• 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.

Plymouth v Rovers

bigmart

bigmart
Member
Joined
29 Jul 2009
Messages
7,113
Player
Ian Muir
I notice on the OS that Argyle are odds-on to win, but odds of 10-1 are offered against a 1-0 win for us. I'm not a betting man, but if I were, I'd be tempted. While MA was at the helm, a defeat was always the most likely result (at least since January), but I'm very interested to see tomorrow's team and how they perform. I'm not expecting or requesting miracles, but if "the whole is the sum of the parts", then two wins are not impossible.

we haven't kept a clean sheet for over 3 months so you could say we are due one but I cant see it happening
 

frenchrover

Member
Joined
4 Feb 2012
Messages
688
Player
aldo
Just seen the team for today.......well I guess that's it. Hello Conference/National League!
 

frenchrover

Member
Joined
4 Feb 2012
Messages
688
Player
aldo
6 minutes gone and a goal down already thanks to Power giving away a penalty. Fantastic!
 
Joined
11 Aug 2009
Messages
225
Player
Jonny Morrisey
I'm sat here racking my brain as to what has gone so wrong with our club over the past couple of seasons. I'd like to know what you guys think.

I know we've made a few managerial appointments that have been really poor but it's got to run deeper than that! A lack of investment, the loan system that we seem to have pretty reliant on have all added to our terrible run but is there a major point that I'm missing here?
 

Ian

Super White!
Admin
Joined
21 Sep 2005
Messages
12,020
Player
Aldo
Manager
Kingy
Deserved to go down, we've been terrible. Sad day..
 

Sparky

Member
Joined
8 Sep 2009
Messages
7,536
Player
Chris Greenacre
Well that's it. I'm gutted and altho I knew it was coming, it's very hard to accept.

Palios was just on radio merseyside. He was Humbled by the reaction the fans gave him when he went in the away end before kick off. All positive saying we're healthy off the pitch and the work starts now.

He didnt say this but i understand Gary Mills has been approached as new manager. Good pedigree at this level.
 
Joined
1 Oct 2005
Messages
5,693
Player
Alan King, Barry Dyson
Can't complain. This has been coming for most of the season. It's been like waiting for a train to hit the buffers without any means to stop it.

But Sparky's post makes me positive for next season.
 
Joined
3 Apr 2007
Messages
1,345
Player
Goodison
We've been treading water ever since we sacked Moore after Scunthorpe in 2009, it's been coming.

Hopefully we wont see any of these players playing for Tranmere again, officially the worst team in our history.
 

Boz

Member
Joined
30 Sep 2005
Messages
8,854
Player
Iain Hume
Very little to add. I was resigned to relegation after the Luton game, although thought we'd make more of a fist of it, than the tame surrender of the last few weeks.
 

Ian

Super White!
Admin
Joined
21 Sep 2005
Messages
12,020
Player
Aldo
Manager
Kingy
Very hard to take but I hope there are better times around the corner. I really hope this is a new start for Rovers and now we must concentrate on rebuilding and getting back into the league.
 
Joined
1 Oct 2005
Messages
5,693
Player
Alan King, Barry Dyson
I'm sat here racking my brain as to what has gone so wrong with our club over the past couple of seasons. I'd like to know what you guys think.

