Tranmere scorefred sponsored by let’s go again again

[stag324]

Just walked in after a nightmare journey home

Poor performance all round. Lucky to get level at the break and then we give away an easy second goal.

Onto Bradford, hopefully bounce back

[Stagstown]

The problem we’ve had the last couple of games is dealing with the pace of a winger or wing back that has a run at our back line.The lad Apter last night and the Swindon no7 Saturday.Maybe like someone put earlier we might need to take a yellow card every now and again,maybe a bit cynical but that’s what the top sides do.How many times have you seen the South Americans do this at world cups etc.Anyway not too much damage done last night regarding other results.So onto Saturday and hopefully we can bounce back.

[PostmanPat]

Too many under par performances. Aside from Reed and Brunt none of the starters were up to usual standards. We still did enough to have got a point though.

George Maris had a poor game, didn't think Nichols was brilliant and actually disagree with Nigel in that Swan looked our brightest attacking threat.

The subs didn't do enough either although Hiram looked quite bright.

Tranmere played some nice stuff in patches. We struggled again with the ball into the feet of the centre forward and him "popping it off" for runners.

We'll bounce back though, we always do.

Disagree we deserved nothing. Can’t not start DKD absolute bonkers move. Also Pym should do better for the goals…

Onto Bradford

[yorkshire stag]

The problem we’ve had the last couple of games is dealing with the pace of a winger or wing back that has a run at our back line.The lad Apter last night and the Swindon no7 Saturday.Maybe like someone put earlier we might need to take a yellow card every now and again,maybe a bit cynical but that’s what the top sides do.How many times have you seen the South Americans do this at world cups etc.Anyway not too much damage done last night regarding other results.So onto Saturday and hopefully we can bounce back.

interesting what a bit of pace offers a team int it ?

[stagmanrob]

Sometimes in Clough's post match interviees he says the odd thing that I might not necessarily agree with, but what he said to Jake on BBC Radio Nottingham after full-time I don't think I could agree with a single word of any of it.

Had plenty of time to digest what he was falsely claiming too, as to top of a truly dire performance, it seemed every traffic cone in the UK was deployed last night to close the M53 and M56 in sections and make the journey home another absolute disaster.

Thought we looked poor all over the pitch, nobody really stood out necessarily. It was slow and lacked any tempo, and Tranmere deserved to win as they wanted it more and worked harder.
I think had we equalised it would have felt like robbery.

Can't help but think that was a "starting to do a Mansfield" type performance - because on Bradford's pitch Saturday, with a big crowd behind them and the bantams undoubtedly raising their game 10-20% like everyone does against top of the league - we can't afford to be that lacklustre again or questions emerge and negativity starts to rumble about us typically starting to "bottle promotion."

[PEAR CIDER]

listening to the interview

Hes called swan out a couple of times, but then said Nicholls played well.... imo Nicholls was largely anonymous and swan was much better. Opinions hey

[oldweststander]

Very disappointed with Nichols and Lucas Akins' ball control was back at its frustrating worst. Cargill has been found out re his pace but going forward he is a threat. Maybe time for Macca to re-emerge?

Brunt and Reed were by far the pick of the bunch and Swan our only hope of an equaliser until DKD appeared.

On the Bradford with a more determined attitude and if necessary get a little more physical.

[adamstag]

listening to the interview

Hes called swan out a couple of times, but then said Nicholls played well.... imo Nicholls was largely anonymous and swan was much better. Opinions hey

It did t work for nicholls at all last night, his movement was poor, he looked off the pace - just didn’t have a good game - these things happen but it was a surprise he remained on the pitch as long as he did - to call swan out was a surprise.

[yellowstagsfan]

Surprised no one has mentioned how poor (by his own standards) Flint has been over the last few games. Quicker players are playing around him and he has been largely innefective. Non moreso than when he is lumped up front and gets in everyone’s way.

Yeah I like Flinty and think he has been Nigel’s best signing but you’re right it seems something is not quite right since his shoulder injury.

[MTFCMusings]

I don't think he's been poor defensively, it's his distribution which is frustrating at times, but you accept the trade off.

[Costastag]

Like a couple of posters have mentioned ,i think we are a bit guilty of rotating for rotating s sake clarke was a big miss last night ,though he was carrying a knock anyway I know. weve got a. great squad but i think if fit we should always be starting with clarke and dkd anyway we still kept a bit of a gap onto bradford now which is a bit of a must win

[northern stag]

i don’t think many of us who watched last night saw what Nigel did in the performance , usually he’s not far off the mark, but i disagree with most of what he said about the game

[Sandy Pate Best Stag]

I only got to watch from where they had just scored their second goal so not much to judge on really.

I think we appear to have lost a bit of belief. Although we are still going through the motions, it doesn’t appear to me that the players actually think their efforts will come off and goals will flow. Confidence is all in this game and a bit like fairies, if you don’t believe, the move will die (acknowledgements to J.M.Barrie). I thought the same when MK Dons took the lead at our place when heads definitely went down.

It’s fine margins but I don’t think it would hurt to show them a few videos of earlier games when we’ve ripped through defences. Confidence brings that extra zip and that’s what I thought was missing from the section I managed to watch.

They need reminding we are top of the league.

[MTFCMusings]

For me it's the number of shots we're conceding to the opposition over the last two games that's a little worrying.

