Tranny 1 - 3 Millwall

[SonkORLY?]

*****.

not sure where to start. whole defence was awful...just watched the replays and although i was initially blaming antwi for the second goal (and rightly so to a degree) shotton was pretty badly at fault too, as he was for the first goal. taylor struggled, chorley played with his usual style of no-nonsense league 2-esque averageness, while antwi and shotton made mistake after mistake. the 3rd goal was laughable. if antwi ever wears a white shirt again i will be not be impressed. tony kay did absoloutely nothing whilst jennings played better than he has done recently but was brought off for no apparent reason about 60 mins in and was replaced by the ineffecive edds whos only contribution to the game was to miss our best chance, firing high and wide from 10 yards under no pressure. moore was so utterly ineffective that i literally forgot he was on the pitch for long periods of the game. greenacre tried hard and did some good work with his back to goal, won a few freekicks, but was completely starved of service so it woudl be unfair to criticse him.

in terms of positives, shuker looked good and got an assist. savage once again performed well and got a much deserved goal after a while without one. gornell scoring for accy is also nice to see, despite the fact they lost the game 3-2. but the main story is that millwall only had to have a go at us for 20 mins before the game was already over, and played quite comfortably in 3rd gear for the rest of the game.

very very dissapointing indeed.

 

[Boz]

You've had the advantage of seeing their goals again, was the 3rd offside, as it looked? Pivotal misses by Greenacre, just after the Millwall first and Edds when it was 0-2, if we'd have got either of those, it could have changed the course of the game. Agree we were poor defensively, Chorley had a stinker. Kay had his worst game in midfield that I've seen. Think you're being charitable about Greenacre and Savage, who I thought spent too much time out of the box. Agree Shuker looks like he's on the mend, went past his man a couple of times. However the worst performance was Ronnie's. Only using 1 sub, when the original eleven were making so little impact. If he'd have moved Kay back to defence and brought on either Barnett or O'Callaghan, at least it would have been an attempt to change things, dunno if it would have worked. Doing nothing, save the baffling Edds/Jennings swap was unacceptable when we played so poorly and I'm coming to the conclusion that Ronnie is not the right man for the job.

 

[Ian]

Shocking performance today. Really really poor.
They should all be ashamed of themselves. If they want bums on seats, their going to have to do much better than that.

Millwall were by far the best team on the pitch.
Defending was shocking, midfield was non-existent and the forward line useless.

Ronnie Moore has already apologised for the display, I think even he's embarrassed. Not many positives you can take from that game.

A lot of people kept harping on about how poor Antwi was. Yes, he was poor and really shouldn't be playing football, the other three in defence were just as bad. Terrible mistakes from them all. I wouldn't pick anyone out as having a 'good' performance. As a team, they were poor.

Millwall's third goal should never have stood. That was a joke. The initial ball to Kandol was offside then his pass to Jimmy Abdou was offside, he played it forward FFS! ](*,)Not that it made any difference, the game was well and truly over by then.

I can't remember their keeper having to do much all game apart from pick the ball out of his net right at the end.

Ronnie's decisions baffle me. Why play Godwin in the first place? Why only make one substitution in the game? We came out in the second half 2-0 down. We should have made some subs, changed the way we were playing, we were never going to get past Zak Whitbread with long balls, but what happened? we found ourselves 3-0 down. :roll:

Losing three home games in a row really isn't the making of a good team in this division. We are average and aren't going anywhere this season. :-k

 

[hallamski]

millwall supporter

Hello all.
Not come on here to gloat.
Been following mFc for 30 years now and dont ever remember winning away at your place. Even when we were top flight and you were few divisions below us 89-90? you beat us in cup at yours.

Was shocked today that we got a result and from reports it appears it may have been more down to Tranmeres poorness rather than Mfc's talent.

We do have a much improved team on last season but last season you destroyed us in both home and away games.
Always had a soft spot for your lot and wondered whats gone wrong in last 6 mnths?

H

 

[Ian]

Hi hallamski. Thanks for taking the time to come on here and post your thoughts. I think it was a mixture of both. We were very poor today yet Millwall played a good game. They defended very well and had good pace in attack. You've probably missed Kandol for the last three games, he makes such a difference with his pace. Our gameplan was all wrong and performances below par..

 

[hallamski]

Ive seen some great MFC vs Tranmere matches over the years.

two stick in my mind

2004ish - you had Nevin who was fantastic but I think we might have wone 3-1 at new Den

2005ish - where I sat in the away end with the Tranmere supporters with a mate of mine and Branch (I seem to remember) scored in last minute for you to make it a 1-1 draw

How come todays match was played on a saturday rather than a Friday night?
When was last time you lost 3 home games in a row? your place has always been a bit of a fortress (well against us it has). We got Leeds next week so thatll show if we are as good as our position suggests.

