Tranny 1 - 3 Millwall

[Tartantranmere64]

Yep. I agree, maybe Shuker was our best player today. We lost 3-1 at home to Millwall, who had 4 shots on goal.

I rest my case. Doesn't matter who was our best player. We were sh!te.

 

[roverstillidie]

let me guess, josh macauly and terry gornell up front? drop jenno and play ryan fraughan? peter kennedy in for danny coyne?

Nope just Savage and Curran, Barnett instead of Jennings and Achterberg instead of Coyne - not exactly unheard of players:shock:

Knowing Tranmere they'll go out and stuff Orient next week and a load of people will think were going up again lol. I'm off to Orient hopefully it will be better!

 

[Tartantranmere64]

Yes, it's easy to think the players who aren't in the team would make a big difference. Did we look any better when Jenno went off....?

 

[SonkORLY?]

Yep. I agree, maybe Shuker was our best player today. We lost 3-1 at home to Millwall, who had 4 shots on goal.

I rest my case. Doesn't matter who was our best player. We were sh!te.

sorry, you rest what case? it really does matter who played well and who didn't. if you agree that shukes was our best player today, then why single him out for criticism? some interesting prejudicies towards certainly players here, particulaly those coming from someone with the audacity to demand I take off my "blinkers"...:|

 

[Ian]

We have problems in midfield and upfront, but I think we need to look at the defence first and foremost. We were 2-0 down after 13 minutes FFS! Similar to the Colchester game, we had conceded two goals in the first 15 minutes! You cannot defend like that and still hope to win a game. It's shocking.

If I'm honest, I thought they were all *****. With a performance like that, I wouldnt try singling out half decent performances. They didn't play as a team today.

What I find hard to understand is that we will play shockingly bad at home and then go away and win! How does that work?

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

It makes you realise that the key player in the team is Goodison. How often do we win without him? Not having him on Saturday and having an untried partnership at the back probably undermined the confidence of the team. But that's no excuse.

All we can do now is look forward to the next three matches against teams who are still below us. Let's hope we can pick up a few points or we'll be joining them in the relegation zone.

 

[SCooperSomersaults]

Didn't go the game so can't comment on the performance although from all reports and I spoke to my dad, and we were dreadful by all accounts.

No Ian Goodison is too easy an excuse, yes he's by far our best defender (although we still conceded 4 vs Colchester with him in) but Ronnie has known he's an international again for the last year or more, s we have games without him, and has he solved this problem? Has he ****. The defence with Goodi is dodgy, without him it's a complete and utter shambles, have seen the goals and each one is a joke.

From what I've heard and seen in previous games, Shotton is a great footballer bt a poor defender, Antwi is just crap, why oh why do Liverpool have him on their books and why did Ronnie sign him??? Chorley is a wall type defender, if a ball is thrown up to him he'll head it back where it came but although he started with Arsenal he isn't much more than that.

Very disappointing result. Sick of hearing Ronnie's excuses, after over 2 seasons in charge it is the same old inconsistencies which are our downfall. "A performance like that won't happene again" he says, until the next time - he needs to look at himself, and I seriously question his ability to take this side further. I know changing the manager too often isnt good, but this guy imo anyway sn't good enough to take us forward. If the board are happy with mid-low table finishes then fine, but crowds will dwindle further, and people will become more and more disillusioned.

 

[Tartantranmere64]

It was a big gamble throwing Antwi in, and it didn't pay off. But while it's easy to criticise Ronnie, and he's not above being criticised, just how do you explain that performance on Saturday? We win at Carlisle, look really organised, committed and confident, then seven days later it's a shambles. Surely the players have to take more responsibility for that than the manager? We just drifted around during the first 15 minutes, no-one on the pitch took the initiative, no-one put in a hard tackle. It was as if the players were waiting for something to spark them into life rather than making it happen.

I didn't have the answer on Saturday and I don't have the answer now. Just baffled.

 

[roverstillidie]

A good manager would have taken Antwi off after 15 minutes, you could see he was awful. I think Shotton is defeinetly a centre back, he can't cope with people running at him, at centre back he would have more protection and cover, however I believe the best centre back partnership is Goodison and Kay as we need Kay to do the talking, plus Kay is a much better defender than Chorely.

I agree with SCooperSomersaults, if the boards ambition is mid table mediocrity, Ronnie Moore is the right person however if they want to try and even get in the play offs, they need someone else.

Ronnie Moore has done a great job in terms of stablilisng the club after Brian Little's terrible last year however having signed a few quality players - he is clearly not the man to get the best out of them on a week by week basis and therefore not the man to even mount a proper promotion challenge. Ronnie Moore talks about consistency been needed - and he's right but he's been saying that for over 2 years now and he hasn't solved that problem. The only thing Tranmere are consistent at is been inconsistent.

 

[SonkORLY?]

95% of managers will strive for a false sense of "consitency", ronnie is no different. the fact is that football is a game of huge varience and given the similitude in quality of most of the teams in this division, the difference between a win and a loss is marginal unless you're one of the top 3 or the bottom 3, who it would be reasonable to suggest should be consistantly either "good" or "bad." we're somewhere inbetween these 2 groups, and should expect our results to reflect this.

to put the size of our club in context with the league table, which is quite a reasonable thing to do in assesing whether or not we have under-achieved quite as much as some people seem to think, i think it's fair to say we'd probably be towards the top end of the bottom half of league 1. the fact that we've had a bit of a go at getting in the playoffs for a few seasons now is pretty good going, especially when you consider where we were when brian little left (relegation fodder) some fans seem to think we're a bigger club than we are, with a god given right to be in the playoffs - this is not the case.

ronnie isnt perfect by any means, but if you compare the squad that he inherited with the one he has now, its a pretty monumental improvement. he's by no means a perfect manager, but he's done a decent job since he's taken over and has improved on our squad of players each year - letting the poor players go, signing a few new ones, see what happens. some people need to consider quite how realistic their expectations of ronnie are, and take a look at the newcastle situation (amoungst many others) to see that the grass isn't always greener on the other side.

