Tranmere Rovers 2 Leeds United 1

This was yet another game where Leeds had more possession than the opposition, only to go down to defeat. Some familiar failings were again apparent, with some ropey defending and a lack of penetration up front, and the winning goal came from our former striker Ian Moore.

Gary Mc.Allister made a couple of changes to his starting line-up, with Showumni coming in to play alongside Becchio, Howson playing wide on the right, and Prutton surprisingly preferred to Kilkenny in the centre of midfield. Another surprise was that the ancient Telfer was preferred to Lubo in central defence, just when I thought that the Slovak had shown signs of returning to form in the game at Histon.

The first opportunity of the game came when Lucas was almost caught out by a cross from the right that was dropping under his crossbar, but he managed to stretch and turn it over the top. But it was Leeds who took the lead in the 10^th. minute with our first attack. First a dangerous cross from Frazer was headed behind, then the corner eluded the Tranmere defence to find Showumni with his back to goal, and the big man managed a neat turn to fire the ball past Coyne.

But we were only in front for six minutes, when we conceded yet another headed goal from a set piece. Prutton conceded a free kick about thirty yards from goal, and when it came over Kay managed to beat Frazer and Lucas to the ball to head it into the net. There were few chances during the rest of the half, as both teams struggled to make an impression up front.

Bas Savage was very lively for Tranmere (see the number of times he pops up in our photo gallery of the game) and though he looked threatening at times, he seemed isolated, as his colleagues were a bit slow to get forward and offer him support. For Leeds, Showumni didn’t win much in the air, and Becchio was anonymous, lending weight to the theory that he’s only effective when Beckford is there to take the pressure off him.

Becchio did manage to force one save from Coyne, from a shot that was bouncing awkwardly towards the top corner, and apart from that our best effort was a fierce shot from Snodgrass that wasn’t too far wide. The game got a bit tasty as half-time approached, with Prutton getting booked after committing one foul too many, while Telfer might have been lucky to get just the yellow card after a two-footed tackle down in the corner.

Some of the Leeds fans kept up a WACCOE throughout half time, taking their shirts off to wave around in the air. But not me of course, as I thought it was a bit too parky for that sort of thing. I did hope that Mc.Allister might be able to get his men fired up for the second half, but it was the home side who took the lead only four minutes after the interval. And it was our former player Ian Moore who did the honours, as the defence backed off and allowed him to run through and shoot from outside the area. 

From then on we had plenty of possession as we went in search of an equaliser, but only rarely looked like scoring. And when Becchio did manage to get the ball in the net from a corner his effort was disallowed, presumably for a push. Kilkenny came on for Howson, who had never really looked happy in a wide position, but it didn’t make a lot of difference.

At one point we had a free kick in a promising position for a left-footed player, yet Snodgrass wasted it by hammering it straight into the wall. That left me wondering why Sheehan wasn’t given the chance to take it, remember his free kick that won the game at Doncaster last season?

At the other end Savage was still looking dangerous, and when Telfer appeared to foul him as he broke down their right, he did his best to get our man sent off. Even though Tranmere had won a corner anyway, he had to be pulled away from the ref as he tried to protest that Telfer should have got a second yellow. But in any case, the referee was in a generous mood and I was amazed that he didn’t book Snodgrass for a blatant trip on Savage after the ball had gone.

We continued to press for an equaliser, with Douglas and Prutton both having efforts scrambled away, but once again we ran out of time and went down to another frustrating defeat.

The perfect end to the day came while I was waiting on Rock Ferry station for the train home, with Leeds and Tranmere fans mixing peacefully on the platform. Suddenly we came under attack from somebody throwing rocks at us from the other side of a wall behind the station. We then had the police rushing down onto the platform, bringing a dog with them for no obvious reason, even though the villains of the piece were outside the station. Work that one out.

Click here to see the photos of the game

Photo: Action Images

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