Thetownend.com

The Opponent:  Tranmere Rovers

When this lot were promotion rivals last year the dozy Scousers seemed to pop up everywhere. There obsession with Di Canio was somewhat alarming and the average Tranmere fan was way below what would be considered average intelligence. Whatever did happen to their promotion push anyway? Leyton Orient beware. Current form would suggest Rovers are pretty shit and are there for the taking, although our own player shortages may well play a part in the outcome of today’s match. I would think Tranmere will not only have had us watched, but there is a good chance they will have heard of Red Jed’s rather too public whinge, so I am fully expecting several barrels to be kicked out of us, or at least what is currently left of us. Its been a week of hacking coughs and runny noses in my household, so its going to be nice to get out, and infect as many of you as I can.

Contrary to popular belief, Tranmere does actually exist, with a population of around 12’000. It is a small suburb of Birkenhead where many moons ago, today’s opponents came from, although when they moved to Prenton, they decided to keep the name. It is a bit of a shame that today’s game isn’t away, I have been dying to stock up on shell suits for the kids for a while now. Tranmere’s few famous faces include average midfielder/nancy boy shampoo bloke Jason McAteer, Patricia Routledge, more commonly known as Hyacinth Bucket from the sitcom Keeping Up Appearances, and not forgetting everyone’s favourite drag artist, Paul O’Grady of Lily Savage fame. Apart from that, Tranmere is a suburb full of nothing, with little to offer its residents, a few Premier Costcutter type shops and nearly as many plastic scousers as there are in Runcorn.

The Last Time We Met At – The County Ground -  Just before Christmas 2012 a crowd of nearly 9000 saw us destroy Tranmere bit by bit. Goals from Hollands, Ritchie, De Vita and a rare Andy Williams double sent out a thumping warning to the rest of League 1, although not long after this it all went tits up for both of us.

They have served us both –  Jake Jervis, Alan Navarro, Ken Beamish, Bryan Hamilton, Tony Warner, Gareth Edds, Nicky Summerbee

Where the opposition gather –

http://www.thefootballnetwork.net/main/s383/st183711.htm

Tranmere Last 6 – LLDLLL

The Odds –  Swindon 1/5 Draw 12/5 Tranmere 10/3 (Ladbrokes) Not feeling to confident for a first goalscorer this week so I am opting for Draw HT Swindon FT which is a best priced 7/2 with Bwin.

The Son Says – He remembered before me that we dinked this lot 5-0 last season, although he wasn’t feeling quite so optimistic and has plumped for a 3-0 victory this time round.

The Prediction – Its a strange one this. Not having a fit squad to choose from will never work well, but I still think we should have enough to be able to win this 2-0, with goals from Massimo Luongo and Nicky Ajose, in front of 7’110 (180 from Liverpool).

And Finally - Tranmere contains one of the largest and most expensive WWII air raid shelters in the country.  It consists of a series of tunnels stretching to a total length of 6500ft and was designed to house up to 6000 people (many of them workers at the strategically important Camel Laird shipyard) - however by the time they were completed, they were no longer needed as the threat of invasion has diminished. The tunnels were later used by the Ministry of food for storage, and were considered as a nuclear fallout shelter during the cold war era. The tunnels were finally sealed off in 1989 amid growing H&S concerns. The tunnels still exist however and building work in 2008 uncovered a shaft - allowing temporary exploration of them, before being sealed off again. It is believed to still be used for hiding away fugly locals's deemed even to ugly for The Jeremy Kyle Show.

COYR COYR COYR

Floodlight failure 0-1 (match abandoned)

Well thats a lively forum  ::) most of dem scousers seem to think dey will get a dicking

Am going for 3 nil town - have no idea on scorers cos have no idea what team we will be putting out  :headhurts:
7900 will pitch up with 155 schlepping down south.

Bed  :zzz:
Work  :(
Merlin  :pint:
3 points  :wink:

The bookies wont be wrong on this, Home banker, 22-0. Err ok 3-0. Some teams never win at other teams, this is one of those, like us at Crewe.

3-0. Easy Peasy.

Queue the 4-0 loss...

