• 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.

County v rovers

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He seemed pretty pi$$ed off to me in his interview......
He did yes RLC but on the other hand he seemed completely at a loss as to why our defending was so bad. I am getting fed up with his comments about seeing if there any lessons to be learnt. They should already have been learnt but that defensive display was once again unacceptable. What are Micky and Jacko doing for heaven's sake?
 
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But the balls bombed into the box would not be dealt with by our centre backs without McNulty. Did you see the goals we conceded at Grimsby ? You seem to think a non league team beating a league team is a once in a blue moon occurrence, whereas it happens every season, including this one. Why do you think the television cameras are there ?
 
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He did yes RLC but on the other hand he seemed completely at a loss as to why our defending was so bad. I am getting fed up with his comments about seeing if there any lessons to be learnt. They should already have been learnt but that defensive display was once again unacceptable. What are Micky and Jacko doing for heaven's sake?
Campaign for them to be sacked then if you feel that strongly. Eighth in League Two clearly not is not good enough for you with a squad most of whom have never played at that level before. It is also obvious that yesterday's defending was largely down to the squad changes. We need more quality in the squad but that takes time to build and Mellon needs money to do it.
 
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Just another comment regarding our away form this season. It has been poor, but it is actually similar to the majority of seasons we have had in the Football League. I won't quote the stats at length, but in the mid nineties when we made the Championship play offs we only won 4/5 matches away from home all season, and in 1988-89 when we won promotion from this division we only won six away matches.

It is to be expected that our home form is much better than our away form at this level, and what matters ultimately is how many points we pick up and where we finish, not where we won the points. If anything, home form is far more important as we have an obligation to entertain at home and keep the paying customers on side.

In general, I think we are too attack minded away from Prenton Park. It is laudable that Micky always wants to be positive and entertain, but I would be happy to see us grind out negative, dull draws, until the away results improve a bit. However, we also need to improve the squad depth and that takes time and money.
 

Boz

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Have seen the goals now, poor defending for all three. Felt that MM ought to have been a little more balanced in his post-match observations, as while the Ellis penalty mistake was needless, it may have been partly down to the conditions and the full-backs who were culprits for the first two goals deserved scrutiny for their failings too.

Of this back four, only Sutton was not brought to the club by Micky, who did give him a new contract though. Is it possible to improve them to an acceptable standard, or do we need to look at alternatives? As well as funding new players, which reaching the third round may allow, we have Gumbs, Long and Spellman at the club, young defenders who may merit an opportunity. Although Gumbs is the only one I've seen play.
 
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Personally, I think Ellis and Sutton are good enough, but Zoum and Caprice are not. Zoum was terrible defensively yesterday and injuries have perhaps got the better of him. Caprice is great as a wing back but just can't defend. I think both will go in the summer.

Elsewhere, we need one / two midfielders of similar quality to Banks / McCullough to provide competition and cover, a target man who offers more than Stockton and a reserve keeper. Perhaps another wide player as well.

Obviously, that is a wish list and we could only make those changes in the long term. For now, we have to make do and see what we can rustle up in January (while avoiding Adams-style panic signings).
 
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all the games are big . the away form is a major concern . we are shipping goals . its so frustrating
 

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Campaign for them to be sacked then if you feel that strongly. Eighth in League Two clearly not is not good enough for you with a squad most of whom have never played at that level before. It is also obvious that yesterday's defending was largely down to the squad changes. We need more quality in the squad but that takes time to build and Mellon needs money to do it.
I feel strongly that they should be able to have sorted our defensive frailties by now was my point. I don't feel that they should be sacked, although I will admit I do not share the view that some on these forums hold that MM is a great manager. Eighth in L2 is acceptable yes but surely you cannot be happy with some of the pitiful recent performances - and after all our current away form is relegation form! I agree wholeheartedly that we need money to build a squad that would enable us to flourish in L1 but think this squad should be doing much better than it is right now. Hopefully tonight we will return to winning ways playing good football!
 

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Overall we are doing well but you are only as good as your last game in football and those good early performances are soon forgotten. I would say we are not playing as well as we were at the start of the season when some of our passing and movement was excellent. I’m not just talking about away form either. Performances at home havent been great but at least we are still picking up points.

There is the argument that the players may be suffering from some physical and mental fatigue as our squad is quite thin on the ground.
 
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I feel strongly that they should be able to have sorted our defensive frailties by now was my point. I don't feel that they should be sacked, although I will admit I do not share the view that some on these forums hold that MM is a great manager. Eighth in L2 is acceptable yes but surely you cannot be happy with some of the pitiful recent performances - and after all our current away form is relegation form! I agree wholeheartedly that we need money to build a squad that would enable us to flourish in L1 but think this squad should be doing much better than it is right now. Hopefully tonight we will return to winning ways playing good football!
Our performance is well above average for a team just promoted from the National League and I am perfectly happy with it. Any manager is only good as the resources at his disposal and we by no means have the biggest or most expensive squad in the division. Mellon has done a fantastic job for this club and, with respect, I find your constant criticism of him unreasonable and even laughable.
 
