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League Two Notts County (5) v Rovers (0)

Sparky

Sparky

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Chris Greenacre
Saturday sees the first of three successive away games with a tough trip to Notts County. Our away form was decent up until recently but 3 away defeats in a row sees us 15th in the away form league table and overall, 22nd in the form table over the last 6 games.

The magpies sit comfortably in the play offs and only 2 points off the top three. Their attacking trio of Matthew Dennis, Jodi Jones and Alessandro Jatta is possibly the best in the division but Jatta has been missing of late. Their home record is excellent with only 3 defeats, 3 draws and a whopping 10 wins and after Tuesday night we’ll do well to get something. That said against a more footballing side than Accy don’t rule us out picking up something.

As for rovers it’ll be interesting if the loan of Marosi has been extended or not. I’m guessing Murphy will start if fit. Crosby talked about possible tiredness on Tuesday so it’ll be interesting if there is any rotation and it wouldn’t surprise me if Dennis comes in for Ironside. I suspect Crosby may go back to a back 5 and hope we can get men behind the ball and grind out a clean sheet. Another defeat would mean 8 in 9 and surely Crosby would be a dead man walking.

Prediction: a home win.
 
It's going to be another loss because we are making the same mistakes game after game. We won't have any intention of wining the game but keeping it tight which means we will have zero attacking threat and look to soak up what Couty throw at us.

County we also be looking for maximum points back at home after two somewhat disappointing away games.
 
Given our dreadful record against teams in the top half and Notts' superior squad, I can't see anything other than a defeat.

I just hope we can get back to the football of the Gillingham and Crawley performances to provide some hope for the remaining fixtures. We could be in serious trouble by the end of these three away matches, and the Newport game already looks huge.
 
Notts County are a difficult opponent and will be looking to bounce back after an unexpected loss at Shrewsbury, though it looked like they were denied a late penalty. Have to hope that Jatta remains out of their side, though will be enough of a challenge regardless. Last season saw one of our better away performances under Adkins, though we still lost, with Whitaker getting one of their goals. Norburn is the former Rover in their current squad.

Crosby's tactics v Accrington were puzzling, Patrick on the right to start and his subs baffling. While I don't think Dickov has got off to the best of starts, it was bizarre not to use his pace and energy when the opponents were a man down. Finley seemed to be fairly quiet as the game went on, but left on for the full ninety. Have to feel sorry for Blacker, frozen out by a failure to get a grip on the goalkeeping deficiencies sooner.

Have missed any clue about why Murphy is absent, so hard to say if he'll be available for the weekend or we extend Marosi again. In the absence of unexpected outfield injuries, it wouldn't be a total surprise to have the same ten. I don't think Dennis has the legs to start away games and he's best used coming off the bench later on.

Can't argue with the gloomy predictions on here, but hoping for a minor miracle; we sure need it!
 
Boz said:
While I don't think Dickov has got off to the best of starts, it was bizarre not to use his pace and energy when the opponents were a man down.
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Well that's not entirely true. He came on for Norman who had only been brought on 20 mins previous and had about a minute to make an impression! :speechless:
 
If we get Joe back that will allow Blacker back and he is our best midfield sub. Might even be worth dumping the keeper cover?
Up front he seems torn between three up which leads to us losing the possession war or one up which maroons Whits to a wide and less effective role. Joe and Whits looks the obvious answer!
Patrick in a back five or a midfield four doesn't make much difference in the outcome as he positions himself in their half mainly whichever.
I hope we have seen the last of his stupid switching people over idea. Obiero had barely found his feet and Finley is a right footed near retirement player who doesn't need new tricks.
His subs are mainly ineffective and his hail mary ones like Crewe and Accy just dreadful. Always felt from the start he has one eye on self publicity, doing the absurd means he gets the outright reward when things go well. Last season his recovery featured dropping the division's busiest challenger Davies, he had plenty of practice. and playing Wood in the middle. Trouble is now as results are pretty poor his daft ideas are doing the opposite of what he hopes.
I'd say our performances are flawed but hold far more promise than under Nigel. The fans see no difference whilst some of us can see how things could be a bit better by just sticking to basics.
3 aways so 3 points would be a good return?
 