Funny you should say that, I've been to Crewe twice and seen us win twice without conceding. On a separate note, it might be worth starting a thread on bogey teams. I'm going for a 2-1 win, we'll concede a soft early goal and rally back to win late on. Ward and Ajose.

A bit concerned because of all the injuries today, we SHOULD have the quality to beat them but football is a funny old game.

Don't like predicting as I'm a superstitious twat but going to break the habit and go for 3-1 Town, Mass, ImGuessing and Ward, crowd of 7867.

The boy says 2-0 with scorers Mass & Pritchard, 8061. (be a little embarrassed if he is closer than - being less accurate than a 6 year old).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV6bUJpx6PI

To be fair, no one who was there will forget the friendliness of the Tranmere fans after our play-off semi-final there in 1993.

Who is missing through injury today? I've lost track.

Everyone.

Ryan Mason, Nile Ranger, Ryan Harley, Nathan Thompson, Nathan Byrne, Tijane Reis, Alex Smith, Alex Ferguson, Mark Francis, Harry Agombar and Aaron Oakley.

Score predictions just in:

Ardiles Jnr Mk I:  STFC 4-3 Tranmere
Ardiles Jnr Mk II: STFC 3-0 Tranmere

I have a feeling we will start slowly and that the crowd will take time to warm up, but that it will come good in the end.  I'm not too down about Ranger being out because I'm happy enough with our other front men.

COYR COYR COYR

Can't see anything but a Town win today, despite our injury worries, so I'll say a comfortable 2-0 win! Goals from Luongo and Pritchard in front of a steady 7320, with 210 away fans. It'd be nice to keep a clean sheet, get some confidence going at the back...C.O.Y.R!!!

 :(.  Oh dear.  I knew Thompson and Byrne went off last week, but didn't realise they'd been ruled out of today's game.

Not sure if they are 100% ruled out but Cooper reported they were doubtful for the game in an interview yesterday, DNG is also carrying a knock but should be fine, probably going to be a few late fitness tests today.

Also played for both-Paul Rideout

Time for that Egyptian bloke to shine....

Hopefully not too pissed to enjoy it..

COYR

Stats for the referee's first 6 games are somewhat worrying in view of the fact that Swindon and Tranmere have two of the worst disciplinary records in the league.

http://www.soccerbase.com/referees/referee.sd?referee_id=1318 (http://www.soccerbase.com/referees/referee.sd?referee_id=1318)

Possibly contrary to Jed's letter, I think our football is better suited to a referee who'll let the game flow and keep his cards in his pockets, than one who stops the game again and again for niggly fouls that prevent us getting into a rhythm.

I'm also more concerned about losing players through suspension at the moment than through hard tackles from opposing teams. Most of our injuries seem to have been picked up in training rather than on the football pitch.

I have a good feeling about this!  2-1 Swindon COYR

Jesus, 50% of his games have red cards! 2-1 Town unless its us that gets the inevitable red.

Time to find out what the squad depth is like today but I still think we'll have too much for Tranmere. 3-1 win Luongo,Prichard an El Gabbas and 6999 in attendance

A bit surprised to see that Miles Storey has been loaned out to Salisbury for a month with all the injuries we have.

I suppose we do have a lot of strength in depth in that area of field even with Ranger out.

He could probably do a few starts, doubt he would get many here for a while.

Ranger starts then. I do hope he isn't being rushed back too quickly.

Absolutely, this has happened to us in the past with a fair few players.

Is anyone else's Player not showing the League One matches? I can't even select another League One, it goes straight from Championship to League Two...

Was just about to post this. Mine is doing exactly the same. Grr.

Yep poor service indeed, I hope its updated soon.

I seem to be able to listen to the pre-match on iplayer, which I can't normally do, so fingers crossed it'll continue to the match- doubtful mind...

They have been known to leave the feed on for a whole game but normally its always turned off with about 12 minute to go till KO.

My player is doing the same - no option to listen to the match yet!
flippity flip

And off it goes...with no live feed.

Jeeezuss.....

Are we losing already?

Well this is fucking balls. I hope the person running the player service is happy with themselves. Selling a duff product is a genius idea.

Just come on here to see if anyone else is having the same problem as me and it appears they are.  :crash:

One is not fucking amused

 :D I wish I could tell you!!

