• 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.

Woking v Rovers

Boz

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Iain Hume
Haven’t been following this closely. A good result, but at the expense of losing McNulty for how long, the photos show deep gash, along with Cook for the next game.

Bit surprised Ridehalgh used in central defence, never looked that strong in the air. Although he seems to have coped ok today.
 
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Alan King, Barry Dyson
Unfortunate losing Cook, hopefully for only one match. However, a win is a win and to do so without our skipper a d with a makeshift defence is really positive. I await the reports.
 

Cowshed Kid

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Bobby Hutchinson
Last week's late equaliser and today's shift clearly shows the Fylde debacle was just one of those days. Cookie apart, great restraint from the players to do a job.
Got a mate whose part of Cheshire FA. He wasn't there today but he sees a decent standard of footie week in week out and pitches up at PP for selected games and watches the TV games.
He comments that it's an insult to Sunday League refs when we berate NL officials. Says it all.
We can be sure Macca won't forget!
Missing Cookie for next week, Wareing or Mangs?
 

Sparky

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Chris Greenacre
Early days but I’m assuming Waring will play as he’s had more match action of late than mangan, scores a couple, and will keep the big man/little man partnership going
 

Cowshed Kid

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Most of us will have seen pictures of Macca's leg.
As someone tweeted, if if had been off pitch it would have been a GBH.
Dreadful.
 

Boz

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From MMs post-match comments sounded like Cook’s second card was a fairly clumsy strikers challenge, but it didn’t sound in the same league of stupidity as Norwood and McNulty’s red cards in the Torquay opener. Nowhere near as bad as the foul on McNulty today.

Plenty of options up front, Waring most likely, but Mangan, Kirby, Jennings available. Even Alabi may be back with us by then, having burned his bridges with Dover and the Ebbsfleet deal not going through(yet?)
 
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Jason Koumas / John Morrissey
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A fantastic performance and result, one that has lifted my spirits more than any other this season. To win the game after losing McNulty so early on, and down to ten men for the closing stages, was one thing, but the quality of the football we played in the second half was as good as anything we saw when Banks and DMH were here and really gives me hope for the rest of the season.

The first half was like a basketball match: end to end and probably too open for our liking. The challenge on McNulty was horrific and should have resulted in a straight red; this turned out to be just one of a string of poor decisions by another inept referee. Understandably, we struggled to adapt for the first half an hour or so. Ridehalgh played ok filling in as a centre back, but our usual defensive organisation was missing. We were too deep as a team, there was not enough pressure on the ball and Big Mac's absence gave Woking, and particularly Effiong, encouragement. Both teams had chances, the best for the hosts a shot from fifteen yards from Effiong which was brilliantly saved by Taylor, while shortly after the goal Norwood had a chance to put us two up with an opportunity from ten yards. In general, I thought we just about shaded the half, but it was a patchy performance with some decent moves interspersed by periods of disjointed play, and with the game largely passing by Jennings and Norburn.

The second half was a different story. MM had clearly had some words at half time, as we pressed much higher up the pitch, were tighter in midfield and passed and moved much better. We completely dominated and had a string of opportunities before the red card, with Norwood, Cook and Cole all missing good chances. Other than the misses, I thought our football was as good as in any of the five victories in December. From where I was sitting Cook's two bookings were deserved, but numerous similar challenges by Woking players had gone unpunished and the referee had actually lost control of the game from the McNulty incident onwards. With ten men we very professionally saw the game out, and other than one speculative effort from range which hit the woodwork, were untroubled.

Individually, I thought Cook was back to his best, winning everything in the air; Adam Buxton was superb all round; Jay Harris was much sharper than at Barrow: Taylor was very solid, making some key saves in the first half; Norwood was a constant threat and dragged their back four all over the place in the second half; and Connor Jennings and Eddie Clarke linked up brilliantly down the left hand side. Clarke's performance was tremendous and was a reminder that, while we have lost Banks and DMH, he will still give us something extra in the remaining matches this season. He was our main attacking outlet today.
 
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Alan King, Barry Dyson
Thanks, RLC. Really cheered me up and I'm sorry not to have been able to make it. Sadly I'll miss the next few.
 

Ian

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Thanks RLC. That second half sounded like just the tonic we needed to get confidence going again. Good to hear the players pulling together and some fine performances all round.
 

drwhoman

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Very encouraging. Were you happier with Cole RLC or will we need the new winger next week?
 
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Cole was good with the ball but needs to work harder without it. I like him though and he is worth the contract Mellon is offering him.

He pulled a hamstring so Ginnelly will play next week regardless.
 
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Just thinking about yesterday's game, something we don't factor in when we examine our away record is the state of the pitches we play on. Woking's playing surface is excellent, at Barrow it is appalling. I think this was a major reason for the improved performance yesterday, in addition to having an extra week to adapt to the loss of the loan players.
 
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Alan King, Barry Dyson
Just thinking about yesterday's game, something we don't factor in when we examine our away record is the state of the pitches we play on. Woking's playing surface is excellent, at Barrow it is appalling. I think this was a major reason for the improved performance yesterday, in addition to having an extra week to adapt to the loss of the loan players.
Good point, RLC. Wasn't the pitch poor at Solihull and Fylde? But of course the predictable plastic surface at Bromley and Sutton suited our game. This bodes well as we come out of the winter. We need to pray for dry, warm weather!
 

Boz

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Only been to a couple of away games so far this season, Gateshead and Macclesfield where the pitches were reasonable. Prenton Park isn’t in the best of condition yet our home form is good. Possibly where the pitch is terrible, it may work against us, unsure how many away pitches are that bad.
 

Ian

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I think the PP pitch has been holding up fairly well this season. Seems to cope better than it used too with copious amounts of rain.
 
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Only been to a couple of away games so far this season, Gateshead and Macclesfield where the pitches were reasonable. Prenton Park isn’t in the best of condition yet our home form is good. Possibly where the pitch is terrible, it may work against us, unsure how many away pitches are that bad.
Barrow's was as bobbly as hell and it was impossible to pass the ball. Definitely affected the performance.
 
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aldo
At least we invest in the pitch some of the clubs must not be abl to look at eastleigh . To have games called off b4 the season starts is bad. At theend of the day the boys just need to put the ball in the net . Its not as if tthey have not had their chances in last few games just been wast full. Would love waring or alibi to come in an prove me and others wrong but cant see it happening need more pressure on the front to . To get em scoring more
 
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