League Two Rovers v Bluebirds

[MancunianWhite]

What was the attendance?

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

What was the attendance?

7,431

 

[Boz]

Sounds like a decent result. It’s a shame if Maynard follows Glatzel and Jolley out of contention having registered a FL goal for Rovers. Going back to 1 up front is something I’d rather avoid.

 

[Sparky]

It was similar to a few games of late. The opposition Had plenty of the ball and passed it well but couldn’t really get in behind us. We aren’t particular entertaining to watch but once again we got the job done.
I thought the subs did well today. Merrie put in a great tackle and Feeney worked hard plus spearing had to be subbed as one more foul and he was off.

 

[Sparky]

Maynard has an ankle injury but too soon to say how serious it is. His goal really was well taken under pressure.

 

[Keith Hill (Bolton)]

A win is a win, and so on.
A clean sheet and two well taken goals.
And despite the swa coming outin force.
It was not a very entertaining game but that is how it is.
Those around me were questioning the reason why we didnt take the game to them.
As they clearly targeted mcdonald in the first half and on a better day and better finishing, the scoreline would have been much tighter.
We again have not learned about the slow movement of the ball from the keeper and without a true target man up front, we still gave up the ball by going long too much. And no attempt to challenge. We certainly put pressure on ourselves by a lot of poor possession and giving them the impetus.
And we still won.
I gave much thought as the game preceded, better than falling asleep, cos of the christmas spirit. That looking at our spine of the team has so many negatives going against the build of a successful team
A young keeper on loan, a bit of experience and no doubt a decent youngster, however, his long ballout of the area was poor today.
Two centre backs with experience but age against one of them and a lack of awareness the other, midfield too old and a lack of pace, hence the foul count, struggled against the extra oppositon midfielder. And only glimpses of any skill and technique.
No target man, and only forwards who will struggle against good defenders. It needed something that was lacking most of the game, a touch of skill for the goals.
Other than another couple of chances, we never created much and the lack of good delivery, is not helping the forwards. The manager changed shape after half time because of this. Putting the emphasis on denying the opposition the opportunityto get behind us and stop the easy ball into the box. And try and counterattack, to take the result away from them. And it worked.
We are still not good enough in certain positions and our spine looks fragile but we still won. That says a lot about them and the early goal and the second to take away the last few minutes of a one goal lead. We were resiliant and we won, the need for good recruitment in january (again) is so important if the club wants the prospect of promotion.
As for man of the match, between Clarke and Morris, surprisingly two of our longer contracted players. And i dont see the reason except for one pass why Spearing got the nod.
The result great, the finishing was great for the goals, the swa was as usual vocal, the performance lacking in quality and we definitely need strengthening.
And we won and third.

Putting on my helmet now!

Boss Boxing Booze up Day!

 

[Sparky]

A win is a win, and so on.
A clean sheet and two well taken goals.
And despite the swa coming outin force.
It was not a very entertaining game but that is how it is.
Those around me were questioning the reason why we didnt take the game to them.
As they clearly targeted mcdonald in the first half and on a better day and better finishing, the scoreline would have been much tighter.
We again have not learned about the slow movement of the ball from the keeper and without a true target man up front, we still gave up the ball by going long too much. And no attempt to challenge. We certainly put pressure on ourselves by a lot of poor possession and giving them the impetus.
And we still won.
I gave much thought as the game preceded, better than falling asleep, cos of the christmas spirit. That looking at our spine of the team has so many negatives going against the build of a successful team
A young keeper on loan, a bit of experience and no doubt a decent youngster, however, his long ballout of the area was poor today.
Two centre backs with experience but age against one of them and a lack of awareness the other, midfield too old and a lack of pace, hence the foul count, struggled against the extra oppositon midfielder. And only glimpses of any skill and technique.
No target man, and only forwards who will struggle against good defenders. It needed something that was lacking most of the game, a touch of skill for the goals.
Other than another couple of chances, we never created much and the lack of good delivery, is not helping the forwards. The manager changed shape after half time because of this. Putting the emphasis on denying the opposition the opportunityto get behind us and stop the easy ball into the box. And try and counterattack, to take the result away from them. And it worked.
We are still not good enough in certain positions and our spine looks fragile but we still won. That says a lot about them and the early goal and the second to take away the last few minutes of a one goal lead. We were resiliant and we won, the need for good recruitment in january (again) is so important if the club wants the prospect of promotion.
As for man of the match, between Clarke and Morris, surprisingly two of our longer contracted players. And i dont see the reason except for one pass why Spearing got the nod.
The result great, the finishing was great for the goals, the swa was as usual vocal, the performance lacking in quality and we definitely need strengthening.
And we won and third.