H

 

[Ian]

This will give you results dating back to 2004 --> http://whitereview.co.uk/matchday/opponent.php?opp=45
Our database doesnt go much further back yet, but gives you a good idea of the matches we've had.

Tranmere, won 3, draw 2 and lost 2 overall.

 

[hallamski]

God.
how could i forget the win in fa cup quarter final of 2004!!

you played well that night but Cahill was the difference in the teams.

Like I say. We never get results at Prenton park - other than that cup game.
We were all suprised when we were 2-0 up after 20 mins today.

H

 

[Boz]

I'd agree with Ian, today problems of our own making, but Millwall well-equiped to make the most of them. Good squad, astute manager, there was talk of financial problems at the start of the season, sorted out now? I work in Leeds and would be delighted if you beat them. Will have to do without Kandol, who looked a class act today.

 

[SonkORLY?]

You've had the advantage of seeing their goals again, was the 3rd offside, as it looked? Pivotal misses by Greenacre, just after the Millwall first and Edds when it was 0-2, if we'd have got either of those, it could have changed the course of the game. Agree we were poor defensively, Chorley had a stinker. Kay had his worst game in midfield that I've seen. Think you're being charitable about Greenacre and Savage, who I thought spent too much time out of the box. Agree Shuker looks like he's on the mend, went past his man a couple of times. However the worst performance was Ronnie's. Only using 1 sub, when the original eleven were making so little impact. If he'd have moved Kay back to defence and brought on either Barnett or O'Callaghan, at least it would have been an attempt to change things, dunno if it would have worked. Doing nothing, save the baffling Edds/Jennings swap was unacceptable when we played so poorly and I'm coming to the conclusion that Ronnie is not the right man for the job.

erm, i didn't see the first ball on the replay (3rd goal) but at the time i thoguht it was tight. the second ball, well, had kandol clearly played it forwards - inconsequential, though; we defended the first ball badly enough and had already lost the game by then anyway.

i guess you could say i was perhaps being charitable on greenacre, not so much savage in my opinion who i thought did well in the circumstances and took the one oppertunity he was given, but i've said time and time again, our strikers will inevitabley drop deeper and deeper given a.) how deep jennings and kay sit and b.) the fact they're rather starved of service. i dont think they're to blame so much as our general lack of creativity in the middle. and largely unlike savage, who will drop and feed off anything, greenacre really relies on good service else hes rather useless. hes shown over the years that he better than any of our other strikers knows where the goal is when presented with the oppertunity...

ronnie rather had his hands tied with the players he had on the bench (no strikers fit bar moore, chris and baz who all started) but i would have rather seen kay go off then jennings, based on their respective performances up until that point. kay has more goals in him than jenno though, so i guess i can sympathise if that was his thinking, even though it obviously backfired. i'd really like to see either georgie and barnett given something of an extended run in the team, but you know moore will never drop kay so i guess its a case of waiting to see where jenno ends up. i personally think kay is lethargic enough without having someone as slow as edds alongside him, but i have a feeling that may be the partnership ronnie adopts should jenno leave.

i agree wholeheartedly that kay should move back in to defence, in place of chorley. he's never impressed me in center midfield, desperately slow and doesnt read the game well enough to compensate. most of his goals come from set pieces so we wouldn't really lose out on that wherever he plays. hmm.

 

[Ian]

Kay and Goodison may be a decent partnership. Even though we are Chorley's official boot sponsors, I think it's fair to say he's the weakest link in the defence (unbiased opinions and all!)..

I also think Jernnings and Kay dont work to well together in midfield. Although Jennings has good energy, we still dont have any creativity or pace in there. Come to think of it, we dont have much pace at all in our squad. I'd love to have someone as quick as Kandol in the team.

 

[SonkORLY?]

quick and ineffective, as it often is at this level. sonko, myrie-williams, kandol...all much of a muchness...i've not seen a lot of kandol, he did well today (albeit against our defence) but i'm mates with a leeds fan who hates him lol. i think his scoring record is equal/worse to say, a striker of the goalscoring calibre of calvin zola.

 

[roverstillidie]

oh dear oh dear... what a shocking perfromance. To say the team was was abysmal would be a compliment. The only players who had half decent games were Savage and Shuker, the rest were an absolute embarrasment.

Why did Antwi play when he's never played with Chorley before and hasn't played since Hartlepool? Why did Greenacre play again when it would be more effective to stick Achterberg up front? Why did it take 55 minutes for a change to made? Why did Jennings play when he still hasn't signed a new contract? why why why why why!

The defending for the first goal was shocking, Taylor was left with 2 men and nobody helped him, Shotton/Antwi didn't get to the cross and Coyne may have been able to come off his line, but then yet again he's not allowed to do that! For the second Antwi ducked out of a header and Kandol, unmarked, fired home. For their third he was miles offside but to be honest Millwall deserved all 3 points and you can't moan about it too much.

