Tranmere Rovers
No.4: 9th April 2015
By John Lee
April 9 2015
Continuing another new feature here on Total Tranmere, John Lee provides his take on everything topical in relation to Tranmere in his 'Topical Musings' Blog - here is his fourth installment.....
I left the ground on Bank Holiday Monday with an overwhelming feeling that we are finished. For the first time this season, I felt that the most likely outcome this season, is relegation the Vanarama Conference.
The weekend started off with us getting a really solid point away at Stevenage. As many have said on social media, it is a point that under normal circumstances, we would be happy with. But when we are in the predicament that we are in and having been in front for so long, we needed to cling on to those three points. But we couldn’t. It’s a feature of our side this season. We can’t capitalise on a good situation. We shoot ourselves in the foot over and over again. Its criminal. What makes it worse is the way we do it. Yet again, we were not outplayed. Yet again, we didn’t have to whether a storm of free flowing football. We were done by a set piece.
Listening to Tranmere Player, and hearing Derek Jones describing a Stevenage attack, I find myself hoping they get a shot on goal as opposed to us blocking it for a corner! How ridiculous! But we are so vulnerable from set pieces, you just know a goal is coming. However you slice it up, whether you feel a point at Broadhall Way was good or that it was more like two points lost, we all knew that it was small fry compared to the Luton game. That was the one with three big points on offer.
That was one of those two or three games we have earmarked for a win. If we go into it playing like we did against AFC Wimbledon, we will simply have too much for them. We will get those three points and finally be back on the road to safety. But will we show the heart, the character and the determination required to get the win? Will we step up now that the chips are down and come out fighting? Will we stand up and be counted? Will we be first to every ball and stop the visitors from taking points from our own backyard?
No. No we won’t. We bottled it. The players are not daft, they pinpoint games as much as we do. They knew the importance of this game and they wilted under the pressure. Luton showed absolutely nothing. You could see why they had lost their last seven games. They would have been more than happy with a point. But again we massively underperformed. With the exception of Steven Jennings, I don’t have anything positive to say about how we played. We didn’t get going at all.
Iain Hume could be the missing piece for Rovers during the League Two run-in
Up until the moment Iain Hume came on, there was nothing. No urgency, no grit. Nothing but hesitation and indecision all over the place. The penalty itself epitomised our performance. They had two players get to the rebound before any of ours. When you see that lack of resolve, you have to question how much this bunch want to stay in League Two.
As I said at the start of this blog, I left the ground feeling like it is now inevitable. I could envision the same old spiel oozing out of Micky Adams in the post-match interview. I could see yet another player coming out and harping on about ‘cup finals’ etc. I could see this set of players losing out relegation battle.
Considering the rate that teams around us have been getting points recently, somewhat unbelievably, other results went for us. This is the thing that kills us as fans. We are still in it and there is still hope. As much as it is dangling by a thread and as much as we keep wasting our opportunities, there is still hope. We are only one point from safety. ONE POINT! However, as close as that may look to the neutral, we know just how big that gap it. But it’s that cruel mistress. Bloody hope. As John Cleese said in the film Clockwise, ‘It's not the despair. I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand’. That sums up our situation perfectly.
So let’s continue to cling on to that hope for a while longer. What needs to happen if we are going to survive the drop? Well, things need to change immediately. First of all, why are we playing Michael Ihiekwe at right back? He has given his all in that position but he simply isn’t a right back. So many of our moves seemed to break down on that side on Monday and as much as that is equally down to Jennison Myrie-Williams, I don’t think we’d have had as many problems with Danny Holmes in there. We absolutely need Holmes to come in and to shift Ihiekwe over the central defence instead of the underperforming Adam Dugdale.
Just as important for me is the need to start Iain Hume. Since getting back into the match day squad, he has highlighted everything we are missing. His tenacity, his work ethic, his quick and intelligent play. What’s more is how much the club means to them both. At a time like this, we need warriors who will fight until the end. Danny Holmes and Iain Hume need to start away at Southend on Saturday. I’d also like to see Dan Gardner play some part but having recently learned that he played for Chesterfield over the long weekend, the chances of that seem very slim indeed. What a shambles.
Another issue is that of the goalkeepers. It’s been hotly debated on here and on other social media sites. For me, despite calling for Peter Brezovan to start the Stevenage game, I want to see Owain Fon Williams come back in against Southend. I felt so let down by Brezovan when he came charging out to give the penalty away. He single handily threw that point away and killed any chance of us stealing a victory. I very much hope to see the return of Fon Williams this weekend.
I’m not very confident about Saturday. Southend don’t lose very often and unfortunately, we have made a habit of doing so this season. It’s got a Southend victory written all over it. But we have lost games we were expected to win many times this season. Maybe it’s Southend’s turn to shoot themselves in the foot this weekend. Maybe we’ll be the lucky recipients of a hot headed opposing goalkeeper and a late penalty. Maybe Micky will make some changes and we'll come out all guns blazing. Maybe we are right to be clinging on to that little bit of hope after all. To quote the most over used phrase in sport….we go again.
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09/04/2015 17:53
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