Although the second half livened up slightly in comparison to the first, this was all in all another poor showing from Rovers and their opponents and it could be said that Blackpool were denied victory at the death when referee Drysdale apparently failed to spot a blatant handball by Rovers defender Mike Jackson his own penalty area.

Tranmere were without Gareth Roberts who picked up an injury in the defeat at Brentford in midweek and he was replaced by David Beresford who was returning from a five-week injury lay-off to play on the left of midfield.  Theo Whitmore moved to the right side of midfield as Brian Little opted for a 4-4-2 formation with an otherwise unchanged side.  Eugene Dadi returned to the squad after his three-match suspension but had to settle for a place on the bench.

Tranmere almost scored in the first couple of minutes when Hall set Hume free but former Wrexham player Mark McGregor cleared the danger.  Just a minute later, a move that involved Hume, Hall and Beresford saw Beresford have two crossing attempts both of which were cleared.

Simon Grayson had Blackpool’s first effort on goal on eight minutes but his volley deflected off Ian Sharps for a corner.  After twenty minutes, Iain Hume had Tranmere’s best chance of the match when he beat the out-rushing Blackpool keeper Lee Jones to the ball, lobbed it over him but the ball agonisingly clipped the right hand post and rolled out for a goal kick.

Just after the half hour, David Beresford, who in fairness had not had a bad game up until then, was replaced by Chris Dagnall who joined Hume upfront with Hall moving to right midfield and Whitmore to the left.  However no breakthrough could be made before half time leaving the home faithful to once again make do with a half-time stalemate.

Straight from the re-start, Hume squared the ball across the face of the Blackpool goal but it was out of the reach of both Hall and Dagnall.  Tranmere had a number of other chances but none of them were particularly clear-cut.  On 55 minutes Hume fed strike partner Dagnall who cut inside his marker and shaped to shoot but was blocked.

On the 70 minutes, Tranmere won a corner that McAteer crossed into the area for Jackson who fell over but still managed to stand up again and head goal wards but Lee Jones made a fantastic save, tipping the ball over the crossbar.

With ten minutes left, Eugene Dadi replaced Whitmore and Hume moved into midfield to become Tranmere’s third right-winger in the match.  Right at the death a cross into the Tranmere penalty area looked to have been blatantly handled by Mike Jackson and at first it looked as if the referee was pointing to the penalty spot but Tranmere got off the hook as the referee was merely signalling for a Tranmere goal-kick.  Unlike against Stockport a week earlier there was to be no breakthrough for Rovers and the game ended all square.

In the end Tranmere should be happy to have taken a point which on reflection was the fairest result and leaves them needing two points to secure the sought after play-off spot when they travel to Swindon next week, a ground which is not one of their more favoured in terms of results in recent years.

The Teams:

Tranmere: Achterberg, Taylor, Jackson, Sharps, Goodison, Hall, Rankine, McAteer, Beresford (Dagnall 34), Hume, Whitmore (Dadi 81).
Subs Not Used: Howarth, Linwood, Harrison.

Blackpool: Jones, McGregor, Clarke, Robert Edwards, Coid, Bullock, Southern, Grayson (Shaw 81), Paul Edwards, Parker (Donnelly 56), Murphy.
Subs Not Used: Boyack, Butler, Anderson.

Bookings: Sharps (Tranmere), Southern, Parker, Clarke (Blackpool)

Referee: Mr Darren Drysdale (Lincolnshire)

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS

Tranmere Rovers Poll