By Deadly Submarine
August 19 2009

John Barnes was disappointed with the way his side performed in Tuesday night's 1-0 home defeat against Paul Ince's Milton Keynes Don's thanks to a Jabo Ibhere goal just nine minutes from full-time. The Gaffer particularly criticised the way his players gave the ball away....

Rovers Manager John Barnes was left to rue the second half performance of his side in the 1-0 home defeat to Milton Keynes Dons on Tuesday night and in particular was frustrated at the amount of times his players gave the ball away.

Barnes told Tranmere Player..... 

"We hit the post two times but we didn't play well at all.  That's the worst I've seen us play in the second half.  I keep stressing to the players about not giving the ball away. We had slack passing throughout the second half when there was no-one near us. We kept giving the ball away for no reason. That was the disappointing thing for me."

"Giving the ball away in difficult circumstances when you are under pressure I accept but when there's no pressure on you and you've just got to pass to a player and you give it away...schoolboys wouldn't do that."

"We could easily have won the game tonight but those problems still would have been there. That's why I almost look at the performance and not the result."

Defending the perhaps un-necessary criticism of his substitutions, Barnes added....

"Ian Thomas-Moore asked to come off because of his groin. Ian Goodison felt his hamstring in the last game and I was thinking of taking him off at half time.  At the beginning of the second half Jermaine Easter ran into the channels a few times and Ian was struggling.  I'd much rather rest him and bring on Ash Taylor who would be more mobile."

Barnes Post-Match: "We Kept Giving the Ball Away"

Discussion started by Total Tranmere (IP Logged), 19/08/2009 00:02

Total Tranmere
19/08/2009 00:02

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Matty_1985
19/08/2009 00:18

At least that clears up the subs? Still confused as to why Edds was preferred to Barnett, but oh well! Bring on Leeds on Saturday

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Matthew the rover
19/08/2009 09:04

Edds ahead of Barnett or even Fraughan on the wing was bizarre and not good, in my opinion. He was useless on the wing and was never going to provide the crosses we needed.

Barnes is right though, the ball was given away far too much. McLaren in particular was shocking.

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Mikey
19/08/2009 16:22

If both Gunning and Goodison were injured why bring of the more experienced influential one? We ended up with a completely unexperienced back 4!

I think he used Edds on the wing again because he was excellent on Saturday when he played there for the last 20, and compared to the likes of Fraughen, Barnett and Mahon, he provides more defensive help for Creswell

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TT Admin
19/08/2009 17:16

Agreed on the reasons for Edds definitely but with Goodison it's a difficult one.

He is surely the more important player for the Leeds game on Saturday but then at the same time he was important for last night whilst on the pitch so it was a difficult choice to make in one sense.

I understand the fans frustration but let's say we had won yesterday with Goodison at the expense of him then not being able to play against Leeds.

Surely the inexperienced back four would be no good on Saturday either if you get me?

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Mikey
20/08/2009 11:02

But in Barnes words "we take every game as it comes, we don't look to the one after until this one has finished" Goodison is now no certainty to play Saturday so he may as well of finished of on Tuesday, but he could probably play the full 90 for both anyway, this is Ian Goodison we're talking about..

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