Chester v Tranmere

[Sparky]

Well the long awaited away trip to Chester is nearly upon us. The reverse fixture saw rovers run out comfortable winners with James Norwood scoring a wonderful individual goal. As many of the SWA have complained about, the chance of this happening again will have fallen if Norwood plays out wide.

Rovers have sold their 1,100 allocation (I'm in the South Stand behind the goal) but plenty of the SWA will be in the home end. Lets hope this doesn't result in any trouble. Even with a 12 o'clock kick off the atmosphere should be good.

Chester are in a respectable position and still have Ian Sharps on the books and the sought after Ben Henegan in their defence. Rovers will have to keep an eye on Ross Hannah who has been in good goal scoring form having grabbed 15 goals up to now. Chester are in decent form having won 3-0 at Alty and come back from 2-0 down at Kidderminster to salvage a point so spirits will be high. That's 5 goals away from home in their last 2 games. Rovers have not been prolific either home or away yet GB is still happy with his striking options.

GB has been saying "we have a different option now when we are attacking. If we can get Higdon up to speed because he's not had much football of late, I feel we will score goals".

As many of us have said, the time for letting a player get up to speed is pre season or early on worse case. Not when we're at the business end of the season and up to a couple of weeks ago, were on a good run sitting in 4th. Another immobile and cumbersome performance from the likes of Higdon & GTF could see the SWA make their concerns heard if things aren't going well. I won't predict the line up. Hopefully one of Stockton/Margetts will be on the bench after 2 goals each in the senior cup. Would like to have Mekki starting again and Jenno in for Harris.

Norwood up front on his own for me but no doubt GB will see it differently.

Prediction: a 2-1 win for rovers.

 

[Boz]

Jennings ban ends as Harris suspended, meaning one fairly easy decision for the manager. He's hellbent on playing Higdon regardless, hope as part of a front two. Mekki rather than GTF out wide, please. Hogan has been back in training and GB seems to be considering a recall. While Ihiekwe takes some blame for the Cheltenham goal, his pace is the best foil for McNulty and changing at the moment would be a mistake imo.

After last week's defeat, nothing less than a win will do at the Deva. I have my doubts we'll get it.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Like Sparky, I am in the South Stand for this one. Chester are reporting that the game is close to selling out, which suggests a large Rovers presence in the home stands; Chester only got 3,700 for their 'bigger' (for them) derby against Wrexham. I too hope there is no trouble, as you can bet the incompetent Cheshire Police would simply use it as an excuse to make next season's game a bubble fixture (assuming we are still down here).

On playing matters, I would start with the side suggested by Boz above, assuming that Higdon plays. Chester have had a little upturn recently and have a couple of dangerous players, but they have had a mediocre season generally and this is a game we surely must win if we are to make the play-offs. Rovers will probably be playing with a little pressure, as a number of our play-off rivals play the day before and the gap to fifth place may have widened further by the time we kick off. I just hope Higdon finally settles into the side and we can produce some decent football.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

We can't afford not to win this one. Having dropped 5 points out of the last six and with March's horrendous fixture list, we need to keep up the pressure on the teams below. My heart says we'll scrape a 2-1. My head says a draw is the most likely. Honestly, if we don't win, I doubt we'll get back into the top five again this season.

 

[drwhoman]

In light of the recent change in formation and the ordinary performances of late I will be pleasantly surprised if we win. I live in hope that our great Manager has not butchered our chances!

 

[Ian]

Think we'll draw which really isn't enough at this stage of the season.

 

[Higgy]

Change of formation to accommodate Higdon a concern, Shouldn't be playing himself back to fitness at this stage, but the good news is that he should improve with games - which he will get under GB. 442 however does leave the midfield weak and I do worry at the thought of Norwood wide. Would 352 work with say Hogan, McNulty and Ikenwie as back three and say two from three of Vaughn, Mekki or Hughes out wide. With maybe Jenno, Maynard and even GTF in central midfield. 2-3 for SWA

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Decent results for us today with braintree and Wrexham both drawing and Dover out of the trophy, meaning our game there on the 12th march goes ahead. Down to 7th but back up to 4th if we win tomorrow. Three points badly needed now.

 

[Boz]

I suppose the League results could have been been worse, though a Guiseley win would have been better. While Dover's defeat in the Trophy is good from the perspective of the travelling SWA not having to trek to Kent in midweek, it might have been better for our prospects of finishing above them, if they'd gone through and had more of a fixture backlog.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Regardless of Dover's fixture list, we need to win there to make the play offs. That is probably more likely with decent backing from the SWA.

 

[Boz]

Regardless of Dover's fixture list, we need to win there to make the play offs. That is probably more likely with decent backing from the SWA.

It's a moot point. Arguably we're more likely to win there if we were a fresher side up against one playing twice weekly to make up the backlog. Anyway, all academic as they're out of the FA Trophy.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Yes, maybe. I still can't see Braintree missing out on the play-offs the way they continue to pick up points, so I think we need to finish above Dover.

