• 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.

Rovers 1 Charlton 1

Boz

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A well-deserved point. Rovers got off to a bad start, in slippery conditions, with a nervy looking defence and a Gulasci gaffe putting us a goal behind. Charlton were on top for most of the first half, a cross come shot from Blanchard the closest we got. Second half Rovers were much better, finish from Enoch after a Jennings effort had been saved from a corner got us level and Rovers came closest to a winner thereafter.

Thoughts on players;

Gulasci. Only one player in the back line(Goodi) who he played with last season, was it realistic to expect him to settle in straight away? However, he gained in composure after a jittery start and had enough self-confidence not to let the mistake get to him.

Cresswell. Another who didn't start at his best. However, as the match went on became more influential, some great ball into the box.

Goodison. Not quite at his best, did think he might have conceded a free-kick or worse in his mutual shirt-pulling with the Charlton striker near the end of the first half.

Grandison. Steady.

Blanchard. He played a hell of a lot better at right-back than pre-season. My concern is that he doesn't anticipate when the ball is in the air, which can leave him at risk of being muscled out. However did little wrong today.

Mendy. Sound, if quieter than the Peterborough game.

Welsh. The responsibility of captaincy has had a positive effect on his game, this was certainly the best I've seen of him this season, arguably amongst his best showings in a Rovers shirt.

Labadie. Fairly quiet, a lot of defensive blocking, but the attacking element from last season's game was missing.

Morrow. One nice flick, some helping out with the defence, did his hamstring at the end of the first half. If my expectations were based purely on this showing, wouldn't be too hopeful, but unfair to judge on just one game.

Showumni. Bit of a mixed bag, took his goal well and some surprisingly subtle touches for a big man.

Akins. First time I'd seen him play, a bit raw but kept involved played fairly close to Enoch which seemed to work well.

Jennings. Les obviously has confidence in the lad, thought Fraughan might have come on when Morrow was injured. Involved in the goal, also had a great long distance effort which their keeper back-peddled to turn over, but did lose the ball for a dangerous Charlton break.

Les. Did ok tactically. There was a spell after around 70 minutes where we just couldn't keep hold of the ball in midfield, did wonder about bringing Fraughan on for Mendy/Labadie for a more ball-to-feet approach.

Charlton were a really dirty side, Simon Francis lucky to stay on the pitch after the challenge on Cressa, when already on a yellow. It's laughable their boss talking as though Rovers were the physical ones; the foul and card count shows that not to be the case. It wouldn't surprise me to see Mr Parkinson out of a job soon, for the money that he's spent, mid-table isn't sufficient. Bournemouth and Peterborough are both better teams imo.

A worrying note to end on. Last season we pulled in about 700 more fans to this game. Ok, it was August Bank Holiday Saturday and the Barnes-era cracks weren't fully displayed, but even so... I'd like to hope today's battling performance will keep the doubters onboard for now. With two away games next, it's likely we'll still be in the bottom four come the next home match; other results not going for us today.
 

SonkORLY?

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Akins. First time I'd seen him play, a bit raw but kept involved played fairly close to Enoch which seemed to work well.

This was weird. It was actually the other way around, with Enoch often looking to take up a position on the right flank when we regained posession. It didn't seem to have much of an effect either way and I can't think of any logical reason he'd be told to do it. One to keep an eye on. Though Jennings drifted inside from the left a few times when involved (forced a corner after a 25 yard shot from a central position, etc) he generally persisted with a very wide starting position so the front 3 was a very odd shape at times.

Thought we played pretty well. Having Grandison at the back helps a lot, and Blanchard is better than Darville IMO. Wasn't impressed by Mendy. Shame we couldn't take all 3 points, can't really argue with the 1 on the balance of play. 4 points from P'boro and Charlton combined isn't bad going.
 

DIW

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Agree with Boz' analysis, all spot on really.


We were poor in the first half, couldn't really get any possession, but they seemed far more fired up after the break and deserved the point. Best game I've seen from Welsh who seemed to be leading by example, and Showumni is looking more promising than I thought he would earlier this season. Liked the look of Jennings as well.
 
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I agree with most of Boz's comments, particularly concerning Parkinson, whose remarks were an insult after his team had spent ninety minutes trying to kick us off the park. Minus Nicky Bailey and the rest, Charlton looked a shadow of the side they were last season and won't win promotion in my view.

There were a number of positives to come from yesterday's game, notably Welsh's performance which was outstanding, and another good finish from Encoh. That is four goals in nine games now, and I can't remember the last time we had a striker with that kind of goalscoring ratio.

I thought Jennings was a revelation when he came on and his confidence and directness really changed the direction of the game. Let's hope we don't sell him for £3,000 to Macclesfield !

