Tranmere Rovers ( A) League 1 Friday 12/10/07.

[Salop Saddler]

Mooney was motm by a mile for me. Never stopped working for the whole 90mins, A real inspiration.

Ishy continues to progress nicely, and Dann and Gerrard will prove to be one of the best pairings in the league this season.

Great support, great point, and really pleased.

[Kiansmom]

Excellent and solid performance last night I thought. We started slighter slower than them in the first half and I thought Zola was proving a bit of a handful for them, holding the ball up well and bringing others into the game well, but we managed to contain him and grew during the first 45. Shame to see Mattis go off as it was my first look at him, but Deeney came on and did a solid job I thought. At half time I said to Manchester Saddler, as we scoffed our cheeseburgers - oh btw WFC, quick service, hot, and a decent price! :wink: ) that the men of the first half were Dobson, Gerrard and Bradley.

2nd half we started very well, and despite some, what looked like from our end, a couple of glaring misses from Tranmere, we matched them easily, if not dominated in a few spells. Deeney almost scored with a cracking volley which Achterberg did very well to keep out, and any rebounds we had just weren't falling to us. Seemed like we played a very long second half but very relieved when the whistle went. Got to be happy with 0-0 and a fairish result - maybe we just edged it.

Players wise:
Ince - iffy start and a few flaps but great save from a header and collected well overall
Weston - not his best game to be honest, but okay
Dann - Solid and had a particularly good 2nd half
Gerrard - same as Dann really, they played Zola and Taylor very well. Just don't hit our free kicks straight out please Ant! :wink:
Fox - played well, used the ball quite effectively and seemed comfortable - getting better
Sonko - quiet game really and didn't get a chance to do great deal.
Dobson - Awesome really. Won most things, shut their play down and used the ball well to help us maintain possession
Bradley - pretty good, a bit in and out of the game but good legs and linked up well with the other youngsters.
Mattis / Deeney - no real time for Mattis; Deeney played very well, particularly 2nd half when he broke forward with the ball a few times.
Ishy - Had the beating of his full back and had some good runs, but end product still not great at times. Tranny tried to crowd him out in the end. He shows good touches and tricks but loses the ball too many times either because he's trying to tempt the player in a bit too close or trying something too fancy. Sometimes I wish he would just hold the ball a little bit more and look for a simple pass rather than lose it cheaply.
Mooney - trojan! Worked his socks off, encouraged others and led from the front. Won the ball a lot and chested / headed down for others.

McDermott - did okay when he came on for Sonko, showed good pace and linked up well with Bradley & Deeney.

Overall MOTM should be one of Dobson, Mooney, Dann or Gerrard I'd say. This team is so different to the one I saw a few weeks ago. Much more belief, composure and a team spirit. It seems the pre and post match huddles are now a regular thing!!

Finally, I have to say how brilliant the support was last night. Loads of us there, singing and chanting all game, it was awesome. We must have been a 12th man for the team. It's a shame we can't seem to create that sort of enthusiasm / atmosphere at home :? No wonder, before last saturday, we have been timid and not ourselves at the banks' so far this season.

Nice to see Blazing again, meet MMF, sorry I couldn't catch up with the NUTS but duty called elsewhere.

Sorry we couldn't get there in time for the Clipper to meet people (not that you were in that pub anyway Paul!) Had a look for you in the stand but couldn't see you, we might have to review your NUTS membership at the next AGM after bailing on us!!! :wink: :lol:

Did spot a few people (nice pink streak MS!!) and the likes of Linda singing at the back!! Hope to see and say hello to a few people at another game soon.

UTS!!

:oops: :oops: bit too much muppet juice does that

[Sound_out]

Great result, well done lads and well done DD!!!

[SaigonSaddler]

A bosting performance, cheered on by a vocal crowd with some fantabulous skill on show!

Brilliant!

[Fray Bentos is God!]

Played like the home team for most of it, draw was a fair result but a win wasnt out of our grasp

Cant believe the transformation of Fox, hats off to the fodderman.

[Spenco]

Tranmere will be there or thereabouts at the end of the season and we've just took a point at their place and kept a clean sheet. What a difference from earlier in the season! A few additions in January and we could be looking at a very interesting second half to the season!

[THE_BURNING_RED]

great show by the lads gives us a great base to go forward on

[Fray Bentos is God!]

Tranmere will be there or thereabouts at the end of the season and we've just took a point at their place and kept a clean sheet. What a difference from earlier in the season! A few additions in January and we could be looking at a very interesting second half to the season!

