Barnett and Fraughan Goals Not Enough at Lairds
By Deadly Submarine
July 14 2009
Tranmere’s first team squad endured an opening pre-season defeat at Cammell Laird on Tuesday night although the other half of the squad did manage a win at Heswall thanks to a brace from