Braintree should have won again today. Guiseley's 'equaliser' was farcical and it would be unjust if they missed out at the end of the season because of it (much as it might benefit Rovers).

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

A very good performance from Rovers and a well deserved victory. We dominated the game from start to finish, controlled midfield and played some decent football. Defensively we were excellent, both the back four and the team in general, and Chester never really laid a glove on us. I thought they would pose much more of a threat than they did, but in truth there was a clear gulf in class between the two sides. The one concern again was the failure to score more goals, despite our dominance.

Pretty much everybody played well, but there were some outstanding individual displays. The centre back pairing of Ihiekwe and McNulty were very solid once again, Mekki and Norwood were lively and worked hard with and without the ball, and Jake Kirby had an excellent and influential game after a slow start, which makes you wonder why he has not been more involved since returning from Stockport. He certainly looks a better player than the one we had in the last two seasons. In midfield, Steve Jennings was fantastic and had his best game of the season for us, something which was recognised by the SWA. Man of the match was probably between Jenno and the awesome Steve McNulty, who just seems to get better every game.

In general, I was impressed today not only with our quality on the ball, but the way we worked as a team to win the ball back quickly high up the pitch, Mekki, Jennings and Hughes putting in a lot of work in this regard.

On the negative side, our failure to score in open play today is a concern. Both Mekki and Norwood missed good chances today, and there were a number of occasions when the full backs and wingers put good deliveries into the box which were not anticipated by the strikers. Higdon in particular never seems to be in the box at the right times, which may reflect a lack of fitness or even a certain laziness. In fairness, after a very poor first half his performance improved in the second where he showed some nice touches. We may actually have scored more today if the referee had awarded two further stonewall penalties, one for a trip on Ridehalgh, the second for a handball 'save' by their defender on the line from a Jennings shot in the closing stages after clever build up play. I was gutted for Jenno that the shot was 'cleared' as he deserved a goal today

There was great support from the SWA in numbers and volume and much more of a bond with the players than in previous games this season. A repeat performance against Gateshead is required and hopefully a few more goals.

 

[bigmart]

Back upto 4th in the table another win and another clean sheet.

The lack of goals is a big concern and has been all season, weve only had 2 regular scorers all season of which 1 was sold a replaced by a half fit target man, I would prefer margetts to be given a run of games up front as I believe he would be a better option than higdon.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

I'm really pleased with the result and the performance. Our defence is our strength but we really need to be more clinical in our finishing in March when we won't have as many chances against the higher quality opposition that awaits us.

 

[Ian]

Huge result today, very pleased. Let's get our home form sorted and we'll be in the mix.

 

[Sparky]

An important 3 points to keep pressure on our play off rivals.

Fully deserved with rovers the better side throughout, particularly second half when we stepped it up a gear. Chester were very poor indeed but some of that will be due to our excellent defending.

Mekki looked dangerous throughout as did kirby who whilst can be frustrating at times, showed some glimpses today of what he can do given the chance.

Higdons performance was probably a 6 out of 10. Won a few headers and a few clever lay offs one in particular to kirby. But as RLC points out, every time we get balls into the box, he doesn't move at all, so the cross must be inch perfect and we don't have players at this level who can do this consistently.

At least it's another game under his belt but the concern remains about our lack of goals, particularly in open play. Another cool penalty from Norwood but we need much more of a cutting edge in the final third.

A win is a win thought. M.o.m for me was Jenno who was the best player on the park. Mekki and Big Mac a close second. Onwards we go.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I just wanted to add that the police presence today was absolutely ridiculous considering all the Rovers fans present were season ticket holders, not registered trouble makers. You have to feel for Chester, who probably made a loss on the game after paying the bill.

Due to the convoys given to the Rovers coaches and road closures, it was also a nightmare getting away from the ground. It took us an hour and a half to get back to Birkenhead.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

I just wanted to add that the police presence today was absolutely ridiculous considering all the Rovers fans present were season ticket holders, not registered trouble makers. You have to feel for Chester, who probably made a loss on the game after paying the bill.

Due to the convoys given to the Rovers coaches and road closures, it was also a nightmare getting away from the ground. It took us an hour and a half to get back to Birkenhead.

The gate was disappointing - about 2,000 below capacity. Were parts of the ground closed for security reasons or was the home section half empty? I'm sure with a bit of imagination, the ground could have been filled. As you say, RLC, all the Rovers fans were season ticket holders and I'm sure we could have sold many more tickets to registered fans. Hopefully, they'll learn for next season (if we are still in this league).

 

[Gray]

Braintree should have won again today. Guiseley's 'equaliser' was farcical and it would be unjust if they missed out at the end of the season because of it (much as it might benefit Rovers).

For those who haven't seen it, following the ball being put out for an injury, the Guiseley player, rather than passing back to the Braintree keeper, has chosen to smash the ball over the keepers head into the goal from a good 45 yards!

To be fair, he's done well to hit the target which is by no means a given at this level.

Anyway, if it helps us get promoted I'll definitely take it.