By Deadly Submarine
April 29 2007

A late equaliser from the home side robs ten-man Rovers of three hard-earned points at the Alexandra Stadium after Tranmere had played for almost 70 minutes with ten men after Goalkeeper Gavin Ward was sent off for handball outside the penalty area.

 

 

 

Attendance: 5,777

 

Match Referee: Iain Williamson (Berkshire)

 

 

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Tranmere’s visits to Crewe always seem to be memorable and Saturday was no exception as Rovers not only played for almost seventy minutes with ten men but also dared to take the lead before conceding with virtually the last touch of the game as pitch invasions and angry gesturing took centre stage at the final whistle.

 

A glorious spring day added to the relatively short trip brought the Rovers fans out in force and they were treated to one of Rovers better away performances of the season especially given the circumstances that were imposed upon their side after just twenty minutes of the game.

 

Ronnie Moore made two changes to the side that lost 2-0 at home to Champions Scunthorpe United last week with Chris Greenacre and Craig Curran making way for Chris Shuker and Jason McAteer who was returning from his three game suspension after being sent off at Blackpool on Easter Saturday.

 

Also returning from suspension was John Mullin who took his place on the bench along with Greenacre, Taylor, Stockdale and Hinchcliffe but there was no sign of young striker Craig Curran in the squad.

 

In the sunshine, the Superwhite Army made themselves heard early on and after a superb tribute to the late Alan Ball in the form of a minutes applause and chants of “Alan Ball Ball Ball”, the game kicked off.

 

Rovers had the better of the possession early on but Calvin Zola looked isolated in his lone striking role from a very early stage of the game with little falling for him despite the efforts of Shuker and Davies on the wings.

 

It was the 21^st minute when the first major incident occurred and it was an incident that could have changed the game for the worse for Rovers.  Yet another poor clearance from the ever consistent Gavin Ward saw Nicky Maynard break clear of the Rovers defence and as Ward rushed out of his goal for possibly the first time this season, he made a decent save which unfortunately was a good few yards outside his penalty area.

 

The referee, a late stand in for the injured Uriah Rennie, had little choice but to send off Ward cueing perhaps harsh chants from the Rovers faithful aimed in the direction of the hapless goalkeeper.

 

Chris Shuker was sacrificed by Moore as on-loan goalkeeper Ben Hinchcliffe made his first-team debut as Rovers faced the prospect of playing for seventy minutes with ten men.  However the one man deficeit seemed to affect Rovers very little and with the defensive unit looking solid and McAteer and Harrison looking influential in the middle, the visitors more than matched their hosts and deservedly went in level at half-time although it could have been different had Luke Varney not missed for Crewe when it seemed easier to score.

 

Despite discussions amongst Rovers fans at half-time about possible changes for the second half, especially in terms of not playing Zola upfront on his own, there were in the end no changes to the side as the teams came out for the second half.

 

Whatever had been said by Ronnie Moore at half-time seemed to have an effect as Steve Davies came to the fore and really caused problems for the Alex defence in the second half.

 

In fact it was Davies who was involved in the first attack of the second half that also produced an opening goal for Rovers.  Davies ran down the left and as the ball came into the area, Shane Sherriff fed Calvin Zola who in turn laid the ball off to Danny Harrison whose finish into the top right corner was exquisite to hand Rovers the lead.

 

After going ahead, Rovers seemed to suddenly find themselves on the back foot and after Calvin Zola had limped off and been replaced by Chris Greenacre, stand-in Keeper Ben Hinchcliffe was forced into a number of good saves with one in particular from Luke Varney being excellently caught under pressure.

 

With two minutes to go, the injured Paul McLaren was replaced by John Mullin but just when it looked as if Crewe wouldn’t make their pressure count, they scored in the second minute of injury time in controversial circumstances.

 

Chris Greenacre was fouled on the halfway line by Julien Baudet but the referee gave nothing and Crewe worked the ball forward where Baudet of all people flicked the ball on and Shaun Miller headed home the equaliser to end the Rovers party.

 

At the end of the game a somewhat sour scene unfolded as Crewe fans broke onto the pitch and proceeded to goad the Rovers fans some of whom responded and ran onto the pitch themselves but after the game outside the ground there was some friendly banter between home and visiting fans which included an Alex fan who was trying to swap his shirt with a member of Total Tranmere as part of an apparent ‘end of season tradition’.

 

On the whole a draw was probably a fair result and the fact that it was a great day out in wonderful weather will perhaps for many fans cushion the late blow that Rovers suffered in the game.

 

Rovers final game of the season is at home to already relegated Brentford next Saturday.

  

 

Steve Davies – Caused Crewe problems on the left all day but particularly in the second half and worked hard throughout the game.

 

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