Tranmere Rovers v Leyton Orient Match Preview
By Deadly Submarine
February 6 2009
After last Saturday’s disappointing result away at Crewe during which Rovers surrendered a 1-0 lead to lose 2-1 in the final seven minutes of the game, Tranmere return to the home comforts of Prenton Park on Saturday afternoon in Coca-Cola League One.
Saturday 7th February 2009 - Kick-off 3.00pm
Tranmere R v Leyton Orient
Coca-Cola League One at Prenton Park
After losing away to the team who were at the time at the foot of League One on Saturday, Rovers will be hoping for a better result at home to another struggling side when Leyton Orient visit Prenton Park on Saturday afternoon.
With Tuesday's game away at Cheltenham having been postponed due to a frozen pitch, the quick chance to return to winning ways on the road were foiled but at home it's a totally different story for Ronnie Moore's men just at the moment.
You only have to look at Rovers' last six home matches to see how good they have been at home recently having won all of their last six home games whilst Orient have won just one game in their last six away from home which was in fact on their last away trip.
Despite the form book suggesting a win for Rovers though, there is an added issue to throw into the pot following the appointment of Geraint Williams as Orient Manager on Wednesday following the dismissal of long-serving Martin Ling a week ago.
The London side's poor run of form saw Ling's reign end last week and often a new Manager's first game in charge (as this one against Rovers is) can bring success even to teams who have been playing poorly although is not always the case as Gary McAllister found out on taking over at Elland Road as Leeds Manager last February!!
Earlier in the season when the two sides met at Brisbane Road back in October, the result there saw Rovers record what is still to date their last away win in the League thanks to a first half goal from Chris Shuker.
Last season's meeting at Prenton Park saw the teams draw 1-1 after Calvin Zola had given the home side a second minute lead and looked set to hold on for all three points until the 87th minute when Chambers netted an equaliser to give Orient a share of the spoils.
Orient have only ever won twice at Prenton Park in eleven previous League meetings but with a squad of Players looking to prove a point to the new man at the helm, this game will be far from easy for Rovers.
If you're going to the match, get behind the lads and enjoy the game!
Tranmere Team News
With the postponement of Tuesday night's game at Cheltenham, Ian Goodison would have suspended for this game but could now be facing a four to six week spell on the sidelines anyway with the injury sustained at Crewe on Saturday.
Strikers Chris Greenacre and Craig Curran are still out but Ronnie Moore has confirmed that Gareth Edds will return to the starting line-up meaning a likely return to defence for captain Antony Kay in Goodison's absence.
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Leeds v Millwall is on Monday night and Leicester v Oldham is tomorrow, so if we win then we will more than likely be 3 or 4pts off the play-offs going in to our game at Colchester on Tuesday. Win that and in the worst case Scenario we will be in 7th and 3pts off the play-offs with a game in hand over Oldham.
In our best case Scenario, We win both games, Oldham lose at Leicester, Millwall draw with Leeds, and we can then potentially go 6th and sit 2pts off Millwall in 5th, ahead of our spell of 3 home games from 4 matches.
Let's hope that Moore resorts back to starting with basically the same line-up that won against Stockport and the second half against Carlisle, but with Kay in the place of injured Goodison, and hopefully see this line-up perform as well as they did in those two games over our next 3 games where we have definately got the chance to get a decent position ahead of the home games.
I admire the optomistic outlook too Inatimate - makes a change to see positivity on here!