Sorry pal, if theyre in the mix up in May this division is going to the dogs

[davebrookes]

our defence was great last night thort they was a long ball team with there 2 big guys up front thort dann was my MOTM we played some good stuff on the deck gr8 point away from home , gr8 support 2 ! HAPPY DAYS ARE BACK !!!!!!!l

[Ned_Kelly]

Mooney was motm by a mile for me. Never stopped working for the whole 90mins, A real inspiration.

Ishy continues to progress nicely, and Dann and Gerrard will prove to be one of the best pairings in the league this season.

Great support, great point, and really pleased.

Your gonna upset Mr Dean and his love child Ropes :wink:

[Fray Bentos is God!]

Mooney was motm by a mile for me. Never stopped working for the whole 90mins, A real inspiration.

Ishy continues to progress nicely, and Dann and Gerrard will prove to be one of the best pairings in the league this season.

Great support, great point, and really pleased.

Your gonna upset Mr Dean and his love child Ropes :wink:

At least he doesnt have a Bernie or Phil like baby about it though

[Ned_Kelly]

Mooney was motm by a mile for me. Never stopped working for the whole 90mins, A real inspiration.

Ishy continues to progress nicely, and Dann and Gerrard will prove to be one of the best pairings in the league this season.

Great support, great point, and really pleased.

Your gonna upset Mr Dean and his love child Ropes :wink:

At least he doesnt have a Bernie or Phil like baby about it though

Yes, but you should see how many injuries his cat has :wink: :lol:

[Neuromantic]

Leamore - see my post on this thread ;)

[Salop Saddler]

Mooney was motm by a mile for me. Never stopped working for the whole 90mins, A real inspiration.

Ishy continues to progress nicely, and Dann and Gerrard will prove to be one of the best pairings in the league this season.

Great support, great point, and really pleased.

Your gonna upset Mr Dean and his love child Ropes :wink:

At least he doesnt have a Bernie or Phil like baby about it though

Yes, but you should see how many injuries his cat has :wink: :lol:

I think you have to call it how you see it really. I hope Roper can rediscover his form. If he does it can only be a good thing. But as it stands I reckon Gerrard and Dann are as good a pairing as any team could wish for in this division.

[Ned_Kelly]

I think you have to call it how you see it really. I hope Roper can rediscover his form. If he does it can only be a good thing. But as it stands I reckon Gerrard and Dann are as good a pairing as any team could wish for in this division.

Your preaching to the converted mate :wink:

[Greg WP]

Tranmere fans are giving themselves some stick on Rivals. Looks like we are not the only fans that 'boo'.

[Manchester Saddler]

A really solid display plenty of attitude from the lads more of the same and we will not be far away.Bodies on the line from the back four, plenty from Dobbo(my MOTM), Mooney worked hard and Deeney kept the ball really well when he came on. I know I play the scouse thing from time to time, but Dann, Fox and Gerrard represents talent from under Tranmere's noses and they were great again.

I've seen us seven out of eleven league games so far and we've gone from feeling our way in some keenly fought contests (that to be fair could have gone either way) to looking like we belong. Tranny will be there or thereabouts at the end of the season and they weren't better than us.

Much like after Donny just over a week ago, I wouldn't have been unduly concerned had we lost because what I saw was a squad of young players trying to knock the ball around in the right way and giving their all for the cause. You can't ask for much more.

Nice to see Blazing again, meet MMF, sorry I couldn't catch up with the NUTS but duty called elsewhere.

Drunk(sorry for spelling etc), tired but dead happy. Taxi to my local takeaway from an away game is always a good thing (my little reward for the hours on the M6 to the homes) Goodnight, God bless and Up The Saddlers. Love you all.

Never mind Paul,

We were a bit late getting there anyway - the traffic was dead busy from Manchester. Managed to get a Carlsberg just before the game though.

I pretty much agree with all the comments - but I'd like to add that I think we deserved to win. If the Tranmere are the best team in the league then we have nothing at all to fear. We were the better team tonight.

Cheers once again Johnny for the lift.

We'll have to organise a full NUTS turn out next time :D

What amazed me last night was when Johnny pointed Massachusets Saddler just before we went back to our seats. :shock: :shock: :shock: What's going on with that hair?? :wink:

Next time, mate, I'll come across and say hello if I can get over the shock of the hair :shock: :D

[sack]

well spot on again, i'm just so impressed, they may be had the better chances but we had all the quality on the ball. some players were just exceptional, but it feels wrong to mention individuals because again it was such a grate team performance, walsall thank you for a grate night again. and the summing up word is quality.

