Match Thread: Tranmere Rovers v Lincoln City | Page 18 | Vital Football

Match Thread: Tranmere Rovers v Lincoln City

Sincilbanks said:
Akinde's header was a free one on the six yard line in the middle of the goal, for a centre forward of his quality that pretty much is a sitter. Not as bad as his Cheltenham one of course, and an absolutely blinding save by the keeper (Akinde was already celebrating before it hit the net) but nevertheless you would hope he would bury those more often than not..
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Quote: "And an absolutely blinding save by the keeper". Nine times out of 10 it would not have been and it would have been a goal. That's football for you!
 
It was an outstanding first half – just lacking the goals that a completely dominant team performance deserved. In that 45 mins Akinde terrified the life out of them and Frecklington was simply outstanding and much the best player on the pitch. I agree that it was the most complete 45 minutes we have played this season.

What we also need to remember is that much of the summer/pre-season in terms of preparation and recruitment was based around playing 3-5-2 and indeed come Northampton that is how we set up. Since then, Danny & Nicky have worked out that the 4-2-3-1 (or variation of) is what actually seems to suit us best. However we haven’t had very long to make this work and it is still very much a work in progress. The last 3 games have been, in my eyes, the first proper glimpse as to where we are now going in footballing terms. The only thing that will happen now is that the process and method as Cowley likes to call it will become more clear and defined as the season moves on and the only thing that we are going to get as the season moves forward is better and better.

Finally a plea……. Akinde is an absolute monster, a real handful and terrifies the life out of nearly every defence he plays against. Be patient with him. It takes time to settle into a new team, a new formation, a new area, a new style of play and to build up relationships and link-ups with other players. Once all the above clicks into place I have no doubts who will win the league this season nor that we will have a striker with over 20 goals to their name at the heart of it.
 
nlondonimp said:
For those talking about set pieces... three of the first four corners led to free headers for us inside the box. Are we criticising the delivery, or the quality of the heading?
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I think we were partly spoilt by how strong we were at set piece in the NL.

Scoring 56% of your goals via set pieces is an outrageously good, anomalous stat.

Also, when you start to become a more footballing side, you deviate slightly from the amount of tall, strong, headers of a ball you perhaps previously had.
 
RedImp73 said:
It was an outstanding first half – just lacking the goals that a completely dominant team performance deserved. In that 45 mins Akinde terrified the life out of them and Frecklington was simply outstanding and much the best player on the pitch. I agree that it was the most complete 45 minutes we have played this season.

Finally a plea……. Akinde is an absolute monster, a real handful and terrifies the life out of nearly every defence he plays against. Be patient with him. It takes time to settle into a new team, a new formation, a new area, a new style of play and to build up relationships and link-ups with other players. Once all the above clicks into place I have no doubts who will win the league this season nor that we will have a striker with over 20 goals to their name at the heart of it.
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I thought McCarton terrified them far more in the first 45, but maybe that's just, me he looked absolutely at the heart of everything we did well in the first half last night.

I agree about the settling in part though.
 
Haven’t commented so far as last night was a frustrating watch, albeit we produced some brilliant football at times too. Akinde isn’t always as clinic as he should be and we must accept this, which isn’t to say he isn’t a very valuable asset. We need to value what he does bring to the team and when the goals come that’ll be a significant bonus. In fact, his value really showed through when Green and Rhead came on and were completely ineffective. The beauty of playing Akinde is we can play a type of football that compliments the qualities of all players in the team and at times we look in a totally different league.

On a separate note, I thought their fans were excellent as a 12th man, credit where credits due. They had a significant impact on the game in the same way as we do at Sincil Bank.
 
Spilsby52 said:
Did Tranmere actually work out at half time how to stop us playing as Mellon states or was it more complicated than that? I'm a bit worried that with Crawley and 2nd half yesterday there might be a method to playing against us.
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Teams are setting up to frustrate us both home and away. It was obvious at Cheltenham that they would have been happy with a point from a home game and it seems that the same is true of last night. On Saturday we got the breakthrough but last night we didn't.

I suppose it's something of a compliment to our team

We will lose matches like last nights because the opposition don't allow us the space to use quick counter attacking. The win over MK came because they were also going for it so ironically we are probably a better winning bet when the opposition players are of a higher quality
 
graemetheexile said:
Quote: "And an absolutely blinding save by the keeper". Nine times out of 10 it would not have been and it would have been a goal. That's football for you!
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Akinde got everything right with that header, low and in the corner - keepers save was indeed blinding. All the away end were up on our feet about to celebrate too.
 
Londonimp12 said:
Haven’t commented so far as last night was a frustrating watch, albeit we produced some brilliant football at times too. Akinde isn’t always as clinic as he should be and we must accept this, which isn’t to say he isn’t a very valuable asset. We need to value what he does bring to the team and when the goals come that’ll be a significant bonus. In fact, his value really showed through when Green and Rhead came on and were completely ineffective. The beauty of playing Akinde is we can play a type of football that compliments the qualities of all players in the team and at times we look in a totally different league.

On a separate note, I thought their fans were excellent as a 12th man, credit where credits due. They had a significant impact on the game in the same way as we do at Sincil Bank.
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Their fans were very quiet till they scored. The goal lifted the crowd who then got behind the team, but it’d be incorrect to say the crowd lifted the team when they were struggling.
 
Whilst I was disappointed last night I did predict this would be our first defeat. Creepy Crawly got in the way of that one. It appears that a rump of Lincoln fans don't like big John. I am not struggling to identify the reasons for that. What I find amusing is that the Cowley's have demonstrated that they are usually leaders in adaptability ,well ahead of most of the fan base. Last night and Bury were examples of why we can't go back to lump it to the big guy. Not expecting that to happen again! Loyalty to Rhead is to be welcomed given his contribution however expecting a more talented footballer to morph into him is not. Bozzy needs to adapt in his diagnoal to big John but it appears most have learnt to try and play it into his feet. Finally the last three games have indicated to me that a tweak may be required to the system as many quality balls into the box but no one gambling or there to finish.We got away with it at Macc and at home to Mk Franchise. Not last night.
 
Not sure about Green's appeal later - the angle's just not there from the camera. But the lino should have seen that handball. Utter barsticles.
 
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