League Two Scunny v Rovers

[aldoes mustache]

send him packing fucking useless we just don,t score enough, and its costing us

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Incredibly frustrating. It is difficult to fault the effort and the quality of a lot of approach play, but we have missed gilt edged chances again. I think it is becoming a psychological issue now for the players, as Clarke, Lewis, Crawford and Lloyd all had opportunities you would expect them to put away in normal circumstances. I can't see how that will change until Vaughan returns, and I don't think we will catch Bolton now they are ahead of us.

I thought there were a lot of good performances with Crawford having his best game for us, and Manny looking very solid, including his distribution. Man of the match, Lee O'Connor.

 

[FridayNightMemories]

The game was a bit like trying to eat an apple by sucking it.

Some excellent football by Rovers but poor end product.

Not sure what Nugent brings to the party. Don't think CBT had enough time to influence the game.

 

[Ian]

Well, the same old same I'm afraid. Good play from Rovers, lots of possession but absolutely no-one to put the ball in the net. At this rate, will be finishing for play offs. No chance for top three without Vaughan.

No win in five games.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Yes I agree. It’s clearly not working so try something else: what have we got to lose playing someone like burton?

Toothless we are

We might not agree with all of Hill's decisions, but he is not completely naive. Jolley and Burton must not be ready.

Unfortunately we put all of our eggs in the Nugent basket, and it has not paid off.

 

[Ian]

I would try Burton who I don't think is as raw as Jolley. It could not be any worse than Nugent, seriously.

 

[frenchrover]

That Januart window failure is costing us dearly and could ultimately cost us promotion...there is no use avoiding it...disastrous failure on Hills part.

 

[bigmart]

That Januart window failure is costing us dearly and could ultimately cost us promotion...there is no use avoiding it...disastrous failure on Hills part.

Agreed, none if the signings have paid off at all. Simply not good enough today, the chances of top 3 are slim but I'm more concerned about making sure we make play offs.

Even when Vaughan returns its asking an awful lot for him to hit the ground running.

 

[Ian]

To not finish in the top seven would be an absolute disaster. The question now is, do we take a chance on a semi fit Vaughan? He seems to be our only hope now.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

To not finish in the top seven would be an absolute disaster. The question now is, do we take a chance on a semi fit Vaughan? He seems to be our only hope now.

It sounds like we are just waiting for him to declare himself fit now, so it is down to how he feels. If he has a recurrence of the injury which finishes him off for next season it would be an even bigger disaster to be honest.

We had chances today that any professional footballer should be able to finish and, as I said, we seem to have a mental block in front of goal now.

 

[FridayNightMemories]

According to the BBC report, Tranmere had 19 chances with 3 on target.

 

[Sparky]

According to the BBC report, Tranmere had 19 chances with 3 on target.

Yes those stats make it all the more frustrating. We had so much of the ball in their defensive third and so many corners but once again I was thinking we could play all night and not score.

Serious question marks about recruitment: not just the lack of Vaughan back up but wasting money on the likes of Kirby, Nugent and Crawford (altho the latter did ok today). Plus not using CBT more often is cutting off your nose to spite your face. He wasn’t great today but how much can we expect in a 15 minute cameo?

 

[Boz]

A point is better than nothing, particularly if we're lowering our sights to the play-offs. Although on the balance of play we deserved to win, Scunthorpe came close late on with a couple of efforts.

Nugent was totally ineffective when he came on yet again. He's not listed by RLC in the four players who fluffed good chances, he's not getting near the ball in dangerous positions to have any good chances. While I don't think Burton or Jolley should be starting and from Keith's comments about Charlie recently, it would be a surprise if we see him again this season, Burton must be worth 20 minutes in a situation like today's.

Rovers played a lot better in the second half, both in terms of attacking play and cutting out the over-playing in defensive positions. Of the games we had left, this was the one I was most hopeful of winning. Crawford, O'Connor, Monthe and Macdonald had decent games and after the stick he got over Cheltenham, thought Joe Murphy was solid and got things moving with some bowled ball to the full-backs. Lloyd and Feeney both a bit below par today and, while I'd have put him on earlier, Corey didn't make the most of his time on the pitch.

 

[Sparky]

Will be interesting if Keith is ultra positive again as we’ve got a point on our travels

 

[Sparky]

Just watched Keith and to be fair he recognises that it was a missed opportunity and whilst we’re missing key players from the spine of the side, others need to step up to the mark

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Just watched Keith and to be fair he recognises that it was a missed opportunity and whilst we’re missing key players from the spine of the side, others need to step up to the mark

I think he looked quite stressed for the first time, and it is also the first occasion he has really put pressure on the players.

A win can change things quickly, even at this stage, but you feel it has to come on Tuesday night. Even given the absence of Vaughan, I think the remaining group should be winning more games than they are.

 

[bigmart]

The football league have confirmed no games will kick off at 3pm next Saturday but no agreement yet on tomes they will start due to the funeral

 

[ADD]

We might not agree with all of Hill's decisions, but he is not completely naive. Jolley and Burton must not be ready.

Unfortunately we put all of our eggs in the Nugent basket, and it has not paid off.

Maybe it is stubborness however?
To be fair Hill has had some success in putting round pegs in square holes with Khan and O'Connor but to really have only one true attacking option being to bring on Nugent every game beggars belief to me. We have two fit CF's at the Club and I simply do not believe that Burton especially could conceivably be worse than Nugent. Given we have 5 subs available surely today was a time to start one of them and if it isn't working yank them off after 30 minutes and switch to how we started today or at the very least have him on the bench and bring him on after 60 minutes rather than Nugent.
All that aside today aside from the killer instinct there was some fine play and we were slick and built much quicker rather than play slow balls across the back with Murphy spreading play quickly (sometimes too quickly) and Khan and McDonald positive going forward.
Tuesday is going to be tough now after that as the players looked absolutely out on their feet after the game - to raise themselves for it is a big ask but you have to think that we have to win against Walsall now.

 

[Sparky]

Walsall will be far from easy as they beat FGR today albeit who are out of form. Agree with RLC that Keith for the first time did look like he was feeling the pressure

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Maybe it is stubborness however?
To be fair Hill has had some success in putting round pegs in square holes with Khan and O'Connor but to really have only one true attacking option being to bring on Nugent every game beggars belief to me. We have two fit CF's at the Club and I simply do not believe that Burton especially could conceivably be worse than Nugent. Given we have 5 subs available surely today was a time to start one of them and if it isn't working yank them off after 30 minutes and switch to how we started today or at the very least have him on the bench and bring him on after 60 minutes rather than Nugent.
All that aside today aside from the killer instinct there was some fine play and we were slick and built much quicker rather than play slow balls across the back with Murphy spreading play quickly (sometimes too quickly) and Khan and McDonald positive going forward.
Tuesday is going to be tough now after that as the players looked absolutely out on their feet after the game - to raise themselves for it is a big ask but you have to think that we have to win against Walsall now.

Or perhaps he does not want to put too much pressure on two young kids in what is now a high pressure situation ? I agree with Boz that Burton is at least worth a place on the bench.

As I have said previously, we let three senior strikers leave in January and replaced them with Nugent, which was a terrible decision. Whether that decision was solely down to Hill, or a combination of Palios, Beck and Hill, I don't know.

We should not be in a position where a teenager with a total of thirty five minutes of senior football under his belt is our only forward option.