I know we've made a few managerial appointments that have been really poor but it's got to run deeper than that! A lack of investment, the loan system that we seem to have pretty reliant on have all added to our terrible run but is there a major point that I'm missing here?
Where do I start? We have never really recovered from our relegation from tier two in 2001. By then, Peter Johnson had lost interest and handed over the chair to his then partner Lorraine Rogers with the aim of selling the club. As we know, that process took over ten years during which the club was starved of investment and had no clear strategy. Managerial appointments proved problematic. Dave Watson was disastrous, Ray Mathias was never really given a chance, Brian Little had some success before falling out with LR and then Ronnie Moore returned. Ronnie slowly built the team up before being inexplicably sacked shortly after coming within minutes of getting us into the play-offs. Then the John Barnes fiasco (need I say more?). Les Parry did a great job for a physio, but his appointment illustrated the lack of ambition in the club. Ronnie's return brought a false dawn when we looked like returning to the Championship, but last season is where it went seriously wrong. We had incredibly bad luck with injuries to key players as well as serious illness (Joe Thompson). Then two players, including our talisman Ian Goodison, were charged with illegal betting. Although later cleared, this must have affected morale. The final straw was Ronnie's suspension for illegal betting and his ultimate sacking, leaving John McMahon in charge. The club's treatment of Ronnie precipitated the club's downfall. This season we can't bemoan our luck as there have been two disastrous managerial appointments. Rob Edwards was always going to be a risky choice, but when Micky Adams became the boss most of us thought we would soon be safe. However, despite significant investment from the new owners, he never achieved any consistency. He got rid of too many players and brought in too many, changing teams and formations almost every game. Looking back, it was a mistake appointing a manager who had walked out from Port Vale after a bad run of results only a few weeks earlier. Micky was a good manager when things were going well but had never managed a side who were struggling against relegation. His body language after the first few weeks was never convincing.

We can only wonder where the club would be now if Ronnie had not been sacked - certainly still in the league, if not the division above. Hartlepool were dead and buried when he took over. Look at them now. The irony of this will not be lost on anyone associated with our club.
 
Joined
1 Oct 2005
Messages
5,693
Player
Alan King, Barry Dyson
Joined
15 Mar 2010
Messages
13,873
Player
Jason Koumas / John Morrissey
Manager
John King
I think we can focus too much on the decision to sack Ronnie and his role in Hartlepool's survival; after all, our record under Moore was appalling in the twelve months leading up to his dismissal and had he stayed, we would probably have struggled seriously this season anyway due to the uncertainty over the ownership of the club prior to Palios's arrival.

I also would not agree that our decline began in 2001. It really started in 20o9 with the return of Johnson as Chairman, the severe budget cuts and the ludicrous decision to appoint Barnes as manager. The managers that succeeded him never really had a chance given the constraints that were imposed on them. As Nigel Adderley has tweeted, five years of managed decline resulting in the end of a 94-year stay in the Football League.

To focus on today's game, I was pleased with how we played and we deserved a result. We deserve to be relegated, but we certainly did not get much luck today, particularly in terms of refereeing decisions: their forward dived in the penalty incident, their third goal was offside, and we were denied a blatant penalty of our own for a foul on Green. At 2-1 down we also had an effort from Koumas somehow cleared off the line. All academic now I know, but we were bold in the final third today, creating chances and scoring goals and it makes you wonder if we could still have scraped survival had Adams gone a couple of weeks earlier.

The reception given to Palios prior to the game and the sheer numbers that travelled today do give me hope that we have finally 'bottomed out' now and next season will be better. On the way home I listened to Bristol Rovers thrash Alfreton 7-0, with two play-off games to come for them. They have made a decent fist of life in the Conference and we need to follow their example; just another episode in the club's rich history. Relegation from League Two need not be the death knell of the club, certainly not with Palios in charge.

Having said all that, losing our league status still has not really sunk in. Difficult to take.
 
Last edited:
Joined
1 Oct 2005
Messages
5,693
Player
Alan King, Barry Dyson
I've just caught up with last night's Football League Show. The team showed more fight in the brief clip than I've seen in recent matches. You then see Ronnie being interviewed and his phone rings. I expect it's congratulations, says the interviewer. It'll be Peter Johnson from Tranmere, quips Ronnie. I winced, then smiled for Ronnie.
 

bigmart

bigmart
Member
Joined
29 Jul 2009
Messages
7,113
Player
Ian Muir
We've been treading water ever since we sacked Moore after Scunthorpe in 2009, it's been coming.

Hopefully we wont see any of these players playing for Tranmere again, officially the worst team in our history.

totally agree with this we need a fresh start and get rid of them all
 
Joined
5 Oct 2006
Messages
776
Player
Liam Palmer
A sad and depressing day indeed. But when it comes to apportioning blame for relegation out of the Football league, the current players and our recently-sacked manager must take the lion's share. The fact is that we were heading to safety in February. Money spent, points gained, everything looked positive. Then something happened. We'll probably never know why the players simply stopped performing. There were rumours of disquiet in the dressing room. Who knows and who cares now?