On the downside, I am not convinced by either Mendy or Grandison. The former does not look great in possession to me, although he contributes more off the ball than McLaren, while I think Grandison has looked pretty ropey in the last two games. There was one particular instance in the first half where he was caught on the wrong side of the striker and dragged him back, and was probably lucky to stay on the pitch.

I would like to see Darville back at right back and the excellent Blanchard alongside Goody at the back.

I have to agree that the drop in attendances is pretty alarming now. Yesterday was the second match in a row with less than 4,500 Rovers fans in attendance, though I think the pricing structure is partly responsible for this. A number of people commented to me yesterday that charging £21 for a game against a team tenth in the table was ridiculous. Wouldn't it be better to simply charge a flat £17 - £18 for all matches regardless of the opposition ?
 

DIW

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I remember the incident with Grandison you mention. I don't believe the ref even gave them a free kick which was unbelievable. Mendy was strong in the second half, but not great in possession of with the ball.

The concept of a club like Tranmere, who never ever sell out League games having a category A, B, C game system is one of the most ludicrous I have come across. A flat rate for games would be far more sensible.
 

SonkORLY?

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The catagorisation allows us to command a larger fee from fans of teams who are likely to bring a large following.

Grandison was better than Goodison on Saturday. Blanchard isn't built like a center half and looked very poor there versus Accy. Perhaps it's a disservice to the bloke to say that he's "less of a liability" at right-back but his weaknesses are less likely to be exposed.
 

Boz

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A few thoughts on what's been posted since my opener.

I did wonder if Showumni was occupying the wide right position because he was better at keeping the goal-kicks in play! He was certainly less isolated playing alongside Akins than some of the previous strike pairings. Agree with Rockford's Love Child that he's looking a decent addition on current strike rate.

Mendy looked good v Peterborough, when we had 3 distinct types of player Blanchard and Vaughan being the others in midfield. Yesterday's midfield trio were fairly similar style of player, so he didn't stand out, but didn't do much wrong either. Particularly for the home games, Les needs to look at injecting more variety in this area.

Do recall the Grandison incident now you mention it, but didn't see how it developed. In the second half, when I was closest to the half we were defending, he didn't do anything wrong. The lad has little more experience than Nick Wood, yet the gulf between them is vast.

Blanchard is an enigma. He seems to do a lot of thinking about what he'll do next, which didn't tell against him yesterday, but there are times when a defender needs to be more instinctive. Agree that his height's against him as a central defender, the jury's still out on whether he or Darville does a better job at right-back. I think he's probably best in midfield, but the fact he was hauled off after 30 minutes in that role at Yeovil might suggest otherwise.

If we have to persist with the ABC system of ticket pricing, can't understand why Oldham, who always bring a good following was a B yet Charlton was top price.
 

muhalo

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Living in Kent, I normally only get to a couple of home games each year when visiting family on the Wirral. The Charlton game happened to coincide with a trip north, hence this post. Also, bear in mind that I tend only to comment on this forum when under the influence of a couple of drinks. So let's begin.

I was moderately impressed with the display last Saturday. I'm a level headed chap, not prone to indulging in all that anti-referee rubbish, and am more likely to yell when one of our own players has gone down a little too easy, than when an opposition full back has made five back tackles.

But I was greatly impressed by the likes of Blanchard, and captain Welch impressed greatly.

More significantly though was young Jennings, who was brilliant. And I mean brilliant in terms of a 17-year-old making his first appearance. What more could we ask for than a young kid ready to run at the full backs and send crosses into the middle? Every time he got the ball I found myself turning to the other half saying "here he goes again!" lifting out of my seat with a grin and experiencing that curious sensation of Rovers joy.

Also, and I don't know if anyone else noticed, but the rest of the team seemed to point to him whenever we got the ball. It may have been because he was a winger in space, but, my anonymous friends, I suspect this young chap may bode well for the future.

Like I said, I only get to a couple of home games each season, and my sense of romance gets hold of me in ways that later on cause me great discomfort, but i left Prenton Park, with the missus - West Ham fan - feeling chipper, as opposed to club issue glum.

My only other observation would be that Les Parry has to smarten up and look like a manager on the touch line, rather than the lonely chap you see waiting endlessly at a bus stop. A jacket and club tie would do the trick. Maybe even an umbrella to wave around co-ordinating the defence?

Other than that I'd only suggest to fans in the Kop that we can do better than calling the referee a w***** in front of women and children. Can'y we do better than that? How about a campaign of irony? A conscious effort to point out only positive things about the team?

"It's okay, you can win the ball back!" for example,

or

"We can learn from our mistakes!"

No?

It must be worth a try...
 
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Keep up the detailed reports guys - I wont be going to many games for a while!
 

SonkORLY?

