• 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.

Wolves v Rovers

Boz

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Iain Hume
It would have been nice to bask in the afterglow of the epic win at Coventry. Instead another toughie in the West Midlands. The injury to Goodi coupled with Ash Taylor's 3 game ban means a very makeshift defence. Unless we get a last minute loanee in, either Ridehalgh or Holmes alongside McNulty. Think I'd prefer Danny there as that will give us a left-sided/right-sided combo and Hateley is a better defender than Horwood. Otherwise unchanged line-up.

Surprisingly all-ticket for away fans, can't see there being that much demand. Wolves aren't firing on all cylinders, but likely to be too strong for us. what price a goal from Jake Cassidy coming off their bench?
 
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Jason Koumas / John Morrissey
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I agree with Boz about the centre halves, I would not want Horwood in the team and Hateley can comfortably fill in at right back. That said, when Danny filled in at centre half in pre-season he was less than inspiring, although he was struggling for form generally at the time. Hopefully we will get a (decent) loanee at the eleventh hour. Just a pity that we have defensive problems for such a difficult game.

Apparently Cassidy has not been able to hit a barn door for the majority of this season, which probably makes a goal against us even more likely ! Whatever the outcome, I just hope we put in a solid display to keep confidence levels high.

It would seem that all of Wolves' home games this season are all ticket, as the majority of clubs are taking above-average followings there (Brentford took over 2,000 fans on Saturday, for example). Our following at Sixfields was very small, so I am actually hopeful that we will take a few tomorrow night. Out of interest, does anyone know how many tickets we have sold ?
 

bigmart

bigmart
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Ian Muir
I would be delighted with a point but think they will be too strong for us especially with our defensive options limited 2 0 to them
 

Ian

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Aldo
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Defence will be tested but I think confidence is returning and we'll come away with a credible draw.
 
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Alan King, Barry Dyson
I've predicted 1-1, which under the circumstances would be almost as good a result as Saturday. If we get anything and continue our great run, it bodes well for the rest of the season.
 

bigmart

bigmart
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Think we need to take a reality check, Saturday was a great result but Wolves are head and shoulders above anything in this league and will win it comfortably, or at least they should.

Saturday is a big game now, we are just above the bottom 4 and failure to win leaves us in trouble, 3 points and things are certainly looking up and hopefully we wont have too many more relegation jitters.
 

drwhoman

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Looks as if they got more into the game in the second half. Will be interested to hear how Wallace went. As bigmart says Wolves should not be in this league. Only their own incompetance last season. I would imagine they are still on Premier League parachute payments that will dwarf Rovers wage bill.
 
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The stats do not look good, but I await the reports on how one-sided it actually was. I understand OFW was partly at fault for their opener, which was the last thing we needed. Just relieved we appear to have escaped without further injuries. I am surprised Wallace was risked, but he seemed to steady the ship. I see Goodi played his first game as a 41 year old. How did he do? Will he be OK for the next two matches while Ash is out?
 
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Shocking performance from Rovers tonight, but however we had performed it was always going to be an uphill battle against by far the best team in the division: if Orient think they are going up as champions, they are going to be disappointed.

We started badly in the first 10-15 minutes giving Wolves far too much time on the ball, failing to press, work as a unit or even tackle. As a result, they got a grip on midfield which they did not really relinquish for the whole game. Without the ball we were not good enough, but with it we were equally bad for most of the game, squandering possession and hitting aimless long punts. We had a few reasonable spells, but tonight was the most one-sided game I have seen at this level for a long time. In truth, we were really playing Prem / Championship opposition tonight, their main weakness appearing to be the lack of a natural goalscorer.

However, for all Wolves' dominance it was a goalkeeping error from Fonners that gave them the lead at a stage of the game where they had not had many shots on target. If we had managed to keep it tight a little longer, the outcome may have been different. As it is, we were lucky to get away with a 2-0 defeat tonight.