Putting on my helmet now!

Boss Boxing Booze up Day!

Some valid points…….but we have won 5 in a row, conceding one goal in the process. An awful lot of teams would like to be in our position right now

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Some valid points…….but we have won 5 in a row, conceding one goal in the process. An awful lot of teams would like to be in our position right now

And also the best home record in the division. So if winning football is what you want to watch, Prenton Park is the place to be.

 

[Goody Two Shoes]

……..and the foul count was skewed by some dodgy refereeing decisions
………and Spearing was also tigerish in midfield, putting in tackles that others would have shirked, so up their for MOTM
………and another clean sheet for Doohan, yes two kicks went into touch (regular occurrence with Davies), but he looked assured on everything else he had to do
…….and they may have had 60% of the possession but created very little with it; completely down to lots of closing down, hard work, harrying and solid defining for the majority of the game
…….and we had more shots and more of those on target than Barrow despite the fact that “we never created much”
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, no game is going to be easy where we dominate the game and look like world-beaters; any Mark Cooper side is going to be a difficult proposition. So yes, it wasn’t a classic, but we’ll play “better” and lose so I’m completely content with yesterday’s outcome. Fact is, I can’t remember a Boxing Day classic, although some on here might have better memories than me (wouldn’t take much ).
Regardless, we should always be looking to strengthen when we can as that’s the real world.
Keep double-taking at that league table and live in the moment; it’s the truth right now and I’m soaking it up just like the Christmas booze!

 

[Charlton1975]

The possession stats dont worry me at all. In some games under Hill we had 65% plus possession, but all we were doing was knocking it around in our own half and creating absolutely nothing.

The football isnt great to watch at the moment, but winning games with this squad isnt going to be conducive to free flowing fast paced football sadly, its pragmatic and based upon stopping the opposition first and foremost.

Optimistic hat on says that if Micky has managed to get us to 3rd in the league playing turgid football with a poor squad, when (not IF), better players arrive in January then we are in a great position to push on.

I would have bitten someone's arm off a couple of months ago if they said we would be sitting 3rd in the league at the turn of the year with this squad!

 

[Ian]

Yeah, it certainly wasn’t pretty yesterday but the results are coming. With the defence we have, we’ve always got a chance of grinding out results. That being said, we seem to have found a system that works for us unlike earlier in the season and we have finally found some consistency. It’s amazing how quickly you shoot up the table after a few wins.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

I think to describe the football as turgid is an exaggeration, and does not give manager and players enough credit. I also don't think the squad is 'poor' in every respect. There are not many standout individuals, but we have got reasonable depth and variety compared to some clubs, which is one of the reasons we have dealt with Covid better than most.

There are not likely to be a huge number of incomings in January, so the same approach, with an emphasis on organisation and workrate, is likely to continue, which is fine by me. We are very fortunate to have such a capable manager.

 

[Sparky]

As Charlton1975 reminds me, you forget that under Hill there were numerous games where we had well over 60% possession but did absolutely nothing with it. So frustrating at the time. Last season Teams like Morecambe were not great to watch but were winning games with less than 40% possession and ended up promoted. I’d take that all day long.

I agree with RLC about January signings. There won’t be too many. Hopefully we can offload the likes of Walker and Mani and bring in one or two but no need to overhaul things when we are third in the league

 

[keep the faith]

good time to score the 1st goal and even better time to score the 2nd in between could have nipped down to grange road to do the shopping, seriously I can understand barrow's tactics of playing around at the back hoping to draw us out and using their strikers pace who must have been the smallest strike force seen here, MOTM between spearing or morris who were superb, would love to see merrie get a run of games his tackle in front of us was fantastic as was the reaction from Clarke who must be brilliant in the dressing room, wonder if harkes was carrying an injury as he appeared out of sorts.

