Murphy on Target as Rovers Kids Earn Deserved Draw
By Deadly Submarine
July 11 2009
Tranmere’s youth side earned a deserved and hard fought draw away at Welsh side Holyhead Hotspur on Friday evening as the 2009/10 pre-season campaign finally got under way. Goals from Dale Jennings and trialist Danny Murphy sealed a draw for Rovers against a decent Holyhead side.
Holyhead 2 - 2 Tranmere Rovers
Jennings 20
Murphy 85
Shaun Garnett's young Tranmere side earned a deserved draw against Cymru Alliance side Holyhead Hotspur on Friday evening as Tranmere's pre-season campaign rolled into motion at a sunny Anglesey location.
Despite the widespread promotion of a 6.30pm kick-off it was in the end a 7.00pm start at the New Stadium and after a pint in the excellent Social Club and a brief read of a very detailed match programme which included Total Tranmere's match report from last years game against Hotspurs, it was soon time for kick off with Garnett's mixture of first and second year scholars playing in the Gold Away Shirt) lining up as follows (trialists are marked with an asterisk).....
Joe Collister
Alex Pursehouse Ben Oliver Chris Rimmer* Danny Murphy*
Jack Mackreth Tom Baker Jay Gibbs David McNamara
Jay Ashcroft Dale Jennings
Subs: Andrew Coughlin (GK), Liam Benson, Callum Fairclough, Max Power, Ross Rule, Steve Simpson*
Just one player from the announced Rovers squad wasn't actually present at the game and that was Conor Roberts who had been called away with Wales.
Rovers opened the game well and six foot plus trialist Chris Rimmer and partner in crime Ben Oliver made an early impression on the watching Rovers fans at the back whilst at the other end it was former Holyhead youth team player Jay Gibbs in midfield and the excellent Dale Jennings upfront who were impressing the most.
Rovers dealt with some early pressure in the opening fifteen minutes of the match and with the first real clear cut chance of their own on twenty minutes the visitors scored thanks to a cool finish from Dale Jennings who was a constant thorn in Holyhead's defence.
With the lead now secured, Rovers continued to push with Jack Mackreth and his pace getting results down the right hand side. It was Mackreth's decent cross in the 26th minute that found Jay Ashcroft relatively unmarked at the far post but the striker just couldn't connect and the lead remained just a single goal.
Jennings continued to threaten for Rovers and in the 34th minute he had a chance well blocked by the Hotspurs defence and just two minutes after that had yet another chance blocked when perhaps a pass out to Jack Mackreth may have been the better option on that occasion.
In the 37th minute, Gibbs ran from just inside halfway and eventually got a shot off which in the end didn't trouble the Holyhead goalkeeper. It wasn't all Tranmere though as Holyhead continued to test the Rovers defence, their best chance coming in the 40th minute when a chance went just over Joe Collister's crossbar.
Right on the half-time whistle, Rovers winger David McNamara, seemingly known to the squad and coaching staff as ‘Lefty', lost his head a little after a coming together and ended up being replaced by another trialist on the left wing by the name of Steve Simpson.
Simpson barely had time to touch the ball though as the whistle went for half time with Rovers deservedly 1-0 up at the break thanks to Jenning's goal.
HALF-TIME - HOLYHEAD 0 - 1 TRANMERE ROVERS
At the start of the second half there were a number of changes to the Rovers side with Joe Collister being replaced in goal by Andrew Coughlin whilst Liam Benson replaced trialist Danny Murphy meaning that Alex Pursehouse moved to right back from left back.
There were three other interval changes as Max Power came on in midfield meaning that Tom Baker dropped to centre-back at the expense of Ben Oliver who went off despite having looked impressive in the first half. Strikers Dale Jennings and Jay Ashcroft were replaced by Ross Rule and Callum Fairclough meaning the second half line-up began as follows....
Andrew Coughlin
Liam Benson Chris Rimmer* Tom Baker Alex Pursehouse
Jack Mackreth Max Power Jay Gibbs Steve Simpson
Ross Rule Callum Fairclough
Whether the changes to the side took time to sink in remains unclear but within five minutes of the restart the scores were level when the hosts scored a fine effort from distance and subsequently got themselves on top in the game for long periods.
Ross Rule was lucky not to be yellow carded for a hard tackle on a Holyhead player in the 62nd minute and just three minutes later and just twelve minutes after levelling, the home side took the lead with a goal from a similar range to their first although yet again it would be hard to blame Coughlin in the Rovers goal for either goal.
Any Rovers fans that thought a second goal from the home side may start a flood were wrong though as Rovers began to fight back. Fairclough headed over the crossbar from a Max Power free kick in the 67th minute whilst a Holyhead player did the same from their free kick at the other end just three minutes later.
With ten minutes remaining, trialist Steve Simpson got injured on the far side and was replaced by trialist Danny Murphy who had previously gone off at half-time. Whilst Simpson had played a very good game, the re-introduction of Murphy seemed to change the game and for the final ten minutes it was all Rovers as Max Power and Jack Mackreth pulled the strings.
With just five minutes to go, Rovers got the equaliser they deserved when a Ross Rule cross was headed in by Danny Murphy to make it 2-2.
All in all it was a decent performance from Rovers' youngsters, some of whom have only just signed on as first year scholars and it was interesting to see them in action at this early stage of the season.
FULL-TIME - HOLYHEAD 2 - 2 TRANMERE ROVERS
Total Tranmere will bring you more pictures from this game tomorrow so stay tuned.
Jack Mackreth - A very difficult decision as some players played the whole ninety minutes whilst others played less but still impressed a lot.
The first half centre-back pairing of Rimmer and Oliver were excellent as were Pursehouse and Murphy on the right and left respectively. Dale Jennings had a superb first half and more than deserved his goal whilst Jay Gibbs also impressed against his former Club.
Man of the Match though for me is Jack Mackreth who played the full 90 minutes and continued to cause Holyhead problems down the right and at times the left with his pace and quality of crosses.
A word too for Joe Collister who had an excellent first half in goal.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
What a name.
What did the kids look like then Deadly? Any hope?
No seriously some of them did look very good in this game although how good the opposition actually are I just don't know.
Will be interesting to see how we get on against Buckley Town later in pre-season as they are in the same Division as Holyhead.
Don't know how many of you remember seeing the picture linked below on the Official Site last week of the Players out on a run with McAteer and Garnett?
On the left of McAteer (just behind) as we looked at the Pic there was a massively tall player and we were wondering who he was.
Well that was Chris Rimmer who played at the back yesterday.
Link: Youth Trialist
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:07:11:10:55:35 by Deadly Submarine.
If so hes from the youth been there for years.. or is it a new trailist who played?
How did he do?
Simpson looked about 13 and looked very like one of TT's players lol (Rich).
Warwick actually missed the game (unheard of) as he had a knee operation last week and was advised not sit in the minibus or a car long periods.