By Joe Torpey
August 8 2017
A look ahead to Rovers' opening home game of the season which sees Woking visit Prenton Park on Tuesday evening....
Torquay's most well know citizen, Basil Fawlty, famously warned visitors about over-expectations of their trip to the seaside town.
I don't think the 492 Tranmere fans expected to see Krakatoa erupting or herds of Wildebeest sweeping by but their high hopes (and the thousands of us following the game at home) of an easy victory were equally over-ambitious. The eventual point gained with only nine on the pitch was far from many people's predictions.
Due to the relentless nature of this League though, any lessons to be learnt and positives to be taken need to happen quickly as Woking arrive at Prenton Park on Tuesday.
Woking will offer a similar challenge to Torquay as they also have got lots of new faces in their team and the average age of the squad is quite young. They finished 18th last season so expectations are low (6/1 to go down this season) but a morale boosting 2-1 win over Gateshead in their first game has given the whole club an injection of positivity.
New signing Joe Ward impressed many, including celebrity fan Eamonn Holmes, with his tricky wing play and he topped off his performance with a goal on debut.
Tranmere won the corresponding fixture comfortably last season with a 3-0 victory, and the bookies clearly think this will lead to an easy victory - the home win is at 2/5 and a Woking victory is 6/1 with Sky Bet.
Tellingly perhaps, Andy Cook scored two in that 3-0 win and could be in line for a recall on Tuesday with James Norwood beginning his suspension. Richie Sutton too will probably get a chance to stake his claim as a replacement for the other suspended player - Steve McNulty.
Social media was awash on Saturday with jubilant fans from rival teams revelling in our 'demise' at Plainmoor. Time then to send a message to our detractors with a confident and disciplined home performance at fortress Prenton.
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Quote:roger mellie
Will not be impressed if Mangan is given the nod ahead of Cook.
Quote:*2Hoots MonQuote:roger mellie
Will not be impressed if Mangan is given the nod ahead of Cook.
+1
Quote:+2Hoots MonQuote:roger mellie
Will not be impressed if Mangan is given the nod ahead of Cook.
+1
Quote:hong kong rover
yer know yer know yer know yer know yer know yer know yer know yer know yer know yer know yer know yer know... just listened to jay mceverley being interviewed on wirral radio and completely lost count how many times he said that, must have been close on 50 times lol... went to bed early and set the alarm to listen to full match commentary, back to bed for about 3 hrs after the game. dave Higgins co commentator on wirral radio, best ever dave.
Quote:Unfortunately the old bad habit of losing concentration near the end of a half has struck again. Awful goal to concede. Nice solo gosl by Cook and great shot by norburn.hong kong rover
2 up yesssss
Quote:853OKGQuote:Unfortunately the old bad habit of losing concentration near the end of a half has struck again. Awful goal to concede. Nice solo gosl by Cook and great shot by norburn.hong kong rover
2 up yesssss
Quote:Have to agree with this and I owe him an apology after my earlier comments, let's hope he can keep this up. Norburn was class, Harris was a little fighter & between the 2 of them gave Hughes that bit more time. Whole defence looked solid. Only slight negative was Dunn, seemed reluctant to take on defenders, maybe needs more game time. Great 3 points and thoroughly deservedUglybob
Thought Hughes had a great game tonight playing in the deeper role . His holding and distribution was spot on .
Quote:Higgosboots
Good result, but we need to stop conceding from nothing when in total control.
Quote:Jack of all Trades
As you say plenty of positives.
I thought generally Ritchie Sutton and Jay McEveley dealt with Effiong who looked massive!! very well but, failure to stop the cross cost us the goal.
Cooky showed why he should be the first name on the team sheet, Ollie Norburn reminded me of a young James Wallace circa 2013.
I am sorry to have to comment on the referee (Karl Evans)who again IMO, was very poor, yet another blatant penalty missed (foul on Jack Dunn first half)the defender was the last man by a good way and just a booking for the terribly late tackle on Jay Harris (who I thought was back to his best)
Still room for improvement but a very good team performance.
Quote:jonesy792
I would say that's our strongest XI but with Tolitt in for Dunn and McNulty for Sutton
Quote:Agree with Tollit but not McNultyjonesy792
Entertaining game.
Norburn my man of the match. Great movement , passing and scored a cracker.
Impressed with Hughes in deeper role.
Great composed finish from Cook, and with Dunn and Jennings either side (both were a handful) I thought we looked good all over the park.