[Jimbo Jones]

just like to say how class the fans were last night.........made great noise which brought a great atmosphere to the game

Tommy Mooney..What a legend :lol:

[sack]

o and what is that tailor all about, i'm glad he doesn't play for us, the .... gives a foul away every time he touchs the ball, well trys to touch it. he stinks

[gray]

Good result and a good performance. If anything I'm a bit dissapointed we didn't win but overall a point is brilliant. If Tranmere are one of the best teams in the league then we really should be aiming for playoffs at least. I think in the first half we slightly edged it and in the second half we pretty much dominated. Deeney had a great volley saved and Mooney just couldn't get enough contact on the rebound.

Ishy was good again. He is a lot calmer and generally scares the hell out of defenders when he gets the ball, Mooney didn't stop and does a great job and working up the players and the fans. The defence were all solid although I'm still not sure about Weston, he didn't have a really bad game but everytime I see him he seems to put in 6/10 performances when the rest of the team are 8/9.

It was a shame that Mattis and Sonko didn't get a chance to have much of an impact on the game for a variety of reasons. Overall very happy though.


Also it was really nice to meet Jolly Johnny and Manchester Saddler after Johnny's kind offer of a lift. I feel like I have more people to go to games with now rather than just dragging my mates along. Hopefully next time I won't have such a nightmare day and can meet them on time and have more time to have NUTS bonding before a game (that sounds a bit dodgy).

UTS

[Jorge14]

A very impressive performance, yet again. First time I've seen them since Hartlepool, and we were much more assured and confident on the ball. We knocked it around with poise and tempo, and really looked to use the players we have in the best possible way.

I thought Mooney led the line very well. He worked hard, won his fair share in the air, and could have had a goal had luck gone his way. He was playing against two big and decent centre halves...they would have known they had a game and a half yesterday.
Ishmel and Sonko had similar games. Both tired quite early on, but they were being asked to play big roles, and did it very well. I'd have preferred to have Alex Nicholls to come on in place of Sonko rather than McDermott, but I suppose McDermott gives a bit more assuredness on the ball and tighted it up a bit more than Nicholls would have done. That being same, I didn't rate Tranmere's full backs at all, and would have liked to have seen them tested with a pacy substitute, as Mooney and McDermott did look to stretch them late on.

The defence played very well also. Pedro said to me last night that he thinks Fox is our most improved player from last season to this, and I have to agree. He really is turning into a quality footballer at this level.
Gerrard and Dann are cementing their position as first choice centre-backs. A mate of mine who is at Liverpool Uni came last night and, seeing him for the first time, said he thought Gerrard was easily our most impressive player on the night. Weston looked relatively composed - I do like what he offers us going forward, and he is a perfectly adequate right back. I do agree with the above comments which suggest he isn't the most consistent of full-backs, but as long as he wins his headers and challenges like he did last night, he is doing his job fine.

Dobson really imposed himself on the game very impressively last night. He did the job he is best at - just knocking the passes which get a move going. Someone said last night that he still doesn't pass the ball forwards - I'm sorry, but he doesn't have to in the formation we were playing last night, and that can't be a critcism of him. He looks to bring our full-backs into the game, and that makes us a much more threatening attacking force, having 7 players going forwards instead of 5.

Deeney did fine in his midfield role. He did ALOT of running and harried Tranmere's midfield into making some mistakes, which Bradley could capitalise on. Bradley is one of the best passers of a ball we've seen in Midfield for a long time - dare I say it since Merson retired from playing. He uses the ball sensibly and his height when breaking from midfield gives out attack a different dimension.

I thought Tranmere were a poor side, typical of their manager's 'style' of so-called football. They didn't worry us until the fatique set in on the 70 minute mark, and could have nicked it were it not for a couple of decent saves from Clayton. They didn't deserve the win by any means, and in all honesty, I think a point flattered them. I agree with Thin Gary Ellison that if they are in the mix at the end of the season, the division is nothing but sh!te. I said after the Huddesfield game that our final position this season will depend on which Walsall team appears every game - the team of last night, or the team of Oldham. If it is the team of last night, then we'll make the play-offs with ease, in my honest opinion. A mix of the two would give us a very creditable mid-table finish and a base to build on next season with a team full of experience which would belie the youth in the side. Next season we will have Fox, Gerrard, Dann and Ishmel as under 21s who have near-enough 100 games each, if not more. Add to that Bradley, McDermott, Nicholls and Deeney gaining more and more experience, then we can be very confident for whatever the rest of this season and next season will bring.

[tinned]

Mightily impressed with last nights performance. Battled well against one of the form sides of the division (if not automatic promotion contenders IMO). Can't complain at the result one bit, but if one team were going to nick it I thought it would've been us. It's so great to see some real drive and energy in the time at long last. It's all many of us have been calling for.