 

[Ally]

I drove the 85 mile round trip to PP on Saturday, took the missus for her first Tranmere game, and my first home game this season. Spent £30 on petrol, £32 on tickets, £3 on a programme, even bought the nice new blue away shirt in the shop (£40). Then I settled down in a great seat for the match, looking forward to seeing us get a result. Then the game started. Basically, I now feel like I don't want to go back for a long long time. That was the most shocking home performance I've seen since we lost 4-0 at home one xmas to Wimbledon before they became MK Dons. Truly atrocious, and I am f u c k i n g seething.

 

[Ian]

I drove the 85 mile round trip to PP on Saturday, took the missus for her first Tranmere game, and my first home game this season. Spent £30 on petrol, £32 on tickets, £3 on a programme, even bought the nice new blue away shirt in the shop (£40). Then I settled down in a great seat for the match, looking forward to seeing us get a result. Then the game started. Basically, I now feel like I don't want to go back for a long long time. That was the most shocking home performance I've seen since we lost 4-0 at home one xmas to Wimbledon before they became MK Dons. Truly atrocious, and I am f u c k i n g seething.

Brilliant example Ally. Not wanting to rub it in, but this is exactly why people aren't coming back to Prenton Park. Expensive day out I'm sure you'll agree, and for what? To see 11 clowns running around a pitch!

I think what annoys me most is that the board will go on about local support and how there are thousands on Wirral that could support their local club. What they haven't quite grasped is that no-one wants to watch that ***** every Saturday, it's a simple as that.

Ronnie clearly isn't going to get us out of this division. He cannot put a good run of results together and this is his responsibility. If the players perform one week and not the next, then the manager is not up to the job. It's no good saying, "yeah, great result last week away" and then the week after, "we were ***** at home and got beat" which is happening all to often. It's not going to get bums on seats and every season we get less supporters for it. ](*,)

I said in another thread, we were getting 7500+ for an FA Cup game against Brigg Town a few years ago, we can't even get that for a league game anymore! Worrying stats, but people are losing faith.

I've talked to people over the last few weeks, the staunchest of supporters who are becoming more and more fed up with what's going on.

No disrespect to Ronnie, but he's not got the skills to get us out of this, we need someone who can get the players performing on the same level every week. Annoyingly, if this happened, we would be right up there, as the squad is a decent one when they can be arsed! #-o

 

[SonkORLY?]

I drove the 85 mile round trip to PP on Saturday, took the missus for her first Tranmere game, and my first home game this season. Spent £30 on petrol, £32 on tickets, £3 on a programme, even bought the nice new blue away shirt in the shop (£40). Then I settled down in a great seat for the match, looking forward to seeing us get a result. Then the game started. Basically, I now feel like I don't want to go back for a long long time. That was the most shocking home performance I've seen since we lost 4-0 at home one xmas to Wimbledon before they became MK Dons. Truly atrocious, and I am f u c k i n g seething.

more fool you?

i get the train, which costs a few quid. my season ticket was about £170, which is about £8 a match. sometimes i'll take my younger brother, which is £5 on the door. don't waste my money on shirts, programmes or "great seats". while i can understand your anger at the fact you somehow managed to spend £105 to watch us get beat 3-1 at home to a bunch of cockney twats, our ticket pricing structure actually offers pretty good value for money compared to other teams at this level, and the public transport links are sufficient if not desirable. i'm not trying to rub it in that you spent a fortune, i think its great we still have fans who are willing to do that, i'm just trying to illustrate the fact it doesn't have to be so expensive.

cheer up, at least it wasn't 0-0 :wink:

 

[roverstillidie]

I do 150 mile round trip to every home match, god knows why lol - I guess it's out of loyalty and love for the club even if it gives me a stiff neck!

I agree totally with what Ian says about Ronnie Moore. What I find most annoying about Ronnie Moore besides his bad tactics etc is he never accepts responsbility for anything - he picks the team, he makes the tactics, he signs the players, he decides what happens (or doesnt happen in training) and he gives the team talk yet its never his fault. He must have a book of excuses in the dug out! He also always refers to the team as 'them' or 'their' never 'we' or 'us' in his interviews. He only puts himself in the team if we/them win.

 

[Ally]

Sonks - My point is, that it's an event for me to get to a home game these days due to family commitments, living far away etc, so if I manage it, I want it to be a nice all-round experience, and the reason I spent the money was because I was excited about the prospect of seeing the team at home for the first time this season. Plus, it's nice to feel like you're putting something back into the club.

I go to several away games a year and will happily get the train, stand in the pi55ing down rain and generally try to do it on a budget. But because this was my first home game in a while, I wanted it to be a day out. But I now feel like I should have stayed at home. Perhaps I just picked the wrong game (again!!) but I was extremely disappointed by what I saw.

One thing I will say, is that the atmosphere in the Kop was pretty good throughout. I've seen us play better than that (a lot!) and seen more moaning and booing. Hats off to those who go every week and keep singing.

Ian - have to agree about RM. Good managers create consistency, confidence and self-belief in their players. Our players are inconsistent, lack confidence and have little self-belief. This is all about quality man-management, and in our case, the lack of.