Tranmere 0 - 0 Walsall

[Ian]

That was a very frustrating game!
Decent crowd, just a shame the lads couldnt turn on the style.

Walsall had a very good 1st half and shaded most of the play.
Rovers had a better 2nd half, pushed forward for most of it, but there was just no end product.

Zola and Taylor worked hard, but they cannot work together. Both challenging for the ball in the air is fine, but there's no-one to sweep up the knock ons.

I thought the two teams tonight were very similar.
Both had a half each, played some neat football but had no-one that could stick the ball in the back of the net.

I'd also like to mention Achto's performance today. Thought he was excellent tonight. Didn't have that much to do, but when he did, he did it well and pulled off an excelent save late on. He's been very impressive since his return.

We need to start picking up more points at home though.

Thought the booing at FT was daft. The lads put effort in, it's just that there was no end product. I guess people were just frustrated at not taking the opportunity to go three points clear, but Ronnie mentioned it after the game, and I just dont think it was deserved.

Ronnie needs to sort them out at home though.
I was disappointed about the result and also because we had more spectators than usual here tonight, and I think the lads let themselves down a bit. Nobody wants to see a 0-0 at home. Shame the crowd weren't entertained by goals but and I hope they return to PP!

 

[jim]

I wasn't at the game last night but I just wanted to reply and say how amazed I am at the boys being booed off at full time. Ok, a draw isn't good enough at home but at the end of the day we're top of the league. I think we have some of the most fickle fans about. I've seen the team get booed off at half time and cheered back on for the second half. Talk about confusing.
Supporters should do just that - support!

 

[Davey Mc]

#-oI was at the game and happy to say that i never booed, people need to start getting a grip and getting behind the lads,its not going do the teams confidence any good if the their own fans are doing things like that!! Where top of the table, if we were bottom i would have agreed!!!=;

 

[Joe_TRFC]

Booing a team that is top of the league is a disgrace. I think we have too many teams who just expect to come and see games like they see on match of the day. If you want to see fast flowing predictable football go and support one of the big premier teams.

As for the game yes its disappointing and we may lose top but if we win at Swindon it will be forgotten about. That said we don't want to keep putting pressure on ourselves to win away. I feel maybe when Ronnie could see it wasn't working he should maybe have gone 4-5-1... it sounded like we couldn't cope in midfield.

Just got to hope for good results and to stay top after the weekend... then get back to winning ways next weekend.

 

[nomur]

Well I think luck is on our side so far this season as all the results pretty much went our way today with Orient only drawing at Leeds and Carlisle losing.

Next weeks game will be really tough but at least we're still top of the league!

 

[Ian]

Well I think luck is on our side so far this season as all the results pretty much went our way today with Orient only drawing at Leeds and Carlisle losing.

Completely agree. I was convinced we would move down the table after last nights game.

Regarding the booing, I'm with Joe on this.
To be clear though, there wasn't a mass of booing at FT, just enough for the players and Ronnie to hear. There was also a bit of booing at HT, again not much though.

But getting back to what Joe said, there does seem to be too many supporters expecting too much. They need to be more realistic. We are a div one side, and the days of being on the brink of the top leagues are well and gone.

Yeah, I'm sure we are all disappointed with the 0-0 draw, only because we want the team to win, but there's a difference between disappointment and booing the players off.

Once I'd read that Ronnie was shocked to hear the booing, I felt quite sorry for the players. I thought they tried hard last night, but the quality was missing. Again, we are a club with no money and have to manage with what we can afford.

However, one thing is clear. We certainly need Greenacre back in the side.

 

[NeverBeatDaveHiggins]

We lacked something up front or in the attacking areas of midfield. Perhaps the selection of Tremarco was too defensive an option for a home game, and the two big men up front encouraged the likes of Stockdale, Goodison and McLaren to do these hopeless floated balls all over the pitch.

We failed to keep possession and we failed to really look threatening. I think a draw was a fair result because we couldn't break them down and for the most part they couldn't break us down either. Shuker had a stinker, but without the option of swapping wings we were tied to that outcome. Jones came on and looked bright, but despite the fresh legs and much more enthusiasm also couldn't break them down. I'm left wondering what would have been if we'd had both Jones and Shuker on in the first half.