I do agree that the club had been drifting for years. Underinvestment on and off the pitch certainly contributed to a feeling of downward drift. But the Palioses came in, changed the manager, put the money up - and appointed their own manager. I'm not going to blame the Palioses (although Adams should have been sacked a month earlier), I just think we shouldn't let this current useless crop of players and a manager with no mojo off the hook....

Anyway, League 2 is rubbish. Once the reality of not being one of the '92' has sunk in, it's down to business. I'd like to see a new manager in place pronto. The fans have been amazing all season and I am sure they'll keep supporting a winning team. It's a strange division the Conference - lots of local derbies and long trips - not much in between. Who'd ever have thought we'd be playing Southport and Barrow again in a league fixture?

And on the bright side - don't have to stay up until 1am to watch the Football League Show AND no Johnstone's Paint Trophy woo hoo!

Well done to Ronnie. Can't feel anything but sympathy for the man. His quip on the FL show last night was funny.

Chins up, sleeves up - the hard work starts now. We'll be back and the momentum will take us up and up. SWA!

(PS My Scottish team are still in with a shout of promotion to the League after 1-1 draw with Brora in Edinburgh yesterday - they were superb!)
 
Joined
7 Mar 2012
Messages
100
Player
Backayogo
From months of negativity lets build up some positivity. from a personal point of view, worse things happen at sea. Let's re-build, re-group and get stuck in to this League. Very pleased with Palio's thoughts and intentions for the coming season(s) and again on a personal point looking forward to different teams and the 'derbies' that are to come. The phoenix shall rise from the ashes (eventually). Looking forward to the challenge.
 

TranmereWire

Member
Joined
2 Jul 2013
Messages
5
Player
Ian Goodison
A sad and depressing day indeed. But when it comes to apportioning blame for relegation out of the Football league, the current players and our recently-sacked manager must take the lion's share. The fact is that we were heading to safety in February. Money spent, points gained, everything looked positive. Then something happened. We'll probably never know why the players simply stopped performing. There were rumours of disquiet in the dressing room. Who knows and who cares now?

I do agree that the club had been drifting for years. Underinvestment on and off the pitch certainly contributed to a feeling of downward drift. But the Palioses came in, changed the manager, put the money up - and appointed their own manager. I'm not going to blame the Palioses (although Adams should have been sacked a month earlier), I just think we shouldn't let this current useless crop of players and a manager with no mojo off the hook....

Anyway, League 2 is rubbish. Once the reality of not being one of the '92' has sunk in, it's down to business. I'd like to see a new manager in place pronto. The fans have been amazing all season and I am sure they'll keep supporting a winning team. It's a strange division the Conference - lots of local derbies and long trips - not much in between. Who'd ever have thought we'd be playing Southport and Barrow again in a league fixture?

And on the bright side - don't have to stay up until 1am to watch the Football League Show AND no Johnstone's Paint Trophy woo hoo!

Well done to Ronnie. Can't feel anything but sympathy for the man. His quip on the FL show last night was funny.

Chins up, sleeves up - the hard work starts now. We'll be back and the momentum will take us up and up. SWA!

(PS My Scottish team are still in with a shout of promotion to the League after 1-1 draw with Brora in Edinburgh yesterday - they were superb!)
The JPT going is a plus but in essence we will still have a cup to play for in the FA Trophy and also we will have to play FA Cup qualifying rounds before even making the first round proper
 

Boz

Member
Joined
30 Sep 2005
Messages
8,854
Player
Iain Hume
Briefly re Ronnie, I think he's accepted that he became detached towards the end of his time at Rovers, didn't get much involved with training for example. He has become re-invigorated since moving to Hartlepool. However, I still think he would have kept us up last season, which would have meant the current mess would never have happened.
 
Joined
15 Mar 2010
Messages
13,873
Player
Jason Koumas / John Morrissey
Manager
John King
I agree Ronnie would have kept us up, but if we had not gone down Palios may never have arrived. He has stated publicly that he had no intention of taking over prior to our relegation. So a short term gain may have had starker long term consequences for the club.

I would add that Ronnie fully deserves to be named League Two manager of the year.
 
Last edited:
Top