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Leyton Orient Away -

andrewesq

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Not the form team they were at the start of the season but at least will salvage a play off spot unlike ourselves last season. They will be wanting a win to get home advantage in play offs and get back above rotherham and pne.
 

bigmart

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Watched quite a bit of their game v Wolves yesterday and they created a huge number of chances and were unlucky to lose, cant see us getting anything from the game.
 
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Yes, it seemed they played really well against Wolves. However, their current form is extremely poor - they are below us in the form table - and if we go there with the right tactical approach, I think we are capable of getting a point.

Depending on the availability of Goody and Ridehalgh I would like to see us play a 5-3-2 with the emphasis on being difficult to break down.
 

Ian

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I think best we could hope for is a draw but our away record has been awful recently. Can't see us getting anything from this one.
 

Boz

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Yes, it seemed they played really well against Wolves. However, their current form is extremely poor - they are below us in the form table - and if we go there with the right tactical approach, I think we are capable of getting a point.

Depending on the availability of Goody and Ridehalgh I would like to see us play a 5-3-2 with the emphasis on being difficult to break down.
I'd agree that given the Os current form, a correctly set-up Rovers side might be able to get something from this one. My first and last away game of the season so here's hoping.

If we were to play 5-3-2, the problem for me would be the right wing-back of the 5. I don't think Holmes offers enough going forward and given how well Pennington has performed in central defence, would it be wise to move him? Ridehalgh/Brown are capable of playing left wing-back while there is ample choice in central defence. Power and Jennings would presumably be two of the midfield trio with a fit more creative player the third.
 

Ian

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Holmes is terrible going forward, so I would leave Pennington in the centre of defence and stick Brown on the right who looked comfortable against Sheff Utd and can shift into advanced positions.
 
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I think Holmes is perfectly capable of playing at right back in a 5-3-2, particularly as we are likely to be doing more defending than attacking on Saturday anyway. Given the number of injuries we have, we can't really be too sniffy about the starting line up.

John Mac may not opt for five at the back anyway, and it will be interesting to see who is available and how we line up.
 

Boz

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I think it's a question of picking the best formation consistent with the players we have available and while Holmes is fine defensively, the left and right players in a back 5 have to be able to act as an outlet and carry the ball forward into territory where Danny doesn't usually venture. One of the reasons why I suspect it's unlikely we'll start with 5 at the back.

At the moment Wallace and Koumas are definitely out, with Jennings, JLAA and Ridehalgh serious doubts. If the last three are definitely missing we are going to be heavily depending on the younger players.
 

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I think Koumas has all but written off our chances tomorrow talking about it coming down to the last game of the season at home to Bradford. But this is Tranmere, so while the majority think we have no chance of a result, we'll probably win it by two or three lol

A draw wouldn't be disastrous as every point is precious now.
 
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The injury situation, which has been pretty bad all season, looks grim for tomorrow.

I think psychologically a point would be a massive lift for us tomorrow.

If we can somehow keep ourselves out of the relegation places by 5pm tomorrow, then I am sure we can patch up a team to beat Bradford, and stay up.

Looks like we'll have a good-sized following tomorrow, hopefully we can catch Orient with one eye on the play-offs.
 

Ian

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Orient already have a play off place it's just whether their bothered about finishing in 3rd. I hope not..
 

bigmart

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with a lot of players out and the fact that weve hit a barren spell in front of goal I fear the worst tomorrow & just hope a couple of other results go our way
 
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with a lot of players out and the fact that weve hit a barren spell in front of goal I fear the worst tomorrow & just hope a couple of other results go our way
A very barren spell - no goals in four games and just one point. Other results didn't help much, as Colchester and Notts County won and Crewe drew. Only Carlisle slipped up, so it's now out of our hands. A draw against Bradford would do if Crewe slipped up, but realistically, we need to win and hope Crewe draw or Notts County lose. It's not looking good.
 

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Really couldn't have gone any worse..
 

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Will await reports but sounded a bit like recent performances I.e plenty of decent football but a real lack of cutting edge along with poor defending including an apparent howler from fonners has cost us.

