Swindon Town v Tranmere Rovers Official Matchday Thread

[walcot red]

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.

[Batch]

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.

[walcot red]

- 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

[Batch]

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.

[Ardiles]

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.

[fatbasher]

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.

[@mwooly63]

Pritchard will come good in the end i think, may mean another season with us though.
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.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

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.

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.

[Batch]

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.

[Shaw Rosso]

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.

[BruceChatwin]

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.

[bigbobjoylove]

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.

[chalkies_shorts]

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

[tans]

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

Joyful

[joteddyred]

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?