• 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.

The Other Play Offs

ONIGP

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8,049 at Wembley for Salford v AFC Fylde today. Surely the venue for the VNL Play Off Final needs to be reconsidered. Salford looked a lot fresher than Fylde and it was good to see Lois Maynard awarded MOM. Great to see Max starting for Sunderland against Pompey today. I hope he can help them to promotion; a grand old club and I've always had a soft spot for them after the Mercantile Credit Finals when their fans became honorary members of the SWA.
 
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I think in general it is good that the NL final is played at Wembley. Attendances are usually respectable and it gives an opportunity for the traditional non league clubs to get to Wembley, in addition to the ex-league clubs like ourselves.

I think today's attendance says more about the parlous state of football in this country than it does about the merits of playing at Wembley. The same greed that has ruined the top division is now filtering down to lower levels, as wealthy individuals (or ex Premier League players) buy up tiny clubs that are effectively hollow shells, as vanity projects. Unfortunately, if you look at the sides that finished in the top half of the National League last season, that situation is only going to get worse before it gets better. The traditional non league clubs of twenty to thirty years ago are nowhere to be seen.

It will be unbearable having Salford in League Two next season, and with the size of their budget one of the promotion places has effectively been taken already.
 
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aldo
they are gonna have the fair play rules to go with now got remember clubs in lg 2 can only spend 35% of there turn over . so they might have a smaller budget than they think. and when the class of 92 f off. they will drop back where they came from 8000 at wembley is a joke . now wonder if an out of contract mr rowe will come to rovers
 
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I was not impressed at all by Rowe today to be honest. I am not sure he is good enough for us.
 

ONIGP

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they are gonna have the fair play rules to go with now got remember clubs in lg 2 can only spend 35% of there turn over . so they might have a smaller budget than they think. and when the class of 92 f off. they will drop back where they came from 8000 at wembley is a joke . now wonder if an out of contract mr rowe will come to rovers
I believe the plan was always that the current team would be strong enough for L2, hence the big signings of last Summer to avoid the FFP.
 

ONIGP

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I was not impressed at all by Rowe today to be honest. I am not sure he is good enough for us.
Nor me. If we make L1 I think it would be far too much of a gamble; 2 tiers of the pyramid is a lot. That said, I think it would have benefitted us if it had been possible to secure his signature last year, although not at the silly money asked. In the end we never did replace Cook and it is huge credit to the squad (and especially Norwood) that we have done so well. I would be surprised if Rowe doesn't have some regrets about how things turned out.
 
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aldo
yes think thats tru . but salford alrea.
dy have rooney on 5k aweek and only get just over 2300 aweek
 
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I believe the plan was always that the current team would be strong enough for L2, hence the big signings of last Summer to avoid the FFP.
But they will still have to pay L2 wages and will need to bring in a few more players. The crunch will come if they struggle and want to make moves in January.

It will be interesting to see what gates they get in L2. Not being a club with a large fan base, where will the extra spectators come from? Rovers have a loyal core of about 4-5,000 which can rise to 6-7,000 if doing well. As we saw on Friday, big games can attract 10,000. I reckon our gates would gradually rise as we move up the leagues, but I can't see Salford's doing the same. There is even more competition in Greater Manchester than on Merseyside.
 

Ian

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I think at this level crowd size is probably not a huge factor for them. It's just a play thing and they have plenty in the coffers to keep going for now.
 

ONIGP

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A lot of controversial decisions so far. For what it's worth my opinion on the ones I've seen:
Newport's penalty - no way, shocking decision
Banks's goal - thank God for goal line technology because it probably wouldn't have been given (I had assumed it hadn't gone in!)
Gunning sending off - yes
Doidge penalty claim - no, correct decision
Gayle second yellow - not for me and a big blow for WBA with Robson Kanu also suspended
Ozturk sending off - probably not but could have gone either way
 
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I thought the Newport penalty was the correct decision to be honest. The keeper got something on the ball but completely cleaned the player out.

Returning to Rowe, I am not convinced he has ever really had the potential to play at a higher level. As we have seen from players like Ricky Miller, scoring lots of goals in the National League does not necessarily tell you much about a player. Their all round game is more important, and Rowe always seems too ponderous and immobile to me. He has not got the power and aerial strength of Cook, or the pace and movement of Norwood.
 

Boz

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ONIGP, there seemed to be a clearish taking out of a Mansfield player by Newport’s O’Brien very early in that game, with only the County keeper left to beat. Think many refs would have shown red for that.
 
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ONIGP, there seemed to be a clearish taking out of a Mansfield player by Newport’s O’Brien very early in that game, with only the County keeper left to beat. Think many refs would have shown red for that.
Mansfield were very unlucky. That incident plus the penalty were both poor decisions but VAR would have helped. Newport got away with a lot, but Stags have a home leg to come and hopefully a different ref.
 

ADD

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Yes, but I am still not convinced by him. Miller scored about 45 goals in that division but has not been good enough in the Football League.
Agreed RLC ... and after all Alabi scored what was it 20 goals for Chester and look what happened then....
 

ONIGP

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Congratulations to Chorley who have made it to the NL for the first time in donkey's years. They gave us a pretty tough workout at Victory Park in the Summer. Sounds like they did it the hard way winning both play offs on penalties, including missing their first 2 spot kicks in today's shootout against Spennymoor.
 
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So, it's Newport. They scraped into the play-offs and scraped again through the two legs against a mentally broken team. They will be on a high and were the form team, but with a goal difference of zero and the worst defence and worst attack of the four semi-finalists, they are far from unbeatable. I am confident that whoever wins tomorrow night will win at Wembley.
 
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So, it's Newport. They scraped into the play-offs and scraped again through the two legs against a mentally broken team. They will be on a high and were the form team, but with a goal difference of zero and the worst defence and worst attack of the four semi-finalists, they are far from unbeatable. I am confident that whoever wins tomorrow night will win at Wembley.
My thoughts exactly BBTC. I would fancy us against them at Wembley, as I think we are the better footballing side. We just have to negotiate tomorrow night now.....
 
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