Somebody mentioned play off's last night, I don't think we're quite strong enough for that but playing like we are will see us comfortably upper-mid table.

BTW thanks to Willy Nilly for sorting me out a place on the mini-bus.

[geoffwhiting]

Been so busy, I haven't had time to read all this thread, just scanned through looking to see who's posting and grabbing a few snippets from the comments.

Two things are apparent.

1. We did very well last night, and deserved at least the point we came back with. I was well pleased, and the WM commentary suggested we played very well again.

2. The fool that is Futuresobright seems to be strangely absent lately. Apologies if he's posted and I've missed it, though somehow I doubt it! Maybe we should turn the tables and start referring to HIM as Mr Touchy! :D

[sack]

this team would easily get in the top 4 of this division in my opinion. but that is bast on the first 11 and the first 11 being fully fit/available, and that won't last 30 odd more games allso tiredness well set in, it's the squad thats to weak to challenge, but what we have now is hope and on going improvment, and for now thats good enough for me.

[Plastic Hawk]

this team would easily get in the top 4 of this division in my opinion. but that is bast on the first 11 and the first 11 being fully fit/available, and that won't last 30 odd more games allso tiredness well set in, it's the squad thats to weak to challenge, but what we have now is hope and on going improvment, and for now thats good enough for me.

I agree. And that bodes well for next year. The youngsters will be a year older and more experienced and we can spend the summer bringing in the squad players who will allow us to compete over a 46 game season (and replacing our few remaining 35+ players).

[Duke]

Mooney was motm by a mile for me. Never stopped working for the whole 90mins, A real inspiration.

Ishy continues to progress nicely, and Dann and Gerrard will prove to be one of the best pairings in the league this season.

Great support, great point, and really pleased.

Your gonna upset Mr Dean and his love child Ropes :wink:

:cry: :cry: :twisted:

Not at all Ned , results are more important than Ian Roper, I take my hat off to Gerrard he fully deserves his place in the team on current form , Dann has adjusted to life in league 1 . what annoys me is how quickly fans forget what fantastic service Ropes as given WFC , and what a good player he is , he'll be back i'm sure of that.

[Cheesebag]

A Really good result the value of it will only be appreciated at the end of the season :) :) :)

Apart from on UTS, where any good result has the potential to be erased from history by a bad result the following week. :wink:

Lose next week and we will collectively bolt upright in our beds on Sunday morning, sweating profusely. Then rush to the computer to check it hadn't all been a dream only to find that the Southend defeat and invoked a moebious ring in time and space leading us directly back to the Sunday morning after Oldham at home.

Stf up Geordie...your getting boreing....you get one post put on the front page (wrongly in my opinion)....and its gone to your head....your no better than anyone else on uts mate.

Love you too Sidley xx

You dont know how much that means to me geordie....Love you too...xxx

Can we put this "love in" on the front page, Neil?

[Salop Saddler]

A Really good result the value of it will only be appreciated at the end of the season :) :) :)

Apart from on UTS, where any good result has the potential to be erased from history by a bad result the following week. :wink:

Lose next week and we will collectively bolt upright in our beds on Sunday morning, sweating profusely. Then rush to the computer to check it hadn't all been a dream only to find that the Southend defeat and invoked a moebious ring in time and space leading us directly back to the Sunday morning after Oldham at home.

Stf up Geordie...your getting boreing....you get one post put on the front page (wrongly in my opinion)....and its gone to your head....your no better than anyone else on uts mate.

Love you too Sidley xx

You dont know how much that means to me geordie....Love you too...xxx

Can we put this "love in" on the front page, Neil?

Ha :lol: :lol: :lol: :!:

[Salop Saddler]

Mooney was motm by a mile for me. Never stopped working for the whole 90mins, A real inspiration.

Ishy continues to progress nicely, and Dann and Gerrard will prove to be one of the best pairings in the league this season.

Great support, great point, and really pleased.

Your gonna upset Mr Dean and his love child Ropes :wink:

:cry: :cry: :twisted:

Not at all Ned , results are more important than Ian Roper, I take my hat off to Gerrard he fully deserves his place in the team on current form , Dann has adjusted to life in league 1 . what annoys me is how quickly fans forget what fantastic service Ropes as given WFC , and what a good player he is , he'll be back i'm sure of that.

Not a chance. He's carried the defencive line so often in the past, it's not the sort of contribution you forget quickly. And yes, I fully expect him to be back, he's not exactly old and he'll have a huge amount to contribute to the team.