Tranmere 2-1 Walsall

[Ian]

Wow! Just a note to the early leavers. Never leave Prenton Park early again! :shock:

Another last gasp winner. But didn't we make it hard for ourselves?
Have to agree with Ronnie's post match comments.

We were the team looking to win but we didn't do ourselves any favours.

"Some of the decision making you pull your hair out with. There were shots from 40 yards and 35 yards when you've got to be sensible and keep trying to play around the area. The final ball has got to be better."

However, we got the three points and you can't get better than three points!

Kay was a solid performer in midfield. He must have had 6 or 7 shots alone, so I'm glad he was rewarded with a goal. At least we have a goalscoring midfielder to count on.

Sonko was disappointing after his showing against Hereford and look the same old Sonko I'm afraid. I thought Moore had a good game with Savage up front in the first half, but like Shuker, seemed to fade in the second half after having a decent first half.

Attendance was again a disappointment and I thought Walsall would have brought more.

Well done to the lads anyways =D>=D> Another close shave, but we are hangin in there just below the top six.

 

[Boz]

From what Ian says above & the match reports, sounds like the win well-deserved, regardless of the timing of the winner. The crowd disappointing, but not that bad in the context of this season's attendances. How did Edds fare at full-back? Did bringing on Cresswell for Sonko improve things? Finally the impression is Savage neither scoring nor creating at present. If correct, maybe time to give him a rest, when our injured front men are fit.

 

[SonkORLY?]

Easily deserved.

One of the things that struck me about todays game was the speed we played at. We played some good, (perhaps a little too) direct stuff in the first half, but as soon as we conceded in the second, we didn't half up the tempo. Alright, we didn't create a lot either - Ronnie puts this down to poor decision making, which does Walsall something of an injustice, as they responded to our resurgance with a good defensive display - but I was impressed that, having played only 2 days earlier, both teams managed to play at such a level for 90 mins.

I'm not his biggest fan, but Kay was brilliant today. His shooting was excellent, his goal fully deserved, and his positional play and passing a lot better than in previous games. Chorley was also tremendous at the back, unlike Goodison. Savage and Moore huffed and puffed but ultimately failed to make a huge impact. Shuker played great first half, but struggled to impact on the second. Sonko didn't have as awful a game as people seem to be making out, though he didn't really do a lot, he was by no means terrible. Indeed, he was very unlucky not to score, denied by the post shortly after the game went to 1-1.

The appearence of Cresswell made little difference to the game as a whole, but he knocked a few decent balls into the box. I quite like him, I think he's going to be a really good player. Much like a left footed Ryan Taylor in that he posesses great technique and is a great crosser of the ball/general set piece expert, though needs to bulk up a bit if he isn't to suffer from the same problems Tremarco did (disregarding the fact Tremarco wasn't a particulaly talented footballer, either)

All things considered, 7 points from the Chrimbo period isn't bad at all. Our league position is impressive, we had a little bit of a cup run, and things are generally looking good. Credit to Ronnie and the lads.


Edit: Edds was ok right back. Very average, in a literal sense, not as a criticism.

 

[SCooperSomersaults]

Was a deserved win, but towards the end it didnt look like it was going to come with us wasting chances by making wrong choices, but thankfully Kaysy came to the rescue once again! Got to say, I think he is immense in midfield, box to box, wins tackles, has a good shot and gets into the box and grabs very important goals for us. Top man!

Walsall should have been dead and buried easily by the end of the first half, and I think their only real effort on goal was a penalty which they scored. Poor defending but I think Goodi might have won the ball. We're not clinical enough to be making mistakes and giving away goals (ala Hereford Boxing Day too).

Edds good at full back, far better than in midfield where he is out of his depth. Kay and Jenno superb in midfield. Kay MOTM I think he was immense yesterday and an early candidate for player of the year for me.

As much as we're all delighted, wish we didnt have to wait for these last minute winnerS! We need to be killing teams off more effectively, Walsall, like Hereford, are poor teams. Clincal finishibng and we'd win a lot more games, and other games a lot more easily. Come on Rovers!