 

[bigmart]

I am hopeful we will bring in 3 or 4 signings in January

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

A win is a win, and so on.
A clean sheet and two well taken goals.
And despite the swa coming outin force.
It was not a very entertaining game but that is how it is.
Those around me were questioning the reason why we didnt take the game to them.
As they clearly targeted mcdonald in the first half and on a better day and better finishing, the scoreline would have been much tighter.
We again have not learned about the slow movement of the ball from the keeper and without a true target man up front, we still gave up the ball by going long too much. And no attempt to challenge. We certainly put pressure on ourselves by a lot of poor possession and giving them the impetus.
And we still won.
I gave much thought as the game preceded, better than falling asleep, cos of the christmas spirit. That looking at our spine of the team has so many negatives going against the build of a successful team
A young keeper on loan, a bit of experience and no doubt a decent youngster, however, his long ballout of the area was poor today.
Two centre backs with experience but age against one of them and a lack of awareness the other, midfield too old and a lack of pace, hence the foul count, struggled against the extra oppositon midfielder. And only glimpses of any skill and technique.
No target man, and only forwards who will struggle against good defenders. It needed something that was lacking most of the game, a touch of skill for the goals.
Other than another couple of chances, we never created much and the lack of good delivery, is not helping the forwards. The manager changed shape after half time because of this. Putting the emphasis on denying the opposition the opportunityto get behind us and stop the easy ball into the box. And try and counterattack, to take the result away from them. And it worked.
We are still not good enough in certain positions and our spine looks fragile but we still won. That says a lot about them and the early goal and the second to take away the last few minutes of a one goal lead. We were resiliant and we won, the need for good recruitment in january (again) is so important if the club wants the prospect of promotion.
As for man of the match, between Clarke and Morris, surprisingly two of our longer contracted players. And i dont see the reason except for one pass why Spearing got the nod.
The result great, the finishing was great for the goals, the swa was as usual vocal, the performance lacking in quality and we definitely need strengthening.
And we won and third.

Putting on my helmet now!

Boss Boxing Booze up Day!

Anyone who writes a poem dedicated to Tranmere deserves a like.

 

[Sparky]

I am hopeful we will bring in 3 or 4 signings in January

McPake sounds like a done deal. I’m sure another front man will come in. Possibly another centre half to give some cover

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

McPake sounds like a done deal. I’m sure another front man will come in. Possibly another centre half to give some cover

Yes, I think we need a centre half and a wide player as a minimum. I am not so sure whether we need another forward. If we can bring somebody in who genuinely offers more than the four we already have then great, but I don't see the point in signing another youngster or journeyman who is no better than those that are here.

I think it is also important that we release the right players this January. Although Feeney and MacManaman are not good enough to start games, they can still make a contribution from the bench and I would want to keep hold of them until the summer. We saw last season the danger in releasing players too early, when Payne, Ferrier and Smith were all allowed to leave, and we were left completely exposed when Vaughan got injured.

 

[Ian]

I think it is also important that we release the right players this January. Although Feeney and MacManaman are not good enough to start games, they can still make a contribution from the bench and I would want to keep hold of them until the summer. We saw last season the danger in releasing players too early, when Payne, Ferrier and Smith were all allowed to leave, and we were left completely exposed when Vaughan got injured.

Completely agree.

 

[ADD]

Walker will go back to Boro - been very disappointed he hasn't got any game time be it whether it is his poor attitude/ MM falling out or whatever. Hawkes is a major concern - Sunderland will likely be tempted to recall him but if McPake comes in then that is not so bad.
To me Maguire and Mani are the two players who definitely we should be looking to loan out but who would want them? Duffy I still think can offer something as he is a clever player but he is equally bit of a luxury given how little he has played since signing so will perhaps be let go.