On the positive side, Goody was immense tonight; in fact, the back four did not play particualarly badly, it was our ineffectiveness as a team as a whole that was the problem. Wallace also made a difference in the second half, which was a slight improvement on the first: he showed good composure, and got his passing going at times, with some nice touches. I was surprised he managed a full 45 minutes, and the time on the pitch will have done him good.

As an aside, it was strange to see Jake Cassidy miss a sitter from twelve yards that twelve months ago in a white shirt, he would have gobbled up 99 times out of 100. His confidence ssems to have nosedived since he left us.

Despite tonight's disappointment, we have over performed in the week as a whole and remain out of the bottom four. Just need three points on Saturday now.
 
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Thanks, RLC. I read lots of positives from your report. Let's face it, that SHOULD have been our toughest match of the season, away against the best side and with so many players injured/suspended. A 2-0 defeat is no shame. I just hope the team can put the disappointment behind them and move on. Saturday's is the sort of game we should be looking to win.

BTW, I see Coventry suffered another heavy defeat at home. They must be shell-shocked after Saturday!
 
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Liam Palmer
Spot on RLC that's how I saw the game too. I was disappointed, like Ronnie, that we got stage fright and it took us about 20 minutes to make a tackle. Still, some of the Wolves passing didn't give us the chance to tackle. The big lad Sako ran the game, can't remember seeing a better player at this level. Wolves are as good a team as I've seen at this level for 10 years, and that includes all the teams like Leeds, Saints, Norwich, etc.

Positives: Goodi - he'll be playing til he's 50. Wallace got another 45 minutes and looked OK. Fonners stuck at it and made a couple of good saves after the first goal.

Rovers man of the match: Jake Cassidy - couldn't hit his granny's bum with a banjo. Thanks Cass!

Big match on Saturday now.
 

Gray

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Ian Goodison... who else!
Kicking myself for missing the Coventry game, didn't go out of principle (I know Cov supporters who get in for £11 while away fans were charged £22) I decided to make the slightly longer trip up the M6 to Wolves.

Quite simply, Wolves were different class and are too good for this league, they should win it at a canter. When they had the ball we were chasing shadows, when we finally got the ball we didn't do enough with it and gave it away too easily looking for a killer pass.

Fonners was at fault for the first goal, it was one of those bizarre ones where he's gathered it and next thing you know he's spilled it and it's in the back of the net. Rare mistake unfortunately but believe he's been quality so far this year so nothing to worry about and he did recover well. The second goal looked like it went straight in from the corner but I believe someone got a touch. This was a weak goal to concede, Wolves had whipped in 3 or 4 in-swingers to the 6 yard box before this and we probably should have been wise and covered the near post better.

Second half we defended well and restricted them to long range efforts.

I thought Ridehalgh and Goodi had a decent game, Holmes battled well all night. Midfield were outclassed and Lowe had no service again. JLAA looked short of pace.

First visit to Wolves. Tidy ground, enjoyable evening despite the result.
 

frenchrover

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aldo
I tend to broadly agree with the assessments of RLC and Gray, we were really outclassed as a team. Ronnie has said "it was no disgrace in coming here and getting beaten" and he is right but there is disgrace in the manner of the defeat. In my view we played right into Wolves' hands by playing 4-5-1 and showing them far too much respect. Lowe was totally isolated for most of the game and whenever the ball was played to him it was usually as the result of a "hoof" from the back which made life so easy for their two centre-backs. This did change somewhat with the introduction of Wallace who tried to play the ball through to him on the ground but the game was lost in the first half particularly after the catastrophic blunder by Fon Williams for the first (he really should have done better with such a long range effort) and sloppy marking for the second.
As has been said Goody turned in another quality performance as did McNulty. Akpro was total anonymous as was Bell-Baggie following his introduction. Wallace endeavoured to steady the ship but although he got through the second 45 I think he was running on empty before the end. But the positive is that he can only get better as his match fitness improves.
So on to Saturday which originally didn't look to difficult with Colchester on a poor run but their demolition of MK Dons last night makes them look a little more difficult prospect.
 
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