I would say that's our strongest XI but with Tolitt in for Dunn and McNulty for Sutton
Quote:Hoots MonQuote:Higgosboots
Good result, but we need to stop conceding from nothing when in total control.
Theirs was a good goal.Superb cross and good glancing header into the corner. Hard to blame the defence. It was a dampener at the end of the first half but that's all.
Quote:HiggosbootsQuote:Hoots MonQuote:Higgosboots
Good result, but we need to stop conceding from nothing when in total control.
Theirs was a good goal.Superb cross and good glancing header into the corner. Hard to blame the defence. It was a dampener at the end of the first half but that's all.
It was a good goal, we just seem to have a habit of it, up until then they created a bit but didn't look like scoring in so much as the defence had it under control, but the defence did switch off.
Quote:fully agree. He looked isolated and early on we looked like we were missing Nors. But like you said once we scored....roger mellie
Not a big fan of 4-3-3. A bit Brabin-esque. One striker; Cookie isolated; no width; and Jennings out of position. But once we scored we controlled the game and played some of the best passing/keep possession football you are likely to see at this level. Carved them open on numerous occasions - shame we weren't more clinical in front of goal - it could have been a rugby score.
Quote:853OKG
Unfortunately the old bad habit of losing concentration near the end of a half has struck again. Awful goal to concede. Nice solo gosl by Cook and great shot by norburn.
Quote:RonnyBE
Satisfactory game. We can't expect not a single mistake being made, the Woking striker had too much space on the goal (and scored nicely) but as mentioned before, there's plenty of good stuff to remember. Thumbs up to Cookie, he looked very relieved upon the goal - let's hope he can confirm it against Sutton but the drive certainly is there. At the other hand, a moment of my thoughts for Alabi as well; his minutes looked unfortunate but we'll need him this season so let's hope he can snap into it.Quote:853OKG
Unfortunately the old bad habit of losing concentration near the end of a half has struck again. Awful goal to concede. Nice solo gosl by Cook and great shot by norburn.
I did a small check on the goals we took in last year in the League and if there's a problem it's in the start of the half, not in the end. Took in only 2 of the 39 in between minute 30 and 45 whilst we had 5 against in the first five minutes and four against in between 45 and 50...
Quote:hong kong rover
I see that leyton orient had an attendance of 4,411 last night for their first ever home game in the NL. A little bit less than the prenton gate last night.. ourselves, wrexham and orient battling for best attendance figures this season.
Quote:The thing with the tackle on Dunn ( which was right in front of us in the lower Kop ) was , in my mind anyway , that their No5 actually took the ball before contacting with Dunn . And if that was the case then it wasn't a foul. Could be wrong though .hong kong rover
just viewed the 12 min highlights of the woking game on you tube. some of our passing looked decent and we put a couple of decent balls into the box. it sure looked like the woking no 5 was the last man when he brought dunn down in the 2nd half, shouldn't that have been a red card? I noticed the andy cook goal celebration when the rovers players were jumping on his back, cooky looked pumped up and angry. was this his anger to MM and a statement from cooky to say come on gaffer u should be picking me every week? anyway great result rovers.
Quote:UglybobQuote:The thing with the tackle on Dunn ( which was right in front of us in the lower Kop ) was , in my mind anyway , that their No5 actually took the ball before contacting with Dunn . And if that was the case then it wasn't a foul. Could be wrong though .hong kong rover
just viewed the 12 min highlights of the woking game on you tube. some of our passing looked decent and we put a couple of decent balls into the box. it sure looked like the woking no 5 was the last man when he brought dunn down in the 2nd half, shouldn't that have been a red card? I noticed the andy cook goal celebration when the rovers players were jumping on his back, cooky looked pumped up and angry. was this his anger to MM and a statement from cooky to say come on gaffer u should be picking me every week? anyway great result rovers.
