Tranmere 3-3 Cardiff City - Report and Comment
Hat-Trick hero....
By Chris O'Brien
March 15 2003
Robert Earnshaw will have brought the match ball back with him to Cardiff following his fantastic hat-trick in a memorable 3-3 draw at Prenton Park last night. The 3 goals has taken Earnie's tally to 32 for the season. Former Bluebird, Simon Haworth was amongst the names on the Tranmere scoresheet.
|
|
Rovers looked as if they would take all 3 points from the tie when Gary Jones put them in front for the first time in the 88th minute, but Earnshaw capped off a fantastic night with the injury time goal. 'Earnie's' second hat-trick of the season has taken his goal tally for the season to the 32 in all competitions. Compare his goals record to other high scoring City strikers here. Earnshaw had scored the only goal of the
first half coming 10 minutes before half-time, but the Bluebirds were lucky
to be ahead and it always looked as if Tranmere would score. It took only 2 minutes of the second forty-five for Rovers to get on level terms, when former-Bluebird Simon Haworth headed the ball passed Neil Alexander from a Sean Connelly cross. Cardiff kept battling though, and were back in front following a good spell of pressure which saw Robert Earnshaw neatly finish passed John Achterberg in the Tranmere goal. Rovers fought back again though, their second goal coming 10 minutes from time. Teenage striker Iain Hume firing home a fantastic strike passed Alexander. Hume had been causing the slow Cardiff defence problems all evening and he deserved a goal. After the game, Robert Earnshaw spoke to BBC about the result. "It was a great point for us, a point gained even considering we went behind and we must look forward to the rest of the year" said Earnie. An away following of about 600 boosted the attendance up to just under 10,000 - 2,000 above Rovers' average league gate for the season. The draw was definitely the fair result on the night, and looks quite a good one for the Bluebirds against the on-form Tranmere who recently beat Crewe Alexandra, and drew with high-flying Wigan Athletic. The point keeps City in third place, and Bluebird fans will have one eye on the Crewe vs Port Vale game today to see how far behind the top two they will be this evening. Tranmere stay in 7th, one point behind QPR who face Oldham Athletic today. Full Time Score - Tranmere Rovers 3-3 Cardiff City
Tranmere Rovers - Achterberg, Connelly, Allen,
Sharps, Roberts, Price (Taylor 75), Loran, Jones, Nicholson, Haworth, Hume. Cardiff City - Alexander, Croft, Prior, Young,
Barker, Bonner, Kavanagh, Boland, Mahon, Earnshaw, Thorne. Referee - A Butler
The worrying thing is Earnshaw appears to be our only source of goals at the moment. Thorne is the nearest to him with 9! Personally I would like to see Gordon line-up alongside Earnshaw on Tuesday. |
A
90th minute Robert Earnshaw strike secured City a point and his hat-trick in
a thrilling 3-3 draw at Prenton Park last night.
No
question. Earnshaw took his goal tally to 32 for the season with a superb
display last night.|
|