Swindon Town (A) Match Discussion Thread

i know its only first game of the season and there is still along way to go but for fuk sake, i honestly thought that the way we played against blackpool the result would have been 3-1 to us or at least a draw.
unfortunatly i couldnt get to the game today but unless swindon are a completely different team than last year i imagine we must have been pretty poor. ronnie best have some explaining to do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ronnie won't have explaning to do but excuse making and coming out with never ending source of cliches like "No weve got to bounce back".

It did sound like we were poor which is disappointing but not very surprising considering were playing a daft system, new players and a poor manager. Why did he only use 1 sub and why did O'Callahan start if he wasn't fit? Why didn't Ahmed or Henry play then bring O'Callahan on later?

Anyways its the first game lets hope they sort themeselves out sooner rather than later. Although that may not happen until the messiah returns!

u can always look at reading a few seasons ago
i think they lost the first two and went unbeaten the rest of the season

WE ALL H8 LEEDS @#$%&
WE ALL H8 LEEDS @#$%&



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008:08:09:20:13:04 by tranmere08.

Last Season's three Champions - West Brom, Swansea and MK Dons all lost there opening games of the season.

Total over-reaction as usual.

My take on the game to follow.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2008:08:09:23:27:52 by Deadly Submarine.

I listened to the second half of the game on Radio Merseyside, choosing to watch Soccer Saturday to begin with and i thought that Tranmere second half sounded like they were having a good go.

They must have atleast 5 or 6 corners in the second half alone and they was a sustained period of around 5minutes were we had them. But by that time it was already 3-0 and no way back.

Was Bas Savage's miss from that Andy Taylor cross as bad as the commentator made out?

I can't really give a full opinion having not gone the game.

Atleast Bas is off the mark and running! Something positive to take out of the game please?

OK here we go. I've had five hours to calm down and think logically about what I witnessed today and as not many from here went to the game I will keep it as honest as possible and not let the views on the game be affected by bias.

The main observation was the ease with which the defence was pulled apart on a number of occasions and it seemed from this game at least that the 4-3-3 formation was a disaster.

However, as Ronnie rightly says in his comments post-match, three of the defenders performed awfully and no matter what formation we had played we can't afford for that to happen.

Ronnie has had the balls to change the formation to something new for this season and stick without throughout pre-season in attempt to make it work.

If in five or six games time (maybe even longer) it clearly isn't working then he has to have the balls to admit it's failed and do something about it.

Back to today and there were just too many poor performances individually I felt, summed up as follows (marks out of 10 in brackets).....

Achterberg (3) - Was put in trouble by too many poor balls back to him but failed to command and looked dodgy on a number of occasions.

Taylor (8) - As Ronnie said, the only one of the back four to be consistently good throughout (as ever).

Kay (5) - The way they were exposed at the back (especially for goals two and three added up to a poor day for the Captain.

Chorley (5) - Solid and reliable in winning headers but see Kay for the same reasons as above.

Antwi (2) - An absolutely shocking display although Liverpool Fans have already stated that he is not a good right back and he was up against a Player that looked far too good for League One in Anthony MacNamee.

Jennings (6) - The midfield was overrun at times but Jennings got stuck in.

O'Callaghan (2) - An abysmal performance from the midfielder who was barely in the game and when he was he was prone to mistakes.

Barnett (8) - Man of the Match and a class above the rest of the Rovers team. Missed a chance he should have scored in the first half but a great debut.

Savage (6) - Still failed to win much in the air but had a decent second half. His finish for the goal was scrappy but the build up before hand made up for it - no Moonwalk though!!

Curran (6) - Worked hard as ever and had a couple of shooting chances.

Moore (6) - An excellent through ball to Sonko for the goal and chased a lot but as with the other strikers they made little impression on the Swindon defence.

Sonko (6) - Good cross for the goal and looked lively down the right when he came on.

On the whole one of the worst Rover's performances I have seen for a long while but with Coyne missed in goal and Edds and Greenacre also absent time will tell.

Swindon could of course be this season's surprise package and batter a lot of other teams but again time will tell.

It's far too early to make any judgements in my opinion. From what I saw today, if this formation clicks it will be brilliant but if it doesn't there is trouble ahead.

As Ste suggests from listening to the second half we did get on top of the game in the second half although to be fair Swindon did seem to step off the gas after the third goal went in.

There are positives from the game (Barnett for one) and I think it will be put right - hopefully sooner rather than later.

Report to follow tomorrow.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008:08:10:00:13:08 by Deadly Submarine.

The problem is will Moore have the guts to drop some players against Grimsby - Chorley and Antwi for Waterfall and Holmes for instance? My guess is no!