Quote:I think HKR that is was a bit of Tiger Woods fist pumping . Don't think it was anger at MM or Norburn . Just a bit of ' Touch for that ' !hong kong roverQuote:UglybobQuote:The thing with the tackle on Dunn ( which was right in front of us in the lower Kop ) was , in my mind anyway , that their No5 actually took the ball before contacting with Dunn . And if that was the case then it wasn't a foul. Could be wrong though .hong kong rover
just viewed the 12 min highlights of the woking game on you tube. some of our passing looked decent and we put a couple of decent balls into the box. it sure looked like the woking no 5 was the last man when he brought dunn down in the 2nd half, shouldn't that have been a red card? I noticed the andy cook goal celebration when the rovers players were jumping on his back, cooky looked pumped up and angry. was this his anger to MM and a statement from cooky to say come on gaffer u should be picking me every week? anyway great result rovers.
ive had another look at it again bob, looks like he brought him down to me but I could be wrong though, lol.. it was a lazy n casual pass back from the woking no2 which the no 5 wasn't anticipating thus putting him in trouble and dunn was able to pounce on the mistake. I think the argument is that if he was the last man then why did the ref only brandish a yellow. back to the cooky goal celebration was his anger directed at MM or Ollie norburn who was climbing on his back?
Quote:The Refs decision seems to me to be non decisive . If it was a foul then the No5 was the last man so it should have been a red . If it wasn't a foul he shouldn't have booked him at all.UglybobQuote:I think HKR that is was a bit of Tiger Woods fist pumping . Don't think it was anger at MM or Norburn . Just a bit of ' Touch for that ' !hong kong roverQuote:UglybobQuote:The thing with the tackle on Dunn ( which was right in front of us in the lower Kop ) was , in my mind anyway , that their No5 actually took the ball before contacting with Dunn . And if that was the case then it wasn't a foul. Could be wrong though .hong kong rover
just viewed the 12 min highlights of the woking game on you tube. some of our passing looked decent and we put a couple of decent balls into the box. it sure looked like the woking no 5 was the last man when he brought dunn down in the 2nd half, shouldn't that have been a red card? I noticed the andy cook goal celebration when the rovers players were jumping on his back, cooky looked pumped up and angry. was this his anger to MM and a statement from cooky to say come on gaffer u should be picking me every week? anyway great result rovers.
ive had another look at it again bob, looks like he brought him down to me but I could be wrong though, lol.. it was a lazy n casual pass back from the woking no2 which the no 5 wasn't anticipating thus putting him in trouble and dunn was able to pounce on the mistake. I think the argument is that if he was the last man then why did the ref only brandish a yellow. back to the cooky goal celebration was his anger directed at MM or Ollie norburn who was climbing on his back?
Quote:UglybobQuote:The Refs decision seems to me to be non decisive . If it was a foul then the No5 was the last man so it should have been a red . If it wasn't a foul he shouldn't have booked him at all.UglybobQuote:I think HKR that is was a bit of Tiger Woods fist pumping . Don't think it was anger at MM or Norburn . Just a bit of ' Touch for that ' !hong kong roverQuote:UglybobQuote:The thing with the tackle on Dunn ( which was right in front of us in the lower Kop ) was , in my mind anyway , that their No5 actually took the ball before contacting with Dunn . And if that was the case then it wasn't a foul. Could be wrong though .hong kong rover
just viewed the 12 min highlights of the woking game on you tube. some of our passing looked decent and we put a couple of decent balls into the box. it sure looked like the woking no 5 was the last man when he brought dunn down in the 2nd half, shouldn't that have been a red card? I noticed the andy cook goal celebration when the rovers players were jumping on his back, cooky looked pumped up and angry. was this his anger to MM and a statement from cooky to say come on gaffer u should be picking me every week? anyway great result rovers.
ive had another look at it again bob, looks like he brought him down to me but I could be wrong though, lol.. it was a lazy n casual pass back from the woking no2 which the no 5 wasn't anticipating thus putting him in trouble and dunn was able to pounce on the mistake. I think the argument is that if he was the last man then why did the ref only brandish a yellow. back to the cooky goal celebration was his anger directed at MM or Ollie norburn who was climbing on his back?
Quote:Yeah , I think Alabi is gonna put defences under pressure as well with his presence , he seems a powerful lad .hong kong rover
it was good to see a couple of telling crosses from rovers down the left hand side, one sent over from Jennings and the other from ridelagh. that's what we all want to see and with cooky on the end of them too. wide play and good balls into the box is what puts NL defences in all sorts of trouble and under pressure.
Quote:roger mellie
Cook is a 30 goal a season striker.
Quote:Matt34Quote:roger mellie
Cook is a 30 goal a season striker.
I think he has the potential to be so, but to say he is when he scored 23 last season, is a little overzealous and I mean no ill to you by saying that.
Quote:hong kong rover
thks for that hoots, bobson bawling, that's some name