However, looking back at the reverse fixtures, we got 1 point out of 6, this time round we got 3 out of 6, and we conceded a pretty much identical number of shots in each return fixtures, so it's possible that those teams simply had a style which was set up to play against us.

I posted on the top 3 thread before the Newport game that if we matched the reverse fixtures results we would end up on 83 points, plus whatever we got from the MK Dons games. We're now 2pts ahead of that target as it stands. We drew against Bradford in the reverse fixture.

[stagmanrob]

listening to the interview

Hes called swan out a couple of times, but then said Nicholls played well.... imo Nicholls was largely anonymous and swan was much better. Opinions hey

Yeah that was one of the things that was a bit ridiculous, Nichols was only second to Lewis in terms of being lightweight and losing any sort of physical battle for me. Lost it more times than did anything of note.

The main thing that Nigel said that totally baffled me was that we "controlled the game."
Started to make me question whether I'd been at a different game to him.
It was only when I listened to Neal Bishop summarising the game afterwards that what I saw seemed to be what others did.
Bish said he's seen us a few times this season and everytime we have a foothold in the game and control large elements of it, but last night we never did.

Baffling interview really from Cloughie.

[Chrisuknottm]

Regarding the post match interview with the Manager is it not simply that with only 9 games to go, some players mis firing and others flagging (even though you'd hope the adrenalin from the League Position might help), he is simply closing ranks, maintaining morale and keeping everyone together as much as possible for the final run in. The last thing he wants is for the team to turn on itself or him at this crucial point. Surely he knows how to man manage them by now. Does it really matter now what he says? We are all focused on our results and those of the teams around us and anyone wanting to pick the dots and commas out of his interview is chasing the wrong stick.

[Aspleystag]

Why all the doom and gloom we lost 10 times in 76-77 and still won the league, our competition aren’t exactly pulling up any trees.

[MTFCMusings]

Agreed, I think take the post match interviews with a pinch of salt. Take this as an example :

Clough said after the Swindon game that they don't mind the game being open as they feel they'll create better chances on the opposition. I was surprised by that and said I didn't believe he would have been happy with the lack of control.
Last night, Clough said they switched formation to 4-2-3-1 from the start to try and gain more control.

[HitchcocksShins]

Why all the doom and gloom we lost 10 times in 76-77 and still won the league, our competition aren’t exactly pulling up any trees.

What does something that happened 50 years ago have to do with anything

We've lost 3 of our last 6 games, which amounts to equal half the rest of our seasons defeat tally.
Like it or not, that's going to trigger a panic response from a number of fans.

I still believe we have it in us but it doesn't stop me having nightmares about MK Dons beating, and leapfrogging us into the final remaining automatic place on April 13th

[part time pete]

I see no one has mentioned that their winning goal took quite a big deflection away from Pym.

We were sat right behind it and you could see it.

[pemill]

DKD on the bench, cart horse always in the starting XI up front. Swan is the real deal but scored last night so will be on the bench come Saturday.

Cloughie has mentioned on a couple of occasions that performances aren't important at this stage of the season, last night just goes to show they are, keep performing like that we won't make the autos. That's the 3rd game in a row that the opposition have sliced through our midfield and got in on goal, either we've been sussed or the system we are playing is too open

The obvious things from last night. we were second to virtually everything, Tranmere were up for it and all over us like a rash, their right winger had the beating of Cargill from the KO the game was crying out for Macca's pace, we missed DKD badly, Maris was off his game very unusual for him, Nicholls was like a fish out of water in the position he played and Reed with his frustrating slowing down the game was driving me to distraction and set the tone for our inept performance.

Arguably we were beaten by the better team, we were on the night but the league position suggests we beat ourselves.

One amusing thing after the game was the little kiddies from Tranmere singing 'top of the league your having a laugh' especially as they are a bottom half table team in 16th position.

[Tawnystag]

Some teams are better chasing, and some are more comfortable defending a league position. I fear we are the former.

[Amberheart]

I see no one has mentioned that their winning goal took quite a big deflection away from Pym.

We were sat right behind it and you could see it.

True nothing Pym could’ve done about it

[MTFCMusings]

I see no one has mentioned that their winning goal took quite a big deflection away from Pym.

We were sat right behind it and you could see it.

I think that is because it wasn't obvious from the camera footage.

[broomo]

DKD on the bench, cart horse always in the starting XI up front. Swan is the real deal but scored last night so will be on the bench come Saturday.

Cloughie has mentioned on a couple of occasions that performances aren't important at this stage of the season, last night just goes to show they are, keep performing like that we won't make the autos. That's the 3rd game in a row that the opposition have sliced through our midfield and got in on goal, either we've been sussed or the system we are playing is too open

The obvious things from last night. we were second to virtually everything, Tranmere were up for it and all over us like a rash, their right winger had the beating of Cargill from the KO the game was crying out for Macca's pace, we missed DKD badly, Maris was off his game very unusual for him, Nicholls was like a fish out of water in the position he played and Reed with his frustrating slowing down the game was driving me to distraction and set the tone for our inept performance.

Arguably we were beaten by the better team, we were on the night but the league position suggests we beat ourselves.

One amusing thing after the game was the little kiddies from Tranmere singing 'top of the league your having a laugh' especially as they are a bottom half table team in 16th position.

Cart horse?

I really do despair over some fans of this club.