O'Callahan wasn't fit according to the radio so I don't see why he didnt play Ahmed instead and bring him on at a later stage.

Why drop Chorley for Waterfall?

He needs to move Kay to right back and put Antwi in the centre if Antwi is going to continue to play.

Whenever Chorley plays we lose! Put Antwi on the bench apparently he was rubbish at Hartlepool as centre back which is why he ended up a right back. Chorley and Kay don't seem to have any understanding. I would keep Kay in the team ahead of Chorley any day.

Chorley did more than Kay today be honest and they seemed to be fine against Blackpool last weekend.

Probably just an off day for them yesterday,

Times up Ronnie!



Poor manager poor system and another poor use of subs.


Oldham were 3-1 down yesterday. Brought on 3 subs and won 4-3. Yes against 10 men but the subs caused the sendings off.


AAAAAAAH

Caused the sendings off Haha! That's priceless.

1) Henry didn't play because he's suspended

2) We were missing Coyne, Greenacre, Edds and Goodison - four players of which three you would expect to start when available and make a marked difference on the team

3) It's the first game of the season, but already you're all out saying "Time up", "not good enough", "going down". Give it a chance, promotion battles aren't won and lost in August. It's a long season, we've got 45 games left to go out there and pick up plenty of points.

4) "We never win with Chorley in the team" - There was me thinking that when we shot to the top of League One last season, it was HIM and NOT KAY partnering Ian Goodison at the back.

All spot on Matt!

(See you in 45 minutes!)

Greenacre makes about as much difference as a traffic cone these days!

The strike force against Swindon would be my first choice if Gornell was in for Moore.

So the strike force played at Swindon wouldn't be your first choice?

Matt- your spot on. Couldn't agree more.

It makes me laugh, how people want Ronnie out already.

People didnt like his so called labeled; 'hooth' ball system now he has changed the system tryed to play more attackign which the Fans would want and people are already critisisng it it's a joke. To be honest i've been to many great Tranmere games, Including the likes of Everton when we won 3-0 and Southampton but when we played Blackpool last week with the 4-3-3 system it was the best game i have ever seen Rovers play in we were awesome i think we would walk this league like Swansea did if we played as good as we did at Blackpool.

Just to remind everyone Blackpool was a FRIENDLY!!!

The strike force wouldn't be first choice if were stuck with this 4-3-3 I would play eith Curran, Savage , Gornell or Curran, Savage, Sonko.

So what if it was a friendly, it was against a team in a higher division and we completely outplayed them.

.....I see it didn't take tranny_man long to post something about Ronnie....what a suprise...!

1 game in and it's all doom and gloom,

I didn't go to the game, so can't offer opion regarding perforemance, leave that to Deadly Sub, lets see how we are playing come September...

I'll say it again it was a FRIENDLY they won't have been fully commited, it won't have been the same approach as a league match. They won't have been too bothered by the result as long as they get their fitness levels up. Blackpool arnt excaltly that good either all of their best players have gone.

Perhaps it also shows that our players can't perform when placed under any kind of pressure.

Perhaps it could of shown Swindon have a very good side.

Just because its a friendly, we still passed the ball around and made some great moves, that wouldn't of been stopped by most of the teams in our league.

We passed the ball around well AT TIMES on Saturday too but we just kept getting caught at the back.

It's early days and as Mikey says (and I said on Saturday after the game) Swindon could end up being promotion contenders for all we know!

I was at the game on saturday and was really depressed with the display. I haven't seen much of us in pre season so didn't really know what to expect, but the new signings all looked out of their depth. Antwi was shocking, and in the first half completely backed out of a 50/50 challenge which as a fan is disgraceful to see. O'Callaghan doesen't look like a footballer and at one stage I forgot he was playing, was awful. Barnett did ok and looks as though hel come good. Bas tried hard but that is as good as he is going to play, he aint a good player simple as that. All in all we were laughable to be honest, but its the first game and we can only get better, and we have to otherwise we will be out of the cup.

How can you judge Bas Savage of ONE game, thats ridiculous! Others have said he did well and how you can say he won't get any better - do you have a crystal ball?

The whole squad had a bad day on the whole, that doesn't make all of them terrible players.

bas savage is @#$%&.

fact.

Opinion not Fact!

To be honest Antwi was shocking in the extreme but 2 be honest so was everyone else apart from Taylor in the back 4

nah its a fact!! i bet even he would agree!!

i am willing to stick my neck out and say,, he wont score more than 7 goals this season, and that he wont be here for the next!

by the way, why is it so hard for me to slip swear words in nowadays??

Nothing has changed with the swear filter lol - it's the same as it always has been!