Ditto - Too many Julies! :-)

It's the same on Tranmere's site. Looks as though it's not just us but clubs all over the country,

Fuck Player-rip off!

Nope happening to everyone not just the cheapskates :)

 Its about time this was soughted fucking out once and for all we pay money for poor service. :smack:

You may as well follow another game in the meantime.

http://firstrownow.eu/watch/212335/1/watch-liverpool-fc-vs-crystal-palace.html

Fucking player, has this ever happened before on this scale?

Just keep getting the sound effect of me smashing my computer-which is what I'll be doing shortly.MASSIVE CUNTS!!!!!!!!!

Oxford are losing at home to Southend.

I'm not aware of it.

Danny Ward scores for Huddersfield.

Looks like its been all us so far, with a few good chances by us and only one by them so far, they have 9 or 10 players behind the ball at all times.

They do find endless ways of being utter shite don't they. Fortunately they also screwed up processing my payment so I'm living without them again this year. Sounds like a good thing. People who've paid should lobby the club or the league to apply some pressure to improve what is a dismal product, or find a new provider.

I'm a Town fan in London and I would happily pay a fiver a month or whatever for Player if I had heard anyone say anything remotely good about it ever.

Pen to Swindon i think

1-0

1-0. Penalty.

Get in.

GTFI  :pint:

Clearly the letter worked!

N'Guessan the scorer.

N'Credible signing.

Benson scores for Luton.

Players back on

I have commentary - only almost 50% of the match missed.

Yep, Player's now working for those reliant upon it.

Still no fucking excuse.

Define 'working'

It's cutting in and out terribly for me, too badly to listen to.

Sam Morshead ‏@SamMorshead_SA 38s
Swindon totally in control, Tranmere set up to be hard to beat, Town did what they had to. Efficient if uninspiring. Getting the job done.

 ;D

For me a bit more urgency required. It's a bit too slow and methodical and I'm never confident at 1 0.  That said Tranmere gave had two half chances.

Got the odd cut out, but it's pretty consistent compared to usual.

Working well for me.

In spite of all the moaning about it (not least of all from myself) I would still recommend getting it to anyone outside the Radio Swindon reception area (i.e. more than 3 miles from the town centre). It does actually work quite often.

There - now I've said something remotely good about it you're going to have to get it.

Yeah - it's shit a fair few times, but being able to listen to the match when you can't be there is so much better than following it on something like scrolling text updates.

Great idea, clumsily executed.

All a bit pedestrian at the moment. When go back to ward or hall tranmere just re group. Need to up the pace a lot. They have had one clear cut chance and do look pacey if they got more adventuous later in the game.Need another one early

It's as if people have never seen an away side come and play for a point.

Don't mind them. They're probably Daily Mail readers.

We have some right fucking idiots supporting us at times. Imagine what they would be like if we were losing, jesus wept WE ARE WINNING

Ah shit.

One more will do it, come on lads.

The game is crying out for a change to be made yet not one of our subs is warming up or has been during the second half. I find this very odd.

MAX POWER.

No bookings in the game yet? Hmm.  :sherlock:

7,889 (188). Good crowd.

That's a good crowd - perhaps a Chelsea bounce.....

Bristol City concede a 90th minute equaliser  :)

Port Vale 1 Bristol City 1  :D

Lee Hughes 90th min v winless Bristol city! 1-1 get in!

Thompson misses the JPT game on Tuesday. If you have to miss a game that's the best one.

And Vale equalise in 90th min against Shitty . . . .

 :oops:

We'll done lads.

 :clap:

Get in. 3 points is 3 points.

I think he might have invited that card.

 :pint:

Good win, 3 more points at home, no injuries today (i think) and closer to play offs than relegation.

I'm content with that.

All I can say is yawn.

I'm not saying lump it in the box but don't pass for passing sake, try and move out of position. It's almost as if we bored them to death today!

Well call I can say is that before the season started, I fully expected us to be in the bottom two after 10 games. So keep on boring Town!  8) :pint:

Biggest attendance in League 1 today.

Good result even if the game wasn't so good, keep up the home wins and we will be there or there abouts come May.

That was proper boring today. I don't mind the patient passing game but our tempo was so lacking I felt like leaving at half time. Tranmere are fucking wank.

