points, let me know what you think.

1) ZOLA - Given his height, why cant this guy win any headers? Am I the only person to suddenly realise that he is complete and utter s**te. Note to Ronnie, The money that was supposedly available to tempt Fowler, can this be used to find us a decent target man???????

2) STOCKDALE - buy him one of those gadgets you put a football in and then hold onto the other end to improve skills first touch etc Then teach him how to cross a ball, oh then sort out his tackling. Maybe even put him on a course of steroids and take him to arrowe park and release a pack of rabid dogs after him to see if he can actually run. Actually prob best option is too is to get rid of this useless "Thinks he is a throw in specialist" chancer.

3) CHORLEY - stop buying rubbish players simply because they have agreed to have a skinhead all season (Ellison) "Manager Ronnie Moore said: "I've been looking to bring in a dominant centre half who will head the ball, is brave and will score goals but I've decided on bringing in Ben instead"

 

[Super_white_army]

I must say thatalthough Zola's heading did leave alot to be desire he had a good game and his link up in the first half was exceptional.

I like stockdale but I was puzzled as to why he had to be invited by shuker to make thever-lap every time. I thought he controled the right hand side quite well yesterday. I cant agree with your assesment there.

As for Chorley! I thought he was fairly anonymous yesterday which is not what you want to see form a Centre-hlf who has been brought in to talk all game. He never once marked a man and he was either too high and out o the defensive line or he was right on Coyne's toes (i.e the last goal) which meant thatCOyne had to playon his line.

I would like to see us spend this 'Fowler money' on another CB and se Chorley dropped to the bench.

Another quereyI have is, Why does Ronnie still not make subs until late and why does he never make any logical changes. Can he not remember back to Ahton Gate last season? Zola and Taylor cannot play together. Curran is useless if he is brought on for five minutes to play on the right. It seems that he has not learnt any lessons. I am not in the 'anti-Moore' camp but I jut think that he needs to amend these ways.

 

[SCooperSomersaults]

Saw the goals and incidents on the Championship show before. First up, our defending, as I said last night, was appalling, and the second one goes straight through Danny.

However, Shukes should have had a penalty. A stonewaller. If that aint given, we will NOT be given a penalty all season. Second, he scored a perfectly good goal too, which I had forgotten about when writing last night. I still can't recall the reason it was disallowed??? Anyone help?

Yes, we did play well first half, but matches last 90 minutes, and although I know its difficult to keep that pace for the whole game, we MUST be more resolute and hold on to leads. It happened yesterday just like it happened time and time again last season.

Come on Ronnie, sort it out mate! SWA=D>

 

[MilkyLUFC]

I wouldn't be too harsh on yourself with regards to set pieces just yet - We do have Alan Thompson taking ours, who's always been renound for his set plays, and has Champions League experience. He made alot of Championship teams look poor from set pieces last season, so I wouldn't hit the panic button just yet.

As for the Leeds fans, I think we were loud until you scored, and then de ja vous and the thoughts of another dreadful season of underperformance kicked in. We did pick it up again later on, and when "Marching On Together" rang out, it felt great to be back playing football, rather than talking about financial difficulties and administration problems - Most Leeds fans have become experts in finance over the last few years, and it gave us a bit of hope that those days were now behind us.

Not sure about the penalty to be honest, if it was Leeds that had, had it denied, I'd probably be saying the same, so I'll not comment on that, but the disallowed goal was a bit odd - The linesman had his flag up immediately though. Whether it was for offside or not, I really aren't sure.

 

[Gray]

Well, it seems an awful lot has been written about this game already, most of which I agree with. So I'll try to add to what's already been posted.

Firstly, I don't know whether it was a case of rose-tinted spectacles and the promise of a new season, but I thought a number of players had improved on last season. Shuker was at his best and looked hungry to get forward. Davies appears to have matured into his left sided role, giving us two quality wingers. And finally, I was pleasantly surprised by Jennings yesterday, stepping into McAteers shoes and bringing some enthusiasm and control to the midfield. However, with two decent wingers, Zola really needs to learn to head the ball #-oI'm sure he's taller than last season actually, he towers over most defenders and really should do better, the one he missed early on was criminal. Goodi was solid as ever. I thought the offside goal should have stood, but I think Shukes dived.

