Rovers v Braintree Town

[Sparky]

The away draw at Boreham Wood may have given GB a stay of execution against his many SWA critics, but surely anything other than a home win on Saturday will see the dark clouds gather over PP again.

Braintree currently lie one place and 3 points above us so will not be an easy task. Once again we may see a side raise their game and look to frustrate us so whether we are good enough to break them down remains to be seen.

As for the team, assuming Dawson still isn't available, I'd go with:
Davies
Vaughan McNulty Sutton Hill
Mekki Harris Maynard Ridehalgh
Norwood Mangan

However I expect the undroppable Jenno to feature and GTF if fit. Hogans absense is a shame but GB may prefer Riley to Sutton whereas I would not.

Must win? Probably not but surely our lack of points of late must change soon or else...

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

The reverse fixture in August rivalled last Saturday's game as the most dismal of the season and was a scrappy, disjointed affair. Braintree are yet another in-your-face, physical, high energy side, so I am certainly not expecting much sexy football in this one. They are just the kind of team we have struggled badly against all season, particularly at home, and this could be another frustrating affair. Playing with width will probably be key, and I wonder whether Kirby is worth a starting place ?

I quite like the team suggest by Sparky, but I think Harris is an injury doubt and Jennings seems set to undeservedly keep his place in the starting line-up.

Even if we fail to win again on Saturday, I don't think Brabin will be going anywhere any time soon. If or when GB does go, the Braintree manager might be worth a look, as he has worked wonders there on a shoestring budget.

I think this game will see the lowest away turnout at PP this season, possibly sub-50.

I don't have much enthusiasm for this game and just hope I am pleasantly surprised.

 

[Sparky]

I forgot about Kirby. He must have come back from Stockport with some confidence so I'd put him on the left ahead of Ridehalgh.

 

[Boz]

I agree with RLC about the type of game we can expect from Braintree, although they are a notch or two above Boreham Wood and therefore more capable of taking advantage of our failings. It doesn't inspire confidence that the referee, Mr Holmes had an exceptionally poor game last time he was in the middle for a Rovers game v Dover. While failing to spot what seemed a blatant hand-ball for their goal could be put down to human error, his inability to stamp out cynical play and time-wasting throughout, suggests he will be a bad choice for this one.

We tend to get given few clues about the current injury situation on the o/s. Hogan out for a couple of months, but Riley, Harris GTF all injury doubts who may be unavailable, while a few weeks ago Dawson seemed to suggest he might be ready for this game. Who knows...While there are times when you may want to keep opponents in the dark about whether a key player is available, this seems to be the norm on the o/s and is poor communication from the club.

In terms of team line-up, I broadly agree with Sparky and would certainly give Kirby a start. Our best chance is to go at the visitors from the off, don't sit back and let them take control, but Brabin has been incapable of selecting/motivating a team to do that.

Prediction: Think we'll just scrape over the 4k mark, but the attenders will go home disappointed losing 0-2.

 

[Ian]

I really hope I'm wrong but backed by the excellent analysis above will see us really struggle against a physical team. I think we really need to win this one especially at home but I think we'll struggle to break them down. Draw at best.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

Being realistic, last week was all about restoring confidence by keeping a clean sheet after the debacle at Woking. It's a blow losing Liam Hogan, but we do have a lot of strength in depth in defence and either Richie Sutton or Martin Riley could fill the gap. With Lee Vaughan's arrival, surely we should no longer be leaking goals. In Mangan and Norwood we have two of the best strikers in the league, but they can only score if given the ball, which they rarely saw last week. I think there's more to be done to sort out our midfield (including wide positions), which remains the weak area. I too would like to see what Jake Kirby can now do. Lois Maynard deserves another chance in the middle and Adam Mekki does offer something different.

Tomorrow is not a decisive match for the club, but further failure will affect gates and increase the call for change. I hope I'm not just being my usual optimistic self by predicting a narrow win, say 2-1.

 

[bigmart]

If we lose we will be 6 points behind Braintree who will have a game in hand over us anything less than a win and the play offs will look a long way off

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

The next three fixtures give us a genuine chance to move up the table. Mind you, the last three also did - and we didn't!

 

[Ian]

The next three fixtures give us a genuine chance to move up the table. Mind you, the last three also did - and we didn't!

It will be interesting to see how many points out of nine we can win.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Another abysmal performance from Rovers. No pattern of play, unable to string two passes together in virtually the entire ninety minutes. Just when you think things can't get any worse, they do. When a 60% fit Adam Dawson is our best player it just shows what we have come to, and how desperate the manager is (he probably should not have been on the pitch in the first place).

Credit to Braintree. They played much better football than I anticipated, were one of the better teams we have faced this season and outplayed us. A part-time team with 600 supporters giving us a footballing lesson on our own ground. The manager and players should be ashamed of themselves and the criticism from the Kop ast the final whistle was fully justified.

