Tranmere Rivals Site Match Report

[Slave to the rhythm]

Little's team selection was a little puzzling to say the least as he opted to go for a formation normally saved for away games.

The decision to play Paul Hall upfront no doubt came off the back of an impressive second half from the winger playing in that role against Torquay. It was a little surprising that Little had opted for Hall ahead of Dadi, Dagnall, Jones and Whitmore, all of whom sat on the bench.

It was a lively start to the game, with Iain Hume and Paul Hall showing a few flickers of encouragement early on. The visitors were by far the most dominant in the first period though, debutant Craig Ireland fired a left foot effort some way wide of Howarth's goal whilst Luke Wilkshire's stinging effort was brilliantly turned behind by the Rovers keeper.

City's front pairing of Brooker and Lita where causing no end of problems, and it was the latter that broke the dead lock on the ten minute mark. Luke Wilkshire played a superb lofted through ball to the Congo striker after beating Danny Harrison in the air. Lita superbly brought the ball down on his chest, turned past Ian Goodison and fired the ball home left-footed under Russell Howarth.

Rovers' reply wasn't exactly inspiring, but they did put the effort in. Ireland was again in the thick of things as he was adjudged to have brought Paul Hall down on the edge of the box. The referee chose only to book Ireland. Although it would have been harsh if the City man had been sent off, if the ref gave the foul then it was certainly worth looking at again in terms of the punishment and whether he was the last man.

Iain Hume threatened on a couple of occasions for Tranmere. The closest to a goal came after Paul Hall superbly slipped the ball through to the Canadian, but his low, left-footed effort was well turned behind by Steve Phillips. Phillips also produced a great save to deny Taylor from a free-kick, the ball headed off the line by Bell.

As the half wore on, despite the effort, it was still the visitors who seemed to look the most threatening going forward.

Into the second half, and Brian Little opted to make no changes to the side despite the apparent lack of height upfront getting Rovers nowhere against a solid City backline.

The first chance of note in the second period came just after the hour mark. A free-kick on the edge of the box again saw Ryan Taylor fire in a low shot. The save by Phillips deflected into the path of Rovers skipper Jason McAteer who could only hammer the ball wide. Two minutes later, Tranmere where agonisingly denied again. A right-wing corner from Taylor was met by Ian Sharps, his excellent looping header beat keeper Phillips but was superbly headed off the line by the hard-working Mickey Bell.

As Rovers huffed and puffed, for all the effort they failed to create many clear cut chances as City held strong. Despite some of City's clearances coming down deep in Rovers' half with snow on them, they were remaining strong. The apparent hoof at times was not only stopping Rovers from scoring, it was causing them problems against the troublesome Lita and Brooker.

That's not to say it was all long-ball from the visitors, far from it. Wilkshire stood out with some crisp passing whilst the ever-young Tinnion seemed to be everywhere. City had a game plan, and they were going to stick to it.

On 70 minutes, Tranmere did go close again. Another corner, one of some 13 Rovers got, resulted in Michael Jackson heading into the ground with the ball bouncing over the bar. To be fair to Jackson, he didn't know an awful lot about it.

The attacks kept coming as the home side were giving it everything they had. Worryingly though, yet again it seemed as though they were destined to come that little bit short on every foray forward.

On 78 minutes, the outstanding Roberts' fired in a cross from the left wing after good work from sub Whitmore. The cross avoided everyone, apart from Scouser Bradley Orr. The ball appeared to strike his arm, well it did for just about everyone in that end of the stadium, apart from the officials, predictably. City again cleared their lines, and it was becoming increasingly obvious it was yet another "one of those games". We've certainly had our fair share, but as the saying goes "you make your own luck". Perhaps that's where the problem lies.

Whilst it's easy to blame another dire ref, a toothless attack and an extremely tired looking midfield, that would be unfair on Tinnion's side. As the game entered the last ten minutes, for all Tranmere's dominance, the away side looked likely to score on several occasions on the counter-attack.

The introduction of Tommy Doherty, Tony Dinning and Scott Murray kept it fresh in the midfield for City whilst also ensuring they had fresh legs to join in with any counter-attacks. It was fair to say Rovers would have been glad to see the back of Steve Brooker.

It was Lita who still posed the biggest threat. A fierce low effort from 25 yards narrowly shaved Howarth's left-hand post, whilst he was again unlucky after firing into the side netting after another superb run.

With Eugene Dadi and Gary Jones on upfront along side Hume and just two players in defence for the majority of the final minutes, Rovers threw every last ounce of energy at City. The final ball was always lacking though, the quality deserting the weary legs of the hard-working McAteer and the impressive Taylor.

When the full-time whistle went, predictably the boos rang out from parts of the ground. Although many will say the tactics and team selection was a big mistake, it was no reason to boo off the Rovers players who had given it their all. They have been accused of lacking the effort and commitment at times this season, not tonight. Perhaps just quality and direction at the vital times.

Despite our disappointment, you have to credit Bristol City on a game plan that worked tremendously well. Yet again some may say they were lucky, see above for the comment about luck though.

Jose Mourinho would probably say City parked their team bus in front of the goal once they had scored. Having said that, it was more effective than the Morris Minor we had parked there in the game down at Ashton Gate.

If Rovers are to start picking some wins up, maybe some shooting practice and a few new corners routines may help a little looking at the match stats (below).

Well played City, back to the drawing board for Rovers and on to an 'easy' three points in our derby with Wrexham on Saturday.

[deadratinmycider]

Pretty much spot on I think, fair play good report.

[Rocky]

Nice work..

[tinman-is-god]

I am surprised that Orr's shot that was saved wasn't in the match report. I thought their keeper was pretty poor apart from that great save. Generally a decent report though.

[cheshire_red]

I met the young man who writes their reports before the match in the Clipper. Nice lad and likes his football played properly. he travelled down to Ashton gate for the hammering and can't understand why we aren't 'up there'! I told him i still thought we would be along with Tranmere, Wednesday and the current top two.