Swindon 3 Rovers 1

[Ian]

Tranmere have lost their first game of the season at the County ground.
Rovers were behind after just five minutes when Paynter headed the home side ahead.

It got worse for the whites when Simon Cox put the home side 2-0 up after 37 minutes.
Tranmere had chances to score, but Savage and Barnett were both guilty of missing good chances.

Swindon's Anthony McNamee won the battle in midfield and caused problems throughout the game.
Rovers were 3-0 down six minutes after the restart when Jon-Paul McGovern stroked the ball home to wrap up the game.

Rovers did get a consolation goal late on when Bas Savage pounced on Edrissa Sonko's cross, but it was far too late to mount a comeback and the game ended 3-1.

 

[roverstillidie]

A dissapointing start to the season if not unexpected. A draw would have been a respectable result but from reading the match report it sounds like we were pretty poor. Once again Rovers have failed to live up to Ronnie Moore's pre match hype and this system didn't seem to work either!

Anyways it's only the first game so hopefully the team can sort themselves out and get into the next round of the carling cup and get some points on the board on Saturday. However I feel this may not be possible until the messiah returns.

 

[Ian]

Ronnie's post match comments were interesting. But it comes back to the same old problem:

"I don't want to keep harking back to Ian Goodison, but when he doesn't play in our back four we look a shambles.

They just can't defend when Goodison's not playing. The shape completely goes. I think it was their second goal that was played right through the middle of the defence. ](*,)

 

[Boz]

Ronnie's comments are too simplistic. Goodison isn't getting any younger and didn't look in great shape pre-season. It's wrong to blame the defeat on the defenders other than Taylor. Defending is a whole team responsibility. By the sounds of it the attack/midfield shirked it, leaving Antwi in particular well exposed. However, it doesn't augur well.

 

[roverstillidie]

If the defence was that bad surely he will play Waterfall and Holmes ahead of Chorley and Antwi perhaps against Grimsby? Oh wait this is Ronnie Moore he doesn't make changes or try and solve problems sorry

Goodison wasn't in great shape pre season because he speant half of it playing for Jamaica and part of it with a calf injury I think. A quarter fit Goodison is better than a fully fit Chorley! It's not just whenever Goodison doesn't play - it's whenever Chorley plays. Even Goodison seems to lose his composure when playing alongside him.

You can say we played well in pre season but that was against part timers and a Liverpool team who were playing there first game. Pre season is primarily about fitness, Ronnie Moore can't use pre season form as an expectation for league form when the majority of it was against poor opposition and teams not too bothered by the result.

 

[roverstillidie]

leaving Antwi in particular well exposed. However, it doesn't augur well.

Unfortunately playing a 4-3-3 is going to leave the full back exposed as the midfielders have to cover 4/5 players and you can't rely on Curran etc to track back to our penalty area - nor would you want them to.

 

[Ian]

Too many players didn't turn up today, which was very disappointing. The midfield was weak and the defence naive. The new guys didn't impose themselves at all and the more experienced players like Moore and Jennings didn't do enough.

 

[Red Devil]

@&$*@$%&%* !!!

 

[Boz]

Unfortunately playing a 4-3-3 is going to leave the full back exposed as the midfielders have to cover 4/5 players and you can't rely on Curran etc to track back to our penalty area - nor would you want them to.

I thought the idea of this formation was when under pressure one or two of the forwards would drop back into midfield to help out? It sounded like there was a constant supply of ball to their left-winger, who created havoc with it. Not as though the Swindon goal was taking a battering with all the chances our forwards were creating.

 

[roverstillidie]

I though the idea was we left 3 up front so you can counter quickly when defending lol nobody knows whats going on!

 

[jim]

...lol nobody knows whats going on!

Especially Ronnie! ](*,)

 

[Joe_TRFC]

It wasn't good enough yesterday but i'm sure we'll improve. Like has been said Antwi, Chorley, O'Callaghan and Moore especially did **** all. Kay, Achto, Jenno and Curran weren't great. In my opinion it was only Taylor, Barnett, Savage and Sonko when he came on who put in a decent shift. I expect better at Grimsby on Tuesday!

 

[Boz]

Joe, did you actually make the game, as you'd hoped? What worries me is when things went wrong, Ronnie didn't adapt the side to respond. For example if O'Callaghan playing badly replace with Ahmed and put Sonko up front? Or go to 3 at the back with Waterfall and play the full-backs as wing-backs, which could have made their left-wingers job harder?

 

[Luke trfc 4 lyf]

acto is fukn **** so's atwi would rather ave palethorpe an holmes in the team it was shockn iwould even ave ward to acto ****ty ****ty ****ty ****ty achterberg!!

 

[Boz]

So the poor performances from the likes of Chorley and O'Callaghan had nothing whatsoever to do with us losing yesterday then, Luke???

 

[Luke trfc 4 lyf]

did i say they were good??no i thought that atwi an achterberg were are worst players an i would drop them aswell!!but i wouldnt say they were as bad as atwi an achterberg

 

[roverstillidie]

acto is fukn **** so's atwi would rather ave palethorpe an holmes in the team it was shockn iwould even ave ward to acto ****ty ****ty ****ty ****ty achterberg!!

How can you call a club legend those names - he had one bad game and wasn't helped by a few dodgy passes. Would you rather have Gavin Ward back instead?!

 

[tomgwilly]

yesterday

I made the trip down to Swindon yesterday and have to say we were very poor. Heads dropped after the early goal and we never looked like getting anything out of the game. There did not appear to be any confidence in the team whatsoever and they were arguing amongst themselves and pointing fingers too often. The only player to really come out of the game with any credit in my opinion was Taylor, though Sonko did well when he came on, especially in creating the goal. Savage has a good touch and could be a useful signing. The others:

Achto - awful defending in front of him, but he could have done better, especially on the second goal
Antwi - can't believe he is a Liverpool player, looked completely lost
Kay - I like Kay but he was awful yesterday, gave the ball away far too often and kept trying to play out of trouble when he should have booted it
Chorley - better than Kay but not great either
Jennings - not great and never really asserted himself on the game
Barnett - looks like he has potential, but a bit lightweight, pushed off the ball too often
O'Callaghan - simply not good enough, did nothing and was deservedly replaced
Curran - lots of running but didn't really make an impact
Moore - barely had a touch!

 

[SCooperSomersaults]

Havent seen the game but seen a couple of reports and read your comments and have to say I'm very disappointed. I was actually a bit optimistic after the signing of Barnett and good vibes that seemed to be about. How quickly things change?!

Reallly gutted but we never win at Swindon so whether it be first game or any other game in the season, we never get a result there. Lets not go OTT with pessimism, hopefully things will pick up soon, starting Tuesday, defending especially as you can't afford to concede 3 goals to win games.

Come on you whites! Lets improve and kick start the season on Tuesday night at Grimsby! I still believe!

 

[Ian]

It's quite clear the team can't operate without Goodison. Ronnie needs to sort this out as he wont be with us forever.