2 minutes ago, valefan16 said:

Newport are meh. Grimsby battered them today but they got a 1-0 Orient are meh. Stevenage is winnable.

None of those have the quality Tranmere do.

But have a lot more than us unfortunately 

Tranmere are a good, in form  Lge 2 team with a very solid spine, good players all over the pitch and in James Vaughn as good a striker in Lge 2 as there is. No surprise they beat a Vale team not firing on all cylinders and weak defensively.

Recruitment of defenders in the summer is a must.

 

Desperate for a centre back. Sign one. Leave him sat on the bench for 90 mins whilst all our proven <ovf censored> players get yet another chance. Looks a classic vale signing. He has to start next week 

3 minutes ago, valefan16 said:

Newport are meh. Grimsby battered them today but they got a 1-0 Orient are meh. Stevenage is winnable.

None of those have the quality Tranmere do.

Agree but they are all more organised than us. 

4 minutes ago, valefan16 said:

Newport are meh. Grimsby battered them today but they got a 1-0 Orient are meh. Stevenage is winnable.

None of those have the quality Tranmere do.

Newport beat them whilst playing most of the game with 10 men

We must have nearly conceded as many goals as we've given away free meals by now. Not to worry, you take your time Carol, whilst Rome burns and all that.

2 hours ago, SuperHuman said:

The manager hunt will miraculously reappear again after a loss. 

It should never have disappeared. Good football gives us good wins, even the southend win, when you look at our defending, still looked dodgy at times. 

16 minutes ago, Powerline said:

I also don’t understand why people are blaming Sinclair for this. He’s meant to be working with the academy, not the first team. It’s also not Pugh’s fault, he’s not a manager, he’s a coach. They’re both out of their depth through no fault of their own.

Just because Sinclair was a defender he doesn’t just suddenly become a defensive coach, that’s not what he signed up for.

I’d also like to remind people Pugh also played left back as well as centre mid, so surely he’s as responsible for sorting out the defence as Sinclair is, if not more so since he’s the one in charge at the moment.

Who ever is sorting the defence out it ain’t working 

It ain’t Sinclair that’s for sure. That’s not his role at the club. 

8 minutes ago, valefan16 said:

Newport are meh. Grimsby battered them today but they got a 1-0 Orient are meh. Stevenage is winnable.

None of those have the quality Tranmere do.

So everything is ok then?

23 minutes ago, Wrex said:

On the bench and registered

Yes - and better, despite his recent drop in form, than either of the two centre backs we fielded today.

If the manager has no intention of playing him, why on earth is he sitting there?

The bloke must have had his head in his hands.

4 minutes ago, valefan16 said:

Newport are meh. Grimsby battered them today but they got a 1-0 Orient are meh. Stevenage is winnable.

None of those have the quality Tranmere do.

Newport played with 10 men for 53 minutes.

30 minutes ago, MBE said:

When will the players, board & fans wake up and realise we are in danger of relegation.

To say Southend & Grimsby are poor (which they are) so we will be OK is so wide of the mark.Only takes one of them sides to pick up a couple of results and we are in the <ovf censored>. Looking forward to next season if we do stay up, how can a club finishing 3rd or 4th bottom of the league attract players and convince them we are going for playoffs/promotion next season?

Agree with the first part, I think we could definitely be involved in a relegation fight, towards the end of the season you normally get one who picks up results out of nowhere.  If we do stay up I would not be writing off next year, look at the likes of Cambridge, Morecambe and Carlisle, all in the top 7 this season, last year they were all in the bottom 8.  Morecambe would have gone down if not for Macclesfield's troubles.  However, this means getting the right manager in and hopefully soon.

The manager and assistant manager are both responsible for sorting out the defence, which means both Pugh and Sinclair, and both were defenders.

However, I’m hesitant to criticise either on this because that’s not what they were brought here to do. They’re currently just trying to keep the team running until we find a manager. If anything I think they’ve done what they had to in terms of beating the teams around us. Fair play to them. Now get someone proper in and they can go back to their old jobs and continue on.

It seems to me that we just have to accept that this season we are a poor side in transition that is going to finish low down in this division.  I don't think we will go down, but that is probably more due to other teams below us being worse.  I saddens me to see fans on here week after week slagging off and scapegoating players who aren't up to it, though I understand their frustration.  Players are probably doing their best, but their best isn't good enough to push us to where the fans expect us to be.  So we have a choice - we can either continue to get off on continuing to slag our team off and state the obvious, venting our anger and making ourselves feel better about our superb analytical skills from a distance compared to a caretaker manager, or we can accept that this season we have gone backwards (perhaps we overperformed last season?). It is clear that some older players need moving on, as do some of our second string players, particularly in defence.  But we are trying to build a team for the future on younger players who are more promising - Rodney, Taylor, Conlon, Gibbons, Guthrie, Swan etc. That is surely the sensible option? 

It seems to make sense to me - the younger players compensate for lack of experience with energy around the pitch, and are learning all the time, probably more from matches than the coaching they are receiving.  Recruiting from Championship sides, as we did in part of the window, makes sense.   We do tend to lionise players when we win and trash them a week later when we lost though. Last week Guthrie "put in a shift and lead the line well".  This week "he is <ovf censored> and not a goal scorer", and the only reason he looked good last week was because it was Southend.  How is that supposed to help his confidence?  He's a young lad learning the game, and Popey, I am sure, will be giving him lots of advice on how to make the most of having the ball lumped up to you by a defence struggling to clear their lines.  Give him a break - he is one of our team trying to help us get up the league.

Perhaps we expected too much this season after last?  But our older experienced players (Brown, Legge, Joyce and Pope) have struggled to maintain their form or been injured, and those around them haven't been able to fill their shoes.  Should we be surprised? I know there is the "how come other teams manage to do it better" argument, and we need to keep looking at why that is.  A new manager and better coaching might be an answer.  Tranmere today had better players than us in key positions.  They just signed Nugent, 35 years old, bags of experience, and had Spearing and Vaughan - we are taking a different route.  I just don't see any point in running down our team and stating the obvious every week (ie we are not very good, particularly in defence). Look at the bigger picture, longer term - once this wretched season is over, we should be in a better position, hopefully.  I still think we suffer too many injuries to key players - maybe we need to look at that too? I just can't find it in myself to run down my own team when they are clearly having a Jarvis this season.