Failure to Launch? Robins 4 Rovers 0
Having appealed for a diamond formation to make better use of David Nugent in my last blog, one could make a case for that formation not working for Tranmere Rovers based on today’s result. Yet given the general malaise of their performance, the formation was the least of Rovers’ worries.
Firstly, give Cheltenham Town their due as they were good value for their win and should have won by more had they not took their foot off the gas at half-time. From an attacking perspective, Rovers had the wrong approach and the wrong personnel for both halves. Yet this too paled into insignificance.
Just watching the EFL highlights on Quest would have been enough to have warned Rovers of Cheltenham’s most potent weapon, namely the throw ins from Tozer. Rovers had two key things they needed to do to deal with this weapon. Firstly, make sure the opposition didn’t win the first ball. Secondly, push out from the six-yard box to make sure the opposition didn’t win the second ball.
It’s not as if the concept of defending from long throw-ins should be alien to Rovers. Not only was Dave Challinor something of a legend in that department (with a far longer throw than Tozer), but Andy Parkinson was in the same team as Challinor and was especially adept at forcing defenders to give away throw-ins in those dangerous areas. Just getting balls in wide areas and going toe-to-toe with the full back in wide areas was enough to create these opportunities.
Yet from the first throw-in, Cheltenham knew they were going to have things all their own way. Smith’s theatrical dive may have made the referee’s mind up in terms of whether Cheltenham were due a penalty, but Paul Lewis did have a handful of Smith’s shirt. From a Rovers perspective, a penalty might have been preferable to the throw-in that followed.
Joe Murphy, now first choice following Scott Davies’s injury ruling him out for the rest of the season, was also in the same team as Challinor all those years ago. Yet the way he dealt with Tozer’s throws set the tone for a nervy performance on his part. Murphy had time to either gather or at least palm away Long’s header. Instead, Murphy parried the ball into the mix of black and red shirts where Liam Feeney was muscled out of Thomas’s tap-in.
That should have been a wake-up call for Rovers, yet as May harried Lee O’Connor into conceding yet another opportunity for Tozer, Rovers were under the cosh again. This time, Murphy got a more telling contact to get the ball at least away from the goal. However, Rovers remained sitting ducks as Wright drilled the second ball through a wall of black before Boyle guided it into the net. If Rovers had the presence of mind to push out of the six-yard box, there is every chance Boyle would have been offside by the time Wright’s ball had reached him.
That Peter Clarke was one of the players who played Boyle onside was nothing short of criminal. Clarke has been guilty more than once of being too deep in those type of situations, even to the extent of blocking the line of sight of Davies to get in the way of saveable shots. I get that defenders do tend to get in the way of well struck shots to protect their goalkeeper these days, but they usually take positions outside the six-yard box to do this.
Another possibility was that that there was an instruction to cover both posts to help the ‘keeper in these pressurised situations. If this was the case, then at least Callum MacDonald did what was asked of him in covering the far post from Tozer’s throw-in. Only Clarke could explain why he chose to remain in the middle of the goal as Boyle, who managed to get in front of the equally hapless O’Connor, just needed to connect with Wright’s shot-cum-cross.
And Clarke’s first start with the armband continued to be nothing short of a disaster when he played Feeney into trouble for the goal that killed the game off by half time. Feeney was guilty of wanting the ball with his back turned in the first place, but Clarke ought to have seen Sercombe (who should have seen red for his earlier challenge on Lewis) lurking with intent, though Smith got a timely interception to what was a telegraphed ball. May latched onto Sercombe’s through ball to finish smartly, but he shouldn’t have had the chance in the first place.
The final goal, as well struck as it was, was also wholly avoidable. Yet again it came from a Tozer throw (for which it was something of a surprise that he didn’t get man of the match), and even though Nugent won the first header, Otis Khan contrived to head it right into the path of Wright (who did get man of the match) to volley home. By this stage, Rovers were so panic stricken in these set plays that they got every black shirt back into the penalty area to defend, leaving Wright with the time and space to make the right contact.
Going forward, Rovers started once again with no recognised striker and tried to build from the back but too often there was no purpose, and no movement off the ball and no one leading the line to meet numerous balls from deep. When MacDonald put in a telling cross having timed his run to perfection, there was no black shirt in the six-yard area to meet it. Even when Keith Hill did put on the continuously underwhelming Nugent in the second half, his only impact was to give away needless fouls to a defence that had already got the cigars out.
Such was Rovers’ lack of bite upfront that they failed to win a solitary corner all game, and the only meaningful set-piece came from Ali Crawford, whose introduction with ten minutes to go was as mystifying as his omission from the starting line-up, especially as O’Connor was found so terribly wanting in his defensive duties.
It’s hard to know where Rovers go from here. Despite their lofty league placing, there is little difference between the performances following the Football League Trophy final and the lifeless, purposeless, gutless, heartless and lacking in belief showings that defined the Michael Jackson era. Yet Rovers found themselves dropping just one place after today’s debacle. It’s still tight, but it looks like the top three in position tonight will be there at the end of the season.
For me, I’ve lost all hope of Rovers finding a way to address the problems of today’s performance. What is worse, it looks as if Rovers have lost all hope too.