I stand by this. Had we been 2 0 up I'd have called it a measured killing of the game. We nearly paid for it though when wes slid in by necessity and the player went down and got booked for diving.

We need to up the tempo and incisive passing.

Still a good win against a frustrating Tranmere team though.

One word sums up that match - pedestrian.

The atmosphere on and off the pitch was subdued.

Plenty of passing but going nowhere.

MOM, I'm pleased to say, was JMac. Didn't put a foot wrong and made a few excellent interceptions.

Ah well, at least we won.

And BTW bollocky Villa drawing cost me nigh on £1500 - bastards!

Agree with most there, Ranger had a great game and was blowing out of his ass after an hour, Sodje gave Hall a hard time, for me nobody played badly, but nobody shone.  Tranmere were an awful team and if only we could have injected some pace into the game we would have won by much more.

10 games in is usually considered a reasonable time to take stock...not sure we can do this, because most of the away games have been against top 6 sides and then home games v bottom 6 sides...we'll need to play a few more games v middleing  teams to get a better picture of where we are...the pattern is repeated though in the next couple as we're away to Rotherham, and home to Notts County.

I haven't been that disinterested in a game in a long time.  Did the DRS outsing the Town End?  Was Matt Ritchie watching as there was an AFC Bournemouth sponsored car in the car park?  Glad of the 3 points though.  JMac seemed inspired today, even a few Kasim/Luongo forays in the middle of the park.

We did what had to be done with a half fit team, never really troubled until the end when they suddenly had a sense of urgency. Was never really necessary to overexert ourselves today.

That we're calling a 1-0 home win boring pleases me. We'd have taken that during preseason I know!

I'm guessing the people moaning would have preferred the wolves result and performance?

No. I'd rather win. But I'm calling it as it was, dull to watch.

As much as the Slave Traders game was good todays was shit. Tranmere lined up with 10 behind the ball and were absolute dogshit. We were better but that was a pretty poor performance. How the fuck did Luongo get MOM. I know i'll get flamed but I thought JMac had a decent game today. Byrne and Pritchard were both shit. We really need someone who can take a corner. Hall just switches off. Not a great day for the Spurs boys today.
Saying that we never seemed in danger of conceding.
Its three points and they're welcome but that was a fucking awful game.  
Mason was missed today

Was a dull and pedestrian affair that
Tranmere came to spoil the game and held a high tight back line that we really didnt have much of an idea how to get thru
We played narrower than have seen for a while when width would have been our friend today
Tis a pity Storey gone out on loan as that was tailor made for his pace with a ball over the top

Still, its 3 pts and we only lose N Thompson for the JPT so thats a result in itself

Another toughie away coming up at Rotherspam

And to cap it all


 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

x 2  :nod:

Agree with the JMac comments. He was so good today he even started to showboat at the end. JMac!! haha

If Wolves was a full-blooded erection that was very much half-mast.

True, but at least we got to climax today!

We'd have murdered them if he'd been fit.

sounds like my decision to miss today was a decent one. Plymouth might be a bit more exciting

Be a good experience for them, learn how to break these Bus teams down. If there was a table of home records over the last few years, I bet we are top 3 record wise. Clubs will know that and play accordingly. Will Wolves and Peterborough come here with 4 up front? No.

46 games is the best time to judge Reg. No if's and but's then mate. We're doing ok IMO. We're mid table but based on what I've witnessed this season I'm more hopeful of going upwards than fearful of going downwards. I'd have been more than happy with this situation in June.

True, but we're football fans so it's what we do...the acid test is going to be when we visit someone shit, and then entertain one of the top sides, games we need to be winning.

3rd in League One this season based on home games only.

http://stats.football365.com/dom/ENG/D2/home.html

Agreed! I'm confident we'll come through more often than not though.

good result today, although if we hadn't had the pen. I think we wouldn't have scored at all. It was frustrating at times to watch. The atmosphere was a strange one today, agree with the comments re JMac I thought he played very very well. Didn't really see the Trannies shout for a pen, was it a dive or a foul?

Nice to grind out a result and play a bit shit.

Ward, JMac, and Kassim I thought did well. Thought the others were competent but unspectacular.

Couple of point of debate (hopefully).