As for the booing, yes there was a little boo at half time right on the whistle - as I saw it, it was aimed at Goodison's third hoofed ball, rather than at the team as a whole. We needed to be passing it on the floor and making the ball work for us. The really frustrating part is that players who don't normally make runs, or at least good forward runs, Sherriff and Stockdale - were making the runs wide but not once were they found by a pass.

I couldn't hear any booing at full time, in fact the Kop was rather charitable and applauded the players as they left the pitch. Don't know the reaction in the main stand, which of course is the fans Ronnie will hear.

Just a quick word on linesmen, wasn't the linesman with the all yellow flag terrible!! I guess okay at the offside calls, but when it came to assisting the referee with is or isn't the ball out of touch, I'm not sure he was even watching! AND they changed ends at half time, now correct me here if I'm wrong but the linesmen are a 'part of the pitch' and are not supposed to change ends, that's the fairest way. The only exception is meant to be if they are getting abuse from the section of fans they are in front of which they shouldn't have to put up with and so can ask the referee to swap them around.

I hope none of our fans in the Johnny King were giving that waster verbals, because if they did then they gave him the excuse necessary to continue to torture us in the second half!

 

[white life]

Not much booing in the Main Stand, we all clapped them off at the end. There was some but it was very much the minority of fans and I can't really understand why they were. I'm dissaoppointed we didn't win because I expected to beat them but lets not forget that we were playing without two key players in Davies and Greenacre and still got a result that keeps us top of the table (thankfully). Hoping that yesterday was a sign of things to come with challenging teams seeming to drop points and Leeds not winning again, maybe they won't go up this season after all. Fingers crossed.

 

[Joe_TRFC]

Not looking good for staying top of the league... Swansea are 2-1 up at the moment. We still stay on same points as top though.

 

[SCooperSomersaults]

The whole we are top of the league thing went a bit too far on Friday. Yes it's nice but it means NOTHING. We wanna be top in May, not October.

As for the team, I really can't believe how we're top. In bits and pieces we look good, but not for a sustained period in a game, and most of the time we lack ideas and attacking threat, as indeed was the case on Friday. 2 shots on goal I counted through the whole match. Their keeper, who looked dodgy on an early throw in, was never really tested after that, which was so so so disappointing from the "top of the league side".

Anyway, we're not top any more after Swansea wiped the floor with Bournemouth and seem to be flying at the moment.

As for the booing, people were frustrated that a team who should be buzzing with confidence looked lacking in it, and couldn't pass wind on Friday night. It was a very poor performance, and we were lucky to get away with a draw. If we do want to be top come May, we have to be beating teams like Walsall, Northampton and Crewe at home. As it is, 3 points from 3 home games is not good enough form I'm afraid and Ronnie needs to sort it out.

 

[Joe_TRFC]

I can understand people were frustrated but you can't boo a team because of that. I think booing does nothing for the teams confidence whether it be 10 people booing or 10,000. Really it was Ronnie's job to change the formation when things weren't working... he didn't do that. But in his defence at Southend he probably won us the match with his choice of formation. You just have to hope we keep up this excellent away form at least until we sort out the home form.

 

[SCooperSomersaults]

Expectations at Tranmere are stupidly high. We only have to score a goal and the Kop sing "we are going up". Too easily carried away. But to think we should be 6 pts clear after 3 home victories, thats the frustrating bit. 3 games we SHOULD win.

 

[Ian]

I'm not making excuses for the boo-boys, but the problem is that supporters want to be entertained at home, and football supporters are a fickle bunch. What we've seen at home hasn't been great at all, and that's all that matters to many people. They want to be entertained.

I guess it makes it even more frustrating that they can do it at away from home as well!

They certainly need to improve at home, but let's just take things as they are. We are second in the league and I'm sure not many people would complain about that.

It boils down to 2 things. You either want:

1. To be entertained regardless of result
2. Want the result regardless of the entertainment.

and no, you can't have both!