• 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.

Rochdale v Rovers

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Let's be honest we deserve to go down we have simply not been good enough
This is why I said the postponement was bad news. If they open up a nine / ten point gap in the next week, it is all over for us.
 

Boz

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If Rovers win all our remaining games, we will stay up. Not expecting us to manage that and I’d prefer Wimbledon to lose today, but it is still in our own hands.
 
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If Rovers win all our remaining games, we will stay up. Not expecting us to manage that and I’d prefer Wimbledon to lose today, but it is still in our own hands.
I am an eternal optimist, but I just can't see it.

It looks like we will need 45/46 points to stay up, which would mean doubling our current points tally with less than one third of the season remaining. While I accept that our form can improve to an extent, I just don't think that kind of turnaround is possible with this group of players.
 
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As I said earlier, I haven’t given up yet. Traditionally, teams getting about 46 points have a good chance of staying up. With one fewer teams, 44 might be enough this time. But that would mean almost doubling our current points total in just 14 games. It’s not impossible and only seems difficult because of our woeful league form this year. We CAN play better, as the cup run showed, so if we can just start to win the odd game soon, fortunes and confidence should improve. The squad is now much better on paper but needs to start repaying the owners their investment in them.
 
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Wimbledon scored with their only shot on goal. Rotherham have had fourteen attempts........
 
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Ladapo comes off the bench to score for Rotherham. :) 2-1 with five minutes left.
 

drwhoman

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I agree RLC but have we had the same back four for more than two consecutive games this season? Injuries and people not being good enough I suppose. Confidence is a huge issue and hopefully Clarke can improve that by example.
 

Sparky

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Wimbledon salvage a point with a late penalty. With our poor goal difference we’re effectively 8 points from safety.
 
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The other results were not too bad, with Bolton and Southend losing. Shrewsbury also lost and seem to be in freefall.

The gap is seven points, but we have a game in hand and Wimbledon still to play. We live to fight another day (just).
 

Boz

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Would have preferred Accrington and Lincoln to share the spoils as Accy win takes them out of reach. Rovers will need to up our game significantly to have any chance of getting out of trouble.
 
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I think we need to be within five or six points of Wimbledon when we play them at the end of next month. If we can beat them, there will be everything to play for in the last four or five matches (which are very tough for us on paper).
 

Ian

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So it’s pretty much between us and Wimbledon to fight it out.
 

ADD

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Perhaps Jackson needs our best defender (Clarke) on the pitch to 'sort the defence out'.......

Our defending will ultimately only be as good as the players that are available.
Well that would surely help yes I agree :) but think through the first goal against Portsmouth. That was nothing to do with our players not being up to L1 standard but basic schoolboy errors. Manny was standing in front of 2 players so he had no idea where they were going or when. The ball looped across and all their 3 attackers did was run toward the goal - nothing more than that! They had 3 players nearer our line than any one defender when it was headed in. To my mind that is poor organisation pure and simple. If we get roasted in midfield or down the channels with sublime passes and get outplayed fair enough that is likely down to player quality but that is not an isolated incident and sadly so many other set pieces this season have just been down to such slack defending.
 

ADD

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I think we need to be within five or six points of Wimbledon when we play them at the end of next month. If we can beat them, there will be everything to play for in the last four or five matches (which are very tough for us on paper).
I think that's about right RLC - a defeat for them at Oxford is pretty essential for us. Realistically if we are to have any chance I would say that when Clarke comes back next Saturday he has to stay fit for the rest of the games and Woods and Wilson have to be fit soon and also stay fit for the rest of the season. That gives Micky a chance then to play a settled side at the back finally. Knowing our injury fortunes however I won't hold my breath...
 
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Well that would surely help yes I agree :) but think through the first goal against Portsmouth. That was nothing to do with our players not being up to L1 standard but basic schoolboy errors. Manny was standing in front of 2 players so he had no idea where they were going or when. The ball looped across and all their 3 attackers did was run toward the goal - nothing more than that! They had 3 players nearer our line than any one defender when it was headed in. To my mind that is poor organisation pure and simple. If we get roasted in midfield or down the channels with sublime passes and get outplayed fair enough that is likely down to player quality but that is not an isolated incident and sadly so many other set pieces this season have just been down to such slack defending.
I would say the need for concentration and awareness of the movement of attacking players increases as you go up the leagues. So, yes, I would say that individual errors of that nature by Ray and Caprice (or Monthe to an extent) reflect the fact that they are not really good enough to play at this level.

Let us try and be logical and flip this around. Our defensive record was excellent last season and in the National League, with largely the same players. So have Mellon and Jackson suddenly become inadequate defensive coaches in the last six months, having been fine for the previous three years, or are several players struggling with the step up to League One ?
 
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