- Did their player dive when Wes slid out? Didn't seem to be much protestation from Tranmere, but from my angle in the DRS I couldn't be sure. There did seem to be a bit of contact? (edit, just realised I repeated Walcott Red's Q).

Anyway my first reaction was soft penalty. So was pleasantly surprised.

- Pritchard. It could just be me but I find him a bit frustrating at the moment. Doesn't seem to beat his man very often, nor play a killer ball. There is definitely a player in there, I'm sure, just not seeing the end product myself. But maybe its just me.

He frustrates the hell out of me at times, there are times when Ritchie would've had a shot or laid off far sooner then Pritchard. But I suppose he is still fairly inexperienced

Yeah, comparing the two player to player isn't really fair without taking age into account.

I'm still hopeful Pritchard will come good. Its a learning curve and he looks very good at times.

A well worn cliché, I know, but we didn't get out of second gear today.  We didn't need to.  Tranmere were poor; we all knew that they would be before they arrived.  And we did all that we needed to do to beat a poor opposition.

I would echo the comments of others regarding McEveley - who, in my view, was solid and dependable.  I was also impressed with Byrne and Kasim, and thought Massimo did well as well.

My reading of the game is going to be no more technical than that, I'm afraid, because I had to spend much of the game marshalling my little lads...both of whom had a great day out even if they were getting a little restless towards the end.  'Wesley the Goalkeeper' remains a firm favourite.  Their second game this afternoon, and their first win.  Both now flat out!  A good day.

To save you all the energy of posting.

At the end of the season the meat and two veg of this result will have been forgotten. What will not be forgotten is the three points and clean sheet. Thank you.

Pritchard will come good in the end i think, may mean another season with us though. :hmmm:
There were rumours in 2012 that R Madrid were looking at him so obv he has something - maybe its just taking time to shine thru in Lg1.
Plenty of occasions today when I thought we could have laid the ball off quicker or had a shot but Pritchard wasnt the only guilty party.

Ultimately, that's why he's here isn't it? If he was the finished article he'd be playing in the Prem or Championship.

I don't know. I've not yet seen anything that would make me think he is of Championship quality. But I've missed a fair few games, and he played in the Championship last year so I'm probably wrong.

He's our refugee, he's our refugee, Yaser Kasim, he's our refugee. MOM for me, again.

It was rather morgue like in there today. Even the bearded little hobo chap was fairly subdued, nice to see his mates have got him a padded coat for the winter though. 7800 odd? It looked thin on the ground in each stand to me, lovely shiny new seats in the Stratton Bank though.

We did win today by the way.

The problem with Pritchard is he seems to be being played centrally in Mason's role in the latter's absence, as in the first half at Chelsea. I think Cooper's trying to shoehorn all his better players into the team at the sacrifice of our shape. In the Chelsea game, I thought we looked a lot better once L. Thomspon came on to form a proper 3 man central midfield and Pritchard was pushed back out to his more natural wide position.

Hoping to see a few of the fringe players on Tuesday, especially Branco. I'm still not convinced by Hall, seems to have too many lapses in concentration. I've been critical of McEvely in the past but would agree with others that he was our best defender today.

The Egyptian fella who came on looked pretty handy with the ball at his feet. A much better option out wide than the woeful Byrne.

Our yellow friends don't appear to be too happy.

Joyful :D

Disappointed that McEveley didn't get MOM.  It would have done his confidence the world of good and was thoroughly deserved.  There were a few boos when his name was read out at the start, utterly pathetic.  As was the comment that was shouted by some idiot by us at one point 'I've come to watch a game of football'!

As already said, it was a pretty dire game.  I enjoy watching the passing around, but at times we didn't seem to know what to do with the ball and nearly got caught on a few occasions.  A better team would possibly have capiitalised, but at the end of the day it's 3 points which is all that matters.

Re the dive/penalty shout.  When the ref blew, I thought it was a penalty and Wes was off and so did most around me in the Arkells.  They didn't seem to make much of a fuss though, so first impressions may well have been wrong.

Pritchard seems to try and make things more difficult than they need to be and often subsequently ends up taking a touch too many, losing the ball or making the wrong decision. He's always likely to create chances though much like Ritchie.  Just needs his shooting boots as well!