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By the way, recent performances have not been 'pitiful'. We are conceding too many goals away from home, but we are still scoring and the home form remains excellent. We were good going forward in the second half on Saturday, good in the second half against Cambridge, solid against Oldham and in the Oxford replay...... Yet you put an entirely negative spin on things.
 

rossb07

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Might be that some just don’t like MM. The man can’t win, if and it’s a small if (because we’ve conceded 3 away with Steve and Manny at the back away before) and we’d have lost then they’d be whinging that they weren’t rested for tonight. I personally think he’s been a revelation since coming in, gets mucked in with the fans too! He’s by no means a messiah but he’s also not a mug as shown against the better teams in this league.
 

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The man can’t win
You can't please everyone but RLC has a point. With the resources available to him he's doing an excellent job.

I don't think it's that they don't like him Ross but football is a fickle game and recent performances haven't been great. I still think we'll finish in the top 10 this season which in itself is an improvement and build again stronger next season.
 

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Our performance is well above average for a team just promoted from the National League and I am perfectly happy with it. Any manager is only good as the resources at his disposal and we by no means have the biggest or most expensive squad in the division. Mellon has done a fantastic job for this club and, with respect, I find your constant criticism of him unreasonable and even laughable.
With respect as you say, I entirely disagree with you - I don't recall any constant criticism of MM from me but if you think that us scraping an equaliser against Oxford City in the 89th minute and being outplayed by Southport at home is acceptable/ normal/ call it what you will, then fair enough. We have also lost our last 4 away games so if you are happy with it as you say that is your prerogative but after a great start we are now showing close to relegation form despite how it is sugarcoated. We can agree to disagree but my opinions are certainly not laughable - and in fact looking through this forum and others my views in respect of our recent performances (and not our league position which we all agree is fine) are in the majority.
 
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If I can just add that in nearly 60 years as a fan, Rovers have never been that good away from home. It is worth remembering that our best away run ever was under Brabin. During that run, our home form was diabolical and Gary got sacked while we were unbeaten away for several months.

Opponents usually play differently away and at home, so it's difficult for us to play the same way.
 
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With respect as you say, I entirely disagree with you - I don't recall any constant criticism of MM from me but if you think that us scraping an equaliser against Oxford City in the 89th minute and being outplayed by Southport at home is acceptable/ normal/ call it what you will, then fair enough. We have also lost our last 4 away games so if you are happy with it as you say that is your prerogative but after a great start we are now showing close to relegation form despite how it is sugarcoated. We can agree to disagree but my opinions are certainly not laughable - and in fact looking through this forum and others my views in respect of our recent performances (and not our league position which we all agree is fine) are in the majority.
If it was not for Mellon dragging us out of non league football last season, you might not have had a team to watch in a few years' time. Form will go up and down over a season, but you have to assess a manager's performance rationally over a whole season, not as a knee jerk reaction to a series of matches when we have injuries, fatigue and the squad is stretched. And as for your opinion being the majority view - yes, it it certainly is the majority view of the whingeing minority on internet forums. Whether it reflects the majority view of the wider fanbase, I seriously doubt.
 
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The way everyone at the club (led by Mark, Nicola and Micky) pulled together to get us out of the NL is an important chapter in our history. Micky may not be the best manager in England or Mark the richest owner, but I have never been more positive about our future than at anytime in 60 years except perhaps the early nineties. There's no excuse to moan.
 
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You just can't please some people if the team wins some moan . And if they have a poor spell then they are in there element . . That's what happens and it can be frustrating at times. But that's what some people are like . Makes you wonder why they bother some times . MM has a great record with rovers and has a a big win rate as well. Ok we all have are grips with the manager from time to time but some times people just need to lay off and look at the bigger picture
 

drwhoman

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From my own point of view we have overachieved so far given that the squad is mainly comprised of those who got us out of the NL. To have stayed there would have been the kiss of death for a great 97 year old club. I hope that with the Cup money plus a year’s experience we will kick on in 19-20. Yes - we could be promoted this season but I suspect we might struggle in Div One without a serious reinforcement of the team. New players take time to settle and too many at one time can cause problems.
 

Boz

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Think you can look at the likes of Lincoln and Burton who made the best of their Cup runs in terms of kicking their clubs on. Mellon is a good fit for our club and think the majority of the fan base is firmly behind him.
 
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