Savage worked hard and deserved is goal whilst Shuker looked much more like is old self and set up Savages goal - there the only positives I can think of!

Match Ratings:
Coyne 5
Shotton 3
Antwi 3
Chorley 3
Taylor 3
Moore 4
Jennings 4
Kay 4
Shuker 7
Savage 7
Greenacre 3

Edds: 3

Ronnie Moore says there going to watch the dvd of the match. To be honest if the players need to watch a dvd to realise how crap they were they should be on the transfer list - I would much rather prefer they were on the training ground learning to play as a team, defend as a team and attack as a team rather than sitting in some room somewhere watching themselves with a bag of popcorn!

There a bunch of headless chickens at the moment and it needs sorting out quickly - this is where Ronnie Moore is meant to earn his money not when things are going well when he has to sort it out when things are going wrong. Three straight defeats at home is unacceptable.

 

[roverstillidie]

hes shown over the years that he better than any of our other strikers knows where the goal is when presented with the oppertunity...

Thats why he missed so badly in the 1st half with the ball over the top......


Unfortuantely Greenacre has lost it - he's not the player of two years ago, he's slow, lacks compsure and the killer insinct. I think some of us need to wake up and realise some players do just lose their footballing ability once they get beyond a certain age, like Ian Rush. Greenacre was a great player - but now he's not.

He's the highest paid player at the club and to be honest when you've got a player playing that badly on high wages, it doesn't make financial sense to keep him.

He does need better service yes, but he got fantastic service against Peterbrough and missed at least three sitters - he scored two yes but he should have easily scored five.

Once Curran is fit again, Greenacre should not start.

 

[Tartantranmere64]

It was a shambles, because we never got started and gave them a 2 goal start. After that it was always going to be a struggle.

Greenacre and Edds missed pivotal chances but really without Goodison we looked weak. How bad does it have to be before the likes of O' Callaghan get a game? I mean we're 2-0 down, why not FFS! Shuker and Moore out wide. Oh FFS i get sick moaning about it. Average teams play an extra man in midfield and pass it around us, it's that easy. Piss off with your "Jennings doesn't try sh!t". He's totally out of form (like most of the team), give him a break and start slagging Saints Greenacre and Shuker and Moore. They do NOTHING!

We're mid-table non-entities right now. Who are ya? See ya next week (we'll probably win and I'll be there)

 

[roverstillidie]

give him a break and start slagging Saints Greenacre and Shuker and Moore. They do NOTHING!

We're mid-table non-entities right now. Who are ya? See ya next week (we'll probably win and I'll be there)

I agree about Greenacre and Moore (Both of them!), but I think your been harsh on Shuker who looked a lot better today and along with Savage was the only player who seemed to care.

 

[Tartantranmere64]

Shuker? God they say love is blind. Where did the first Millwall goal come from? Shiuker being a non-tackling fanny, that's where. He would not get a game for another top 10 team in that division, and you know it. Tactics all wrong. 2 wide men who contribute nothing doesn't work. Like last season. And the one before that. Get bored typing this. Wake up Tranmere, FFS. At leat Ronnie apologised today - at last.

Shuker. FFS - GTF, great player when you're 3-0 down, pants when there's a game to be won. Get the blinkers off Rovers fans! See you at orient.

 

[roverstillidie]

Shuker is a defensive liability and the rest of the team should now that, but they don't seem to. Mind you everyone apart from Goodison is a defensively liability at the moment!

 

[SonkORLY?]

Unfortuantely Greenacre has lost it - he's not the player of two years ago, he's slow, lacks compsure and the killer insinct. I think some of us need to wake up and realise some players do just lose their footballing ability once they get beyond a certain age, like Ian Rush. Greenacre was a great player - but now he's not.

let me guess, josh macauly and terry gornell up front? drop jenno and play ryan fraughan? peter kennedy in for danny coyne? drop shotton after one mistake and bring in luke denson? the grass is always greener on the other side, heh... :wink:

also, tartan, i think you're being hugely unfair on shuker, who was possibly our best player today. i think his assist speaks for itsself with regards to his contribution, and IMO he's pretty hard working for a supposed out and out attacking winger, and tries a lot harder than most to fill in with his defensive duties. to accuse him of being a "great player when you're 3-0 down" is severe straw clutching. i agree with you regarding moore, who is absoloutely useless as a right winger.

 

[Tartantranmere64]

Too right, mate,it's depressing. Defending is actually the easy part of football. Without Goodison we looked like a punch-drunk boxer. Just think the likes of Shuker and Moore are luxuries. I want to pack the midfield and give Kay and Jenno some cover. Could you say that Barnett and O'C would have been worse than Shuker and Moore..........................?

Dunno who you are but if you see me at the orient next week, I'll be in an SWA t-shirt - lets have a pint!