Was the birthday shout for you Batch?

From the little I've seen of Pritchard he is class but inconsistent. The consistency will come with experience.

Yeah, its a week until my age begins with a 4 :(

Steve Fletcher was sat in front of us taking notes, isn't he helping Plymouth out at the moment ? He is a man mountain but did have a stupidly big coat on for a warm day !

Boring as fuck that game but I don't care. We have played excellently in some games we haven't won this season so a win, and clean sheet, when not playing that well will do nicely.

Jay Mac excellent performance.

Echo the comments here about getting the 3 points/not a great performance...and also as some have said I'd have taken this and where we are now during the fearful pre-season spell we had when we didn't know if we were coming or going. 10 games in and I'd say mid table is a good reflection of the squad as a 'work in progress'. Be nice to go on a little run now, important clean sheet for the side today and Jay Mac best game in ages for us! Nile tricky up front as ever, looked as though he was possibly still carrying an injury? Atmosphere was pretty poor, but then again it was always going to be after Shitty & Chelsea.

Onto Tuesday, look forward to seeing 5 changes (I think you have to play 6 players from previous starting line up in JPT) and Thompson suspended so will miss the game Tuesday!

It's merely a new chapter of your life Batch  :)

Did all we needed to do, and nothing more... Kasim, JMac, N'Guessan were all good, Hall was terrible again, El Gabbas  looked like he'd never seen a football before, hope he's got something about him as he looked clueless.

Was there a promotion on for kids today? I was surrounded by toddlers who had no interest in the game and who irritated the fuck out of me. The dad's ill informed opinions were just as bad.

Nope, been saying it for weeks, got shot down when I did.

Pritchard is quality, have a word.

I'm curious; what makes you say this? I thought he was solid enough, did the job he was there to do and showed some good touches as well.

re. the lowe dive, ref got it spot on in my opinion.  i'm in the town end and it felt like we all thought it was a dive, think there was a bit of contact a moment before then lowe just threw himself to the ground.  indeed i shouted cheat immediately.

He rarely seems to win the header from a long ball and lets it bounce too often, giving the striker opportunities. I never feel comfortable when he's in a physical battle, unlike Ward. Granted, he's good on the ball, but I think his strength,  positioning, and reading of the game needs serious work.

If you were sat in Row U of the Arkells, I'll apologise to you now.

Hall is still learning the game to be fair. I thought Pritchard was too central yesterday. He is better on the wing i think. Was impressed with N'Guessan. Think he looks a very good player, strong and has something about him going forward.

Is it the offside flag :)

The stats on the BBC page seem to suggest it was plain sailing for us, couldn't hear the first 25 odd mins of the game due to the awful STFC World fuck ups.

Possession 64% Swindon 36% Tranny
Shots 11 Swindon 4 Tranny
On target 5 Swindon 1 Tranny
Corners 5 Swindon 3 Tranny

Interesting stat - Fouls conceded 16 Swindon 9 Tranny

Maybe Jed has a point or are we really that dirty a side?

From the Tranny forum:

Pretty much sums it up other than the possession(procession) part which is obviously very inaccurate.

Dull, boring and tedious...

However , three points on the board.

Tranmeres tactics were....defend deep and snatch a winner and then defend deep and snatch an equaliser.

They were piss poor. Hope for the slave traders yet.

Roll on the JPT...

I go along with this assessment - can`t agree with the general praise for Jay Mac though - sitting as I was in the DRS he was on our side for the first half and I thought it interesting that no one passed him the ball. Second he was involved slightly more but man of the match -  don`t think so.
Mason / Harley absence should sort this sort of match out in future games....

Red Army :nod:

64% possession just about sums the game up - but 62% of that was played in a very pedestrian manner!!  The one time we got down the side (JMac in the second half) with a bit of pace the chance opened up for Pritchard who, instead of burying hit it straight into the Arkells!!  From where I sit in the DRS (level with the 6 yard line) it was a penalty (surprised it wasn't a booking as Pritch was about to pull the trigger) and though there was some contact between Wes and their forward it was never a penalty and a definite dive.  Be interesting to see the line-up for Tuesday, expect Wes to be rested and Belford given a game.  I guess the subs bench yesterday will all mostly play as well, Ranger is definitely not fit so he may get a rest - will the Egyptian get a start?

