• 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.

Bolton Wanderers v Tranmere Rovers

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OK, it does look bad, but remember we had a very makeshift defence with three regulars missing and a young lad making his league debut. We were a little short of full strength in midfield too. We were also short of three of our leaders - Clarke, Danns, Perkins. So, although we were poor, you can't assume that performance is typical of how we will play when we have our regulars available and the newbies start to gel. There is still hope, but on to yet another must-win game on Tuesday. I wonder what the gate will be.
 

Ian

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How many of these must win games can we have in a season? I understand your points about a weakened side BBTC but you can still fight for the shirt. Bolton weren't great but they wanted it more and walked away with the points. Our recent points tally is abysmal.
 

bigmart

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OK, it does look bad, but remember we had a very makeshift defence with three regulars missing and a young lad making his league debut. We were a little short of full strength in midfield too. We were also short of three of our leaders - Clarke, Danns, Perkins. So, although we were poor, you can't assume that performance is typical of how we will play when we have our regulars available and the newbies start to gel. There is still hope, but on to yet another must-win game on Tuesday. I wonder what the gate will be.
We have 5 wins all season, no matter how you dress it up that is dire and why we are certain to go down
 

Sparky

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Disappointing that it sounds like our attitude was questionable. Bolton are down whereas we have a half chance of staying up - how could they want it more?!?!?
 

Sparky

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Think we need a poll Ian if whether should Micky go....not for me....but plenty of people out there who think he should.
 

bigmart

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Think we need a poll Ian if whether should Micky go....not for me....but plenty of people out there who think he should.
For me he stays even though we will go down, but the recruitment and use of players needs to improve and certainly less loans like maddox, pontacelli etc who never play when we may as well have a couple of our young lads on the bench and try to develop them
 
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The main reason we have been struggling is the quality of the players. They were good enough for League Two, but many have been found wanting in League One. As we all know, we did not have the money for a L1 squad. That's not the owner's fault and certainly not the manager's. Thanks to our cup run, we have been able to invest in much better players recently. Very cleverly, most are on loan, so we are flexible if we go down. You have to give the new players a chance to gel (or in Cook's case, to play) before writing us off.

I wish I understood why the team was up for the four games against Wycombe and Watford, but not for games like today.

As for the manager, he has served us well. In my view, being relegated should never mean automatically sacking the boss. If the worst does happen, I'd certainly keep Micky on unless he wants to move on or has lost the confidence of his players. Right now, Micky needs our support - and for what he has done in the past three years, he deserves it. Any campaign to get him removed would undermine what has been achieved and be damaging to everyone concerned - including us!
 
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A very disappointing performance.

The makeshift defence understandably did not cope in the opening minutes and were bullied by O'Grady and Murphy. The fist goal was very poor defensively, and I thought Davies should also have done better having got two hands on the shot. However, Feeney and Woods did settle into the game although I am not convinced either goal would have been conceded if the centre backs had been Clarke and Monthe. For the remainder of the fist half I thought we were slightly the better side, playing some decent football, even if the final ball was missing as so often this season. Gilmour impressed in midfield and Morris was influential again.

However, the second half was abysmal. Bolton began the half with more urgency, which was difficult to fathom given the relative positions of the two clubs, and we huffed and puffed but created absolutely nothing. I don't think we registered a shot on or off target in the forty five minutes.

There were good footballers in our side today who performed well - Wilson, Morris, Gilmour - but there are simply too many players around them who are incapable at this level. I finally lost patience with a lot of them today: Caprice either underhit or overhit every cross and was awful; Jennings was fed the ball in good areas by Gilmour but generally miscontrolled and gave the ball away; Ferrier, for all his huffing and puffing, gave away endless silly free kicks and failed to trap the ball and lay it off when supplied by Wilson or Vaughan.

I still think performances might improve over time when the new arrivals settle in, but there are simply too many players in the squad that are unfit for League One football.

Wimbledon are now the only team we have a hope of catching, but a victory has to come very, very soon.
 
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it won’t help matters but it can’t make things worse. It would just be interesting that’s all.
I think it does make things worse, because it feed the atmosphere of negativity and encourages people to scapegoat Mellon.

As bad as some of them are, the players need our support, not more negativity.
 
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What was most alarming today was the lack of fight from the players in the second half. However, I think that is because the confidence of some of them is finally shot after losing matches all season.
 
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what do they do . cant keep blaming the injuries . is it the way they are set up . do they train on corners or free kicks on the training pitches .if not who to blame its going tits up and we are up sh$%t creep . we cant beat southend in both games and have lost or drawn to most around us . ohhhhhh rant over
 
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what do they do . cant keep blaming the injuries . is it the way they are set up . do they train on corners or free kicks on the training pitches .if not who to blame its going tits up and we are up sh$%t creep . we cant beat southend in both games and have lost or drawn to most around us . ohhhhhh rant over
Perhaps nobody is to blame ? I appreciate we live in a blame culture, but it just could be the case.

The back to back promotions were too much for the club to deal with.
 
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then the manager needs to help them and change things how i don,t know but some thing needs doing and soon or we are fooked
 
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I,m fed up with all this harping on about the budget when correct me if I,m wrong but we sign players (Gilmore,payne,ray,mullin & nelson) then keep them on the bench or not even in the squad, it doesn,t matter how good/bad they are mellon bought them, when we have one of the worst full backs in caprice getting games every week I despair, I lost faith in mellon when he binned pilling and brought a loanee in then shoves davies back in as soon as he,s fit, I could spend the next hour moaning but if anybody thinks mellon will change this far into the season it won,t happen, god knows I hope I,m wrong at the end of the season
 
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I,m fed up with all this harping on about the budget when correct me if I,m wrong but we sign players (Gilmore,payne,ray,mullin & nelson) then keep them on the bench or not even in the squad, it doesn,t matter how good/bad they are mellon bought them, when we have one of the worst full backs in caprice getting games every week I despair, I lost faith in mellon when he binned pilling and brought a loanee in then shoves davies back in as soon as he,s fit, I could spend the next hour moaning but if anybody thinks mellon will change this far into the season it won,t happen, god knows I hope I,m wrong at the end of the season

Because we have one of the lowest budgets in the division. And the teams with the lowest budgets are generally at the bottom of the table.

We clearly did not have the money last summer to bring in the players of the quality we needed. Now we have - Clarke, Woodyard, Cook - but it is probably too little too late.

Plus, we were lumbered with a number of players that were recruited in the divisions below and we would have liked to have moved on, but could not, because they were still under contract.
 
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Sparky

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I think it does make things worse, because it feed the atmosphere of negativity and encourages people to scapegoat Mellon.

As bad as some of them are, the players need our support, not more negativity.

I agree RLC that we should be supportive of the players but all I am saying is there are only say 15 regulars who post on this site so views on the manager would be interesting - notwithstanding the fact that I agree with your points about budgets etc.
i don’t think a poll on this site would cause any damage to our chances of staying up.
 
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I agree RLC that we should be supportive of the players but all I am saying is there are only say 15 regulars who post on this site so views on the manager would be interesting - notwithstanding the fact that I agree with your points about budgets etc.
i don’t think a poll on this site would cause any damage to our chances of staying up.
We could have a poll, but we would all know who had voted which way anyway........
 
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