JMc needs to look at himself. Cassidy hasn't been well all week yet he refused to give Cole a starting chance. Yes he is young and all that but couldn't do any worse than Cass of late.

Just as bad were the other results which could get worse as Carlisle play midweek. It's now out of our hands and Bradford won't be a push over as they won again today.

Feeling very deflated.
 

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Fonners' howler really was just the icing on the cake. We were never going to equalise even super white Andy Doyle admitted he couldn't see us scoring after we went one behind.

Maybe four games without a single goal you get what you deserve. Terrible really. I'm not knocking the players for lack of effort/ commitment, the quality just isn't there.

Dreading next week.
 
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Will await reports but sounded a bit like recent performances I.e plenty of decent football but a real lack of cutting edge along with poor defending including an apparent howler from fonners has cost us.

Just about spot on. For endeavour alone, we deserved something from the game today: unfortunately we did not have the quality in the final third to go with our effort and can't complain at the result. We had long periods of decent approach play which broke down on the edge of the 18 yard box, whereas Orient created several presentable chances from very little of the ball.

I think the absence of / injuries to Koumas and Wallace have killed us in recent games. Although some of our expert fans have been saying how much better Power is than Wallace in recent weeks, Max just does not have the same impact in the final third. They are our two most talented players and without them we have been found wanting creatively.

The tactics in the first half today were spot on in my view: we played 4-5-1 for the majority of the half and basically tried to frustrate Orient, which we succeeded in doing. However, typical of the season so far, we then conceded a sloppy goal from a corner just before half time and undid all our good work.

In the second half McMahon brought on Kirby and Rowe and as a result we saw a lot more of the ball in midfield. However, we had absolutely no cutting edge, with Kirby in particular given the ball in good positions on a number of occasions, but rather than playing an imaginative pass or attacking the full back, he simply cut inside and into traffic. In all honesty, I could not really see us scoring despite our considerable efforts, but Fonners' awful clearance which gifted them the second just about summed the season up: a fitting nail in the coffin.

I agree with Sparky's comments regarding Stockton. By putting two up front for the last twenty minutes we could have at least put balls in the box and fought for scraps. As it was, we created next to nothing. What is so frustrating is that had we even got one point from the last three away games, our fate would still be in our own hands. The away form under John Mac has been unacceptable.

My gut feeling is that Crewe and Notts will get the results they need next week and we are heading down. Death by a thousand cuts in a truly disastrous season.
 

Boz

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The only away game I've done this season, so don't know how typical it was. The aim was to stifle Orient initially, but the defence seemed less assured than usual and as early as the 12th minute OFW pulled off a decent save to keep us level. The rest of the half was mostly played out in the middle of the park, before conceding a scrappy goal from a corner a minute before the break.

At half-time McMahon took off JLAA (ineffectual didn't look fit) and Cassidy(ill apparently), two attacking players and replaced them with two midfielders when we were losing. He has made some inane remark on the o/s about Stockton not being ready, yet is happy to rely on Kirby, who was weak today as RLC highlights above and Rowe, who's only had a handful of L1 games. I was also a bit surprised seeing Brown mainly deployed in the centre where he wasn't as effective. We did play better 2nd half, but without converting any of the half chances which came our way before OFW's suicidal clearance which Rovers old boy Dagnall volleyed into an unguarded net. Heads dropped after that and it was more likely that Orient would score again than Rovers get one back.

There was a good turnout from the SWA, shame the assistant manager didn't heed the "one Cole Stockton" song. It was difficult to select a MoM, probably Ridehalgh who wasn't as jittery as some defensively and made some decent attacking runs down the left.

We have had the opportunity to claw a few points from recent away games and failed to do so. While we still have a slim chance of staying up, courtesy of others, in reality I'd agree with RLC that it's not going to happen.
 
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The only away game I've done this season, so don't know how typical it was..

We actually created far more in the previous away games under McMahon, albeit against weaker opposition, so in that sense we are going backwards at precisely the wrong stage of the season.
 
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