We need a new manager. Over to you Mr Palios.

 

[Sparky]

No one expected this league to be easy but home losses to the likes of Dover, Barrow, Braintree & Eastleigh are unacceptable. Furthermore the manner of some defeats has been terrible.

GB keeps saying what a good squad we have and on paper we do. But clearly he cannot get the best out of them so he must go. Their is a bad atmosphere at the place. The cries of your not fit to wear the shirt and the likes of Norwood, mangan and Dawson arguing with each other summed it up.

GBs undoing will in part due to his selections. He brings kirby back and doesn't give him a game. He should have been given a chance today at some point. Even Tomlinson may have been worth some time today but he didn't change it. Mangan was poor again but we don't have a recognised striker on the bench as he shipped Margetts off to Stockport, where he scored today.

We're too slow with the likes of Hill, McNulty, Jennings and GTF of late. Agree with RLC. Change is needed as we're only heading in one direction if things carry on. But will Palios do it?

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Sparky refers to the negative atmosphere at Prenton Park and this must surely must spur Palios to action. Regardless of whether we won promotion, this season was supposed to be about creating a feel good factor and improving the matchday experience. Brabin has delivered the precise opposite. We have lost more home games than we had at this stage last season.

I dread coming to home games now and I attend virtually every match. There is absolutely nothing to entice uncommitted fans to PP and there must be a danger of even the diehards drifting away if this carries on much longer. Palios's plans for the club must be predicated on us maintaining decent gates and there is a real risk of attendances slumping.

 

[Higgy]

Given the budget and the apparently strong squad we should be doing much better - these are sad times. There were calls amongst us to let it ride, see the season out and let things settle. Reluctantly, after previously having high hopes, I was ok with that - but things are not settled as it continues to get worse and the slide continues so not even settled in mid-table - gates will suffer.

Kirby was never that popular around this forum, but given the build up from GB and from Jenno in the Echo re his improvement in terms of ability and confidence, you would have thought he would be given the chance to show it.



Feel sorry for Palios and of course the fans. Wouldn't mind R.M. back.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Still no interview with Brabin on the website, which is very unusual. Either Paul Harper is having a lazy Saturday night or something is afoot........

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

Feel sorry for Palios

It's very difficult for the Palioses. If GB goes, it will be very expensive financially and may not make a lot of difference this season.

Wouldn't mind R.M. back.

Ronnie was mad to come back the last time. Look how it ended. If he came back again, he should be certified. He's done a great job at Hartlepool and is happy there. The club's record of hiring and firing managers in recent years had been disastrous.

 

[Ian]

What a disaster this is turning out to be. Starting to remind me of last seasons debacle where we couldn't string two passes together and struggled against sides at home culminating in poor performances and the supporters getting very restless.

I don't think MP will make any changes but the season is old enough now to know that it ain't going to get any better than this.

I was as surprised as RLC as I was expecting Braintree to rough us up. Quite the opposite. They played some neat football, had plenty of energy and scored two decent goals.

I thought we missed Harris yesterday as there was no one biting at the heels in midfield.

 

[Sparky]

Still nothing on the o/s re post match comments. Maybe GB refused to comment. I still think as others that MP won't fire him and change will only happen if GB resigns. Which I think is a real possibility given the venom directed to him at full time yesterday.

As for Ronnie, I'm still a big fan of his no nonsense style. On the one hand you think approaching would be a backward step. On the other, he could bring success and would the likes of Challinor be an unknown risk similar to Rob Edwards? At least DC has experience at lower levels. I agree tho with BBTC that he seems happy at hartlepool. But we could do far worse.....

 

[Brightonian]

I really feel for you guys who went to the match, must be really hard to stomach. To be honest I planned to travel up to PP until the day before but just could not face another highly depressing performance. Don't consider myself a fair weather supporter but it is the lack of vision, strategy and motivation that really gets me.

Listened on the radio and even Andy Doyle who is generally shall we say upbeat in the extreme, complaining we were not getting out of second gear, had no grip on midfield and little idea of how to turn things around. It is baffling that we only make one substitution, don't give Kirby a gallop who would have been keen to make a mark. I would even rather have a not very elegant try anything contingency plan such as throw one of our many centre backs up front to cause some mayhem and create space.

Did any of the players yesterday come out with any credit for effort at least?

 

[Ian]

There was effort in parts Brightonian but the performance was just so disjointed and the passing in general was poor.

Braintree had pace in the side so they countered well and defended in numbers. We did have two great chances to equalise having said all that with Norwood smashing straight at the keeper one on one and Sutton missing the whole goal from about 2 yards.

 

[Sparky]

Just read GBs comments. Nothing new really. We'll keep working hard as usual (haven't they been doing that for weeks?). He mentions the good characters but he's been saying that for ages.

No suggestion of resignation. Not a surprise really as he'll have Xmas gifts to buy like the rest of us.

I guess all we can do is hope the tide will turn soon.