Yes the Blacker situation is a bit of a joke as him and Finley were our best midfield partnership for a while. More competition for him now with Warrington and Obiero but I’d still like him on the bench. His parent club won’t be too happy about it either
 
Sparky said:
Yes the Blacker situation is a bit of a joke as him and Finley were our best midfield partnership for a while. More competition for him now with Warrington and Obiero but I’d still like him on the bench. His parent club won’t be too happy about it either
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It's a result of the situation with the keepers and all of our own making
 
bigmart said:
It's a result of the situation with the keepers and all of our own making
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Only solved by signing a full time keeper which would be a £200,000 plus project? I can't see anyone signing that off until we know Luke is finished.
Not sure some people are thinking this through
 
dollar'sbloke said:
Only solved by signing a full time keeper which would be a £200,000 plus project? I can't see anyone signing that off until we know Luke is finished.
Not sure some people are thinking this through
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Could have been solved by loaning a keeper with more experience than Barrett for the rest of the season. Maybe could have done that with Marosi. There are also some competent out of contract keepers out there, who’d probably accept a short-term deal.

I think there might be an argument for not having a keeper sub in the home games to allow Blacker to play, but too much risk of a keeper picking up an injury or red card with their greater activity in away games.

Even before all the late loans coming in, Crosby was leaving Blacker on the bench for late cameos, despite some good creative work in the attacking midfield role. He seems to have issues with certain players it is hard to fathom.
 
I wasn’t very observant. If I read Dollar’s Bloke post correctly, all the same players were chosen last game but not necessarily in the same positions?
 
Boz said:
Could have been solved by loaning a keeper with more experience than Barrett for the rest of the season. Maybe could have done that with Marosi. There are also some competent out of contract keepers out there, who’d probably accept a short-term deal.

I think there might be an argument for not having a keeper sub in the home games to allow Blacker to play, but too much risk of a keeper picking up an injury or red card with their greater activity in away games.

Even before all the late loans coming in, Crosby was leaving Blacker on the bench for late cameos, despite some good creative work in the attacking midfield role. He seems to have issues with certain players it is hard to fathom.
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A lot of assumptions on the keeping front which I am not sure can be verified.
In my opinion Luke grew into a decent keeper and Joe has not lost enough of his superior qualities to be a problem. I have no time for any argument that one or the other is far better. The telling point is that in one offs many opposing keepers look a liability, it is clearly a strong suit for Tranmere and has been for a decade.
That said if the pool of our division is so poor how can we easily attract anyone better.
People who invent things in their mind over Joe's age imagined Barrett was the answer after no or limited viewings. They now want him binning back as he can't catch a cold. The current one who didn't compete at their best chance the last game which was about 3 meters from him on the goal line, is third best at soon to be div 2 Vale.
Then we have the recent conundrum where we made £100k on the liability that was Doohan. Reality is if Luke retires we need to find a div 1 keeper out of favour who wants to play and pay him £100k for two years at least.
I don't see that was viable or necessary at Xmas window
Some point soon I may explain why keeping Patrick shouldn't be a priority, I'll await a couple of results before offending people with that!
 
dollar'sbloke said:
Only solved by signing a full time keeper which would be a £200,000 plus project? I can't see anyone signing that off until we know Luke is finished.
Not sure some people are thinking this through
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£200,000 for a keeper on a 6 month contract or even a half decent loan keeper, no I don't think so
 
bigmart said:
£200,000 for a keeper on a 6 month contract or even a half decent loan keeper, no I don't think so
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£200,000 plus for a two and half year contract to attract someone of Luke's standard. Similar to our centre forward problem solved for a similar outlay. Who is going to relocate for six months? As opposed to the quarter decent awful standard we have attracted so far?
 
Even though we lost at Gillingham, I thought we played the best football we had for some time, then the first half against Crawley, I was looking for three points against Accrington and thought we may be able toget a draw at Notts County, with the way we played against Accrington then I can only see a comfortable 3-0 home win, even though the defence seems to be playing better as the Accrington game showed they are still liable to make mistakes and provide chances that I think Notts County will take advantage of.
 
Interesting pre match interview with Crosby.

Towards the end asked does he feel under pressure seeing other managers getting the sack at teams around us. Talks about the injuries and having a new group but also mentions (as he does at the start of the interview), about tomorrow being his 46th game in charge over two seasons so effectively one full season. Total points tally is 58 which would be lower mid table over a full season. Not sure he can use that as as good as his spell was last season, it’s in the past. This season he had his own preseason and recruitment which has been overall not good at all.

Marosi loan extended until next Wednesday but it won’t be for all season and Murphy back very soon. 11 players from the squad injured. Mentions how tired we were v Accy as the Crawley game was the most the players had ran all season in a game. Notts County are similar in that they are possession based (had 75% v Shrewsbury midweek but still lost).
 
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