 

[Ian]

Yeah, if you forget those two cup games were we were actually really unlucky even though performance wasn't great, our league form has been very good as of late.

Looking at the leagues recent form table (go to league and select recent form from the table drop down) you can see we are sitting nicely in third just behind run away leaders Leicester and the impressive MK Dons.

Compared to Leeds who are sitting just behind us in the table, they have only picked up four points recently. Without a doubt, we are one of the form clubs in the league and it's probably been one of our best runs over xmas for quite some time, so you've got to give credit where it's due.

Back to the game, I didn't think Cresswell made that much of a difference if I'm honest. He didn't do anything wrong, but he is young and learning. I think he needs a lot more games to make a judgement on his potential.

Sonko's miss was shocking. It really was harder to miss!

Regarding Edds, he was OK. I've always said he's a better right back than midfielder. I think he's a tad more effective playing there. His main problem is that he's so slow. His pace and speed of turn is shocking. But he makes up for that with decent ball control and mental awareness. He would do a decent job at right back but in truth I think we are all waiting for the imminent return of Shotton.

**edit** Coops, you beat me to this morning's post! Just to say, I agree with your comments about Kay. There's a lot of people singing his praises as of late. Lastly, I really like his passion. He shows it on the field too!

 

[SCooperSomersaults]

Yeah Shotton will come straight back into the side I would think, just hope he does as well as he did previously and can really help us push on. He only needs a goal to be top socrer again! lol

I was interested in reading Lorraine's comments in the programme yesterday suggesting there may be some movement in the transfer window, in and out i suppose balancing the books. Be interesting to see what happens in the next month on and off the pitch.

 

[Tartantranmere64]

Well done lads, hope we can have a s good a January.

No doubt we'll have a transfer window thread, but if you're going to ask me, I'd say we could easily trade Greenacre for something else. Not knocking the lad, he's been unlucky with injuries but he's just not the player he was in 2007. I think quite a few clubs would be interested in him and he would be a good bargaining chip. I wouldn't like to face him in L1, but like Gareth Taylor last year, he could easily play for a Championship team and do well.

We would have a fair bit of room to manoeuvre with him off the wage bill.

 

[SonkORLY?]

Re: Tony Kay...prior to the past few games he had a really poor month or two. Despite his heroics in the past few games, people have quite short memories. Similaly, during the game I overheard someone say Ian Moore was our player of the season. Recent resurgances aside, I think both Kay and Moore have struggled at times this season - compared at least to say, Chorley or Shotton.

I would rather not part with Greenacre as I think he still has a lot to offer, but, given that we have loads of cover in that area, and considering his high wage and probable attractiveness to other clubs, I could understand him being sold. I do still think though that, in a squad whose top scorers include a center midfielder, a loanee right back, and a winger who's only played a handful of games, it would perhaps seem illogical to sell our only proven goalscorer without at least giving him chance to prove his fitness first.

 

[Boz]

I'm not sure what we should do with Greenacre. He's out of contract in the summer and a high wage earner, so there is an argument to sell, if anyone will part with money given his injury woes. However agree with sonkORLY? above that we are dependent on non-strikers for a lot of our goals. Neither Bas nor Ian Moore are prolific, Curran seems to be in a bad run of injuries and Gornell not got the experience yet. Unless we get someone else in up front is it worth persevering with Chrissy in the hope of a return to form?

 

[Ian]

I don't think anyone would pay for Greenacre. He's been troubled with injuries this season and he's not getting any younger. Sadly, this season has been a poor one so far for him for various reasons and it's not going to impress any interested parties.

I think quite honestly, he's our most experienced striker and has proven over the years he can get us the goals. You have to stick with him. Boz, if you look at the other players you listed, they are hardly goal machines. It would be crazy IMO to get rid of your proven goalscorer when we are so lightweight upfront.

That sad, Chrissy really needs to try and get himself back into the team, get a decent run of games and bang in some goals.

 

[SonkORLY?]

this was our last game? feels like years have passed since...