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Back to uni mate?
 
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The catagorisation allows us to command a larger fee from fans of teams who are likely to bring a large following.

But Charlton have only brought 300-400 fans in the last two seasons, so there does not seem much consistency in the choice of category A games.

I still think as soon as you start charging more than £20 for third division football you are putting many of the uncommitted off, unless the opposition is a Leeds or Sheffield Wednesday.
 

Ian

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Ludicrous pricing structure. We need supporters in the ground, we don't want to be turning them away. £21, come on..

Anyway, I was worried, very worried when the game kicked off. The team were still in the dressing room for the first 15 mins. I kept thinking back to the 4-0 defeat last season and hoping we could keep it down to maybe three.

But to be fair, Rovers woke up and made a game of it. Not sure who should be more embarrassed. Me or Sam Morrow but I didn't even know he was playing until he went off injured :oops:

Jennings was a breath of fresh air when he came on and good to see the young lad really making a go of it. He seemed confident and not afraid to take on players. Had a hand in the first goal and was unlucky not to score with an excellent long range shot. Hope we get to see more of him.

The way the game turned out, I thought we should have pushed on a bit more in the second half to look for the winner. Not a bad point though.
 
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OneNightInGayParis

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I thought it was an excellent performance on Saturday and really enjoyed the match. It was a shame that Gulacsi made his blunder, because I thought we were well worth all 3 points.

Apart from the error Gulacsi had a very good game; he dominated his area in a way that Joe is currently unable to do, and more so than Luke Daniels last season. His collection of high balls into the box was imperious.

I was really nervous whwn I saw Blanchard playing at right back but, for my money, he was the pick of the back four. His lack of height actually proved less of a concern than when he plays at centre back since he seems to have more time to position himself for the aerial balls. Speaking of height, this was the biggest Rovers team I have seen for ages - a stark contrast to the midgets who were playing last season - and it really helped playing against a physical Charlton team.

The midfield put in an excellent shift and Welsh seems to be responding well to having the armband; there was no such think as a lost cause on Saturday. While Boz is right in mentioning that Labadie didn't get forward much, it is worth pointing out that he had his hands full in the middle of the park. Bearing in mind that he was on the receiving end of the majority of the many Charlton fouls he did well to stick to the task and keep his cool.

Morrow looked like our weakest player so it worked to our advantage when he was replaced. He didn't do much wrong, but didn't add anything positive either; Akins was much more effective as an "out" ball. Jennings was a breath of fresh air and was unlucky not to score from the move that Showumni finished, and the wicked 30 yarder that the keeper saved.

I would be happy to watch this kind of performance every week - it would ultimately keep us well away from the drop zone. Can we really expect any more than this with the current squad - 100% effort and nobody having a bad game?
 
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OneNightInGayParis

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My only other observation would be that Les Parry has to smarten up and look like a manager on the touch line, rather than the lonely chap you see waiting endlessly at a bus stop. A jacket and club tie would do the trick. Maybe even an umbrella to wave around co-ordinating the defence?

I actually thought Les looked quite smart, the trousers definitely being an improvement on the shorts. It might take a couple of seasons (God willing) to get him in a shirt and tie, but let's not push the guy too fast. As long as he avoids anything in sheepskin ...
 

muhalo

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I actually thought Les looked quite smart, the trousers definitely being an improvement on the shorts. It might take a couple of seasons (God willing) to get him in a shirt and tie, but let's not push the guy too fast. As long as he avoids anything in sheepskin ...

Well that's true, and I'll fight to the death to keep the sheepskin out of Prenton Park. It's just that the smart trousers/training jacket combo made him look like he'd been forced to clean up, like a shelf stacker at Tesco.

Then again my eyesight is poor and I was in the Kop. He may have looked terrific.
 

Boz

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I think Les should bring back the shorts:p. He's not said anything about why they've been jettisoned.

While Jennings had a good game, my view is that we should be cautious about expecting too much too soon. Remember Curran bursting into the team? If all our forwards are fit, my starting trio would be ITM-Enoch-McGurk. Dale would be a great option to come on from the bench.
 
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OneNightInGayParis

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Well that's true, and I'll fight to the death to keep the sheepskin out of Prenton Park. It's just that the smart trousers/training jacket combo made him look like he'd been forced to clean up, like a shelf stacker at Tesco.

Then again my eyesight is poor and I was in the Kop. He may have looked terrific.

Aha! That's where my hefty £23 vantage point paid off - his arse end looked dead smart! You probably had a better view of the front end than me, though; despite your ailing mince pies.
 
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OneNightInGayParis

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Yeah just started, going to try and still get to the odd game when possible.

Not studying physiotherapy with the aim of a job in football management, by any chance? I've heard it's quite a popular career path these days ...
 
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