Rotherham 2-1 Tranmere

[Joe_TRFC]

Hoskins and Williamson for them... Ellison with our goal in between. Sounded disappointing tonight. Would be interesting to hear from those who went.

 

[Ian]

Sounded like creativity was a problem tonight. Sounds like we were simply beaten by a better side on the night.

 

[Super_white_army]

At least we were having an opff day and we aren't crap like we were last year. I can see Ronnie rallying the troops and getting into Northampton on Saturday and getting a win. We retained 2nd spot and can still see 1st place. With a game against Forrest coming up we need to win in saturday so that we can go top the following week. Still optimistic as we are averageing about 90 points come the end of the season if we keep this up. As long as the players keep their heads up we will be fine because there is alot of Championship quality in there.

 

[The Rovers!]

Just walked in the door now. Firstly before i talk about the game may i bring to the attention of people the calibre of certain members of our away support. On the way home me and 3 guys stopped off at McDonalds to find a group of 5 Tranmere lads who where taking the mick out of Sheff Wed fans and several Stoke Fans. They proceeded to throw food on the floor and smashed the fire alarm and set it off. Whilst i know this is a minority it still makes me feel sick when there was young children there etc....


Now back to Football..... A rather dispointing game, the wingers were not used properly and the balls did not reach the right people (Mainly root 1 stuff to be honest) When we did play football we looking unconfortable and a laclustre game by McLaren was noticed by many. Chrisy G went off ater half time injured, i hope its nothing to serious (He took a knock on a dirty challenge)

There goals came from 1, Defensive mistake 2, not closeing down followed by a good finish.

My overall view is that this game is a lesson learned. Now lets get back on track becasue im sure we will =D>

 

[SCooperSomersaults]

Disappointing as if we won we would be sitting on top today. A great opportunity missed. But hey, early days and we're doing better than I expected first day of pre-season.

Notice we have played 3 times on Tuesdays nights and lost all 3, hope we can rearrange any other Tuesday games! Or is it the black kit in the black skies??? Or were we just crap last night? Hmmmm... interesting...:lol:

 

[Ally]

Didn't want to post anything last night, as was pretty annoyed with the result. To be fair to Rotherham, they looked dangerous on several occasions and could have scored again. Will Hoskins in particular looks like he's got a good career ahead of him, he's got a nice touch and scored a good goal, which admittedly, left a couple of our players wanting.

From the off it was a busy game, pretty end to end but they deserved the first goal. Ward flapped a bit at a clearance and the ball fell to Williamson, who smashed it home. We then rallied, and Ellison took his goal well, after Mullin had played some nice football to get us into a decent position. Then, just 10 minutes later Hoskins scored a very nice goal, cutting inside from the left, beating a man (or two) and firing low into the corner.

Then we had a few chances, with Goodison nearly swivelling to shoot (a striker in this position probably would have found the net instinctively - Goodi just took too much time). There was also a point blank header which was saved, as was a Greenacre shot after excellent work on the left from Ellison. Taylor won a fair few headers but his knock-downs were often cleared before we could pose a threat.

In the second half Rotherham came out stronger, had a few chances and could have wrapped up the win. We were second to every ball and looked nervous in defence, with Goodison saving our bacon a couple of times with timely interventions. We pressed late on, but it was too little too late and when Greenacre came off on the hour (a minor injury I think) Zola came on and looked far from dangerous.

All in all, we didn't play that well and were beaten by the side who wanted it more on the day. I was impressed with Mullin, Shuker made some good runs but often failed to deliver a telling cross, and was marked heavily all game. Ellison worked hard, scored, and a couple of his left-footed right-side corners caused Rotherham trouble as they swung in under the bar. Up front we were pretty toothless, no real pace to trouble Rotherham. Now, at the back - Goodsion was alright, McCready a bit no-nonsense and the full backs did ok but didn't get forward enough. McLaren was the real disappointment, he provided no support to the back four and we lost the game in midfield by being second to every ball and lacking a bit of shape and discipline.

So, some work to do - at least Forest and Vale lost.

 

[Super_white_army]

I am however pleased with Ronnie's post match comments and think that they hit the nail on the head. I am sure that when he told the players that it wasn't quite so pleasant. At least he is upset by the defeat and isn't making excuses.

 

[nomur]

On reflection Rotherham were obviously gagging to get out of the minus points situation and definitely wanted it more last night than we did. Yes, we could easily have capitalised on the fact Forest & Vale got stuffed, but we can also be grateful for this.

I too read the comments post match from Ronnie and am happy it wasn't a defence of their tactics. We didn't play to the strengths we've accumulated over the first six games, there was little or no wing play by the sounds of it.

Were we relying too much on Taylor lay offs that just seemed to be not working??

Let's put it behind us and move on! We're not going to win every game and maybe we underestimated this game as a foregone conclusion.

Onward and Upward!

 

[SCooperSomersaults]

What a refreshing change it is to hear Ronnie not accpeting a performance like that and asking more of the players for Saturdays game. "If they're not up to the fight they shouldn't be here", can't picture BL saying anything like that - "we were so unlucky - i can't fault the players for commitment - Rotherham are a very good side at home" would be more his taste.

Well said Ronnie, hope the injuries arent too bad cos if they are we're seriously under-strength. Like Nomur said, onward and upward, bring on Northampton (minus Aiston - just had an op for an injury i hear).

 

[Super_white_army]

So far his season our midfield has been immense and I thought that with them only playing 3 in midfield we could have capitalised on that and out numbered them. The fact that they had 3 up front shouldn't have been a problem for our rock of a defence and if McClaren had protected them then I think that it would have been a different story. O how I love hind-sight, it means I am usually right.

 

[Joe_TRFC]

Obviously we have only worn the black kit once but I hope its not going to be cursed for months... if I remember rightly the last away kit was jinxed for a while and we couldn't win with it. Pleased with Ronnies comments apart from him saying we were better second half... well we didn't create anything and didn't sound great... although defensively we probably were. Also him saying about how he thought the players should have sorted the tactics if things weren't going well themselves. As a manager that should really be his job shouldn't it? Good to hear him talking about needing to bounce back.

 

[Super_white_army]

He will have thought that the team he had would have had the ability to adapt to Rotherham's tactics. He would not have wanted the players to have changed to some radical formation but he would have wanted the players to change their game to accomodate Rotherham's play. Some one like McClaren should be the one to get the game by the scruff of the neck and dictate the tempo, slow it down if Rotherham are really pressing us and pick it up a bit if there is a counter on or if the are looking a bit lethargic. I am still confident and if thing keep going as they are then we will be in the Champi
onship next season.

 

[nomur]

Also him saying about how he thought the players should have sorted the tactics if things weren't going well themselves. As a manager that should really be his job shouldn't it? Good to hear him talking about needing to bounce back.

This is something the players are quite capable of doing, especially if they are to contend for any reward this season. I'd imagine it's something covered during training and with so many experienced heads on the pitch maybe he's right. I don't imagine for one second he sat in the dugout for the whole game and didn't instruct this to the players when necessary. But I could be wrong!

 

[nomur]

Just watched the 3 goals on World and all credit to Rotherham, especially the first goal. Williamson fought hard to get it into the net. You could have the best defence in the world and they won't keep an attack like that out. Their second looked a little easier but still well finished.

Ellison took his shot excellently. I have a feeling a lot of our goals will come this way from either him or John Mullin. Taylor & Greenacre seem to be laying off more balls then taking the goals themselves.