Leeds were awful in the first half, not much better in the second, were dirty and didn't deserve to win. As for all the positive comments about the Leeds fans, I can't say I agree. I've never understood football violence but as they taunted and belittled us with their '2-1 in your cup final' chants as their players celebrated wildly on the pitch and played up for the Yorkshire TV cameras I really did want to go down the cowsheds and kick some heads in. I was fuming. Seriously, it was a bigger game for them than it was for us. I've got family in Leeds, one of whom almost came with us yesterday and I've always looked out for their scores and wished them well. Not any more :-x

On yesterday's performance I'm fairly optimistic for this season. We can finish top-half and maybe scrape the play-offs with a bit of luck. We need to work on set pieces, both defending them and performing them. And as NBDH says, be professional and not let our heads go down, as let's face it going a goal up only to be pegged back is what Tranmere do. We need to kick on and take those games 2-1, not lose them 2-1 as we did yesterday.

SUPER WHITE ARMY =D>

 

[MilkyLUFC]

I disagree with the 'it was a bigger game for Leeds than it was for Tranmere' comments, as it was game 1 of 46 for us both. Having said that, what our fans have been through in the last six years is uncomparable to any other team in any league, and this was in a sense a big day - It was opening day, of what we hope will be our first steps forwards in 6 long years.

You need to take chants like '2-1 in your cup final' with a pinch of salt, and realise that all Leeds fans have heard for the last 3 seasons is 'You think you're too big for this division' and 'You'll be everyone's cup final - It won't be easy' from opposing teams fans - So chants like that are inevitable. Had we have been 2-1 down, I seriously doubt your fans wouldn't have been rubbing it in. That's what happens on the terraces. It can be frustrating at times, but understand that Leeds fans have been brought up knowing that the rest of the teams hate us passionately and we also know we're one of the teams in this division everyone wants to beat. It's basically a case of being victims of our past success, but you'll find very few Leeds fans who think they're too big to be playing Tranmere, and the rest of League One. The ones that did were the glory supporters that left, and haven't been seen at Elland Road for several years.

As for Wise and the players celebrating at full time, well wouldn't you? He'd thrown a team together in a week, overcoming every possible obstacle you could ever face - The fans were against him, and he's had to start the season 15 points down. The fact that most people want to see Leeds fall flat on their face created a siege mentality. They have their backs to the wall, with everyone (it seems) out to get them, and they came out definatly and won, despite a nervy and dreadful first half.

Finally, enough of the age-old 'Dirty Leeds' stereotype. It was a nervy encounter, with a few loose tackles. Your team weren't entirely innocent in the proceedings either.

EDIT: Also have to agree with Shuker having a great performance. He was the stand out player by a country mile in your team.

 

[Ian]

Turned into quite a interesting thread this one.

Firstly, I just can't let the 'dirty leeds' tag go. I'm sorry, but in the second half, they were dirty. You have to expect this with Wise as your manager.

Yes, there were 'loose tackles' by both sides, but I saw Leeds players hacking our attacking players to the floor. Not even attempting to get the ball, and the false injuries were laughable. I think you had a forward down for no reason, and the keeper. Well that was laughable. He jumped, caught the ball, five seconds later was laid out on the pitch. That wasted a good three minutes.

I'm glad someone else mentioned the Shukes penalty. It was a clear penalty and how the officials didn't call that as a foul, I'll never know. Shukes' dive made the incident slightly fallible, never-the-less it was a penalty plus off course the good goal ruled offside. Still, you would hope these kind of decisions balance out during the season, so..

I think Al Jolson Singing Mammy's player assasinations are a little harsh. Zola is mentioned in another of his threads so wont harp on about him here, but Stockdale and Chorley?!

Stockdale was just OK. He'll never be a wonderful full back, we know what he's capable of, but he had a decent game by his standards.

Chorley was fine too I thought. This is only his first game he's played for us, it might be slightly unfair to say he should be left out of the next game and calling him rubbish. I actually think he had a decent game with Goodison and mopped up quite well.

What about Sherriff? I thought he was the weakest defender in our back four. He certainly had some shaky moments. But not a mention?!?

Also pleasing to read others views on Davies and Jennings. Jennings had a very good game in the centre, very impressed and also Davies seemed to be playing with more confidence although again without much end-result.

Lastly, regarding Ronnie. There's a few on his back already and I can understand why, but we have to remain confident and let's just see how the first half of this season goes. Ronnie did say last season that he had identified the areas of weakness and would be working to get this right. Now he has to prove himself, but we'll only know with more games.

Admittedly, I did come away from the game saying 'same old tranmere' and we didn't perform for 90 minutes, but let's give Ronnie more games and then maybe we'll have more ammunition to judge.

This is Ronnie's season now, it's his team and his chance to prove himself.