Ok, thanks. First game I've been to this season so I have nothing else to judge him against really.

I wouldn't bank on it...

Saying that I  expect to win.

Plymouth are shocking. Don't expect much excitement from them because if you do, you will be sorely disappointed.

Saw them against Rovers earlier this season, one of the worst games of football I have ever witnessed. 

You make this 'joke' every week now. It's wearing thin.

Had a quick scan of their forum and it's very downbeat considering they're near the top still.  Seems the Priory - which used to be the only pub within a short walk of the ground and run by an Oxford fan - has now shut, taking a lot of matchday atmosphere with it.

Makes me shudder to think we might ever go down that path.  Long live the County Ground!  Where it belongs, in the heart of town.

I know. You look like a spaniel now.



(I poke fun because I'm jealous)

No mate, I was in the DRS... and was probably a little harsh, I had a headache and was in a foul mood regardless

Can't stand it when you get kids in the DRS who have no interest in the match what so ever - there is a family enclosure in the Arkells for a reason. Take the little shits in there. Appreciate it must be hard to control them at the football when they are bored but after paying £25.00 for a ticket the last thing you want is a screaming child kicking your chair for 90 minutes. At least it is expected if you are in the Arkells family part.

Pritchard faded yesterday but was lively to start with - when everyone was passing it around he looked to run at them and won the penalty. Fair enough criticise some of his non displays away from home but we would miss him if he wasn't in the side, has that extra quality.

A painfully boring match but 3 more points in the bag.

How was Byrne yesterday? I'd be a bit miffed if I was Ajose, having scored a couple against City, to fall behind him. That said, I presume Cooper can't squeeze Ranger, N'Guessan, Pritchard and Ajose into a side that may, every now and again, need to defend!

Yeah it was noticeable that despite being in acres of space at times the ball went back inside central rather than to JMac
Thought it odd at the time

was ok, nothing special but puts in effort. Thought he was a bit narrow (central) at times. But as mentioned, we seemed intent in passing it through the middle rather than getting it wide.

Byrne made a lot of good runs that although weren't rewarded with a telling pass, created space behind him for someone else to move into and exploit. He was okay.

...which did surprise me a little, given that Tranmere's own game plan involved parking the proverbial bus.  One game where, to me anyway, it might have made more sense to take the ball out wide.

I don't think it was just you that thought that :)

I love our approach to the game now and we look class at times. However, surely it's worth giving Ranger something to attack now and then. It seems he does all the donkey work and works his socks off in playing the number 9 role very well, but when we have clear opportunities to utilise his strength in the air we insist on playing the ball back into crowded areas.
Can't help but feel we're missing a trick there, N'Guessan also has the presence to be effective from crosses.

Agree  :clap:

No point playing 2 wing backs and rarely putting in crosses
Ranger and N'Guessen both look like can handle that situation

I sometimes think we play too much 'to feet' football. There were times in the game (quite a few of them tbh) where the ball went back and forth between the defenders and Wes when there was acres of empty space beyond their back line, towards the corner flags.

Instead of a backward or short infield ball, a good diagonal or long ball into the space for either of the Nathans to run on to would have torn Tranmere a whole host of new arseholes.

Still, a win and a clean sheet was none too shabby.

JMac had a really good game I think and no one had a bad one.

I think the days of banging balls into the channels for some willing workhorse to run down are over at the CG.

And long may it last.

We need to get used to the 'to feet' style we are now playing and while it may be frustrating from time to time it sure as hell beats the pants of most of the guff on offer in League 1

Don't get me wrong- I'm not campaigning for a total abandonment of 'to feet' but, I do think that sometimes, a player with vision can play a quality longer ball to open up the opposition.

Glen Hoddle did it frequently for us and was worshipped for it.

I think we should play 4-4-2

:)

Hoddle did because he could deliver the ball on a sixpence from a 40 yard pass, league 1 players dont usually have the same skill and just ends up in a hopeless punt up field, lose the ball, and then leave the opposition to come at us, at least with the passing keep ball game we are playing, the opposition barely have the chance to score.

If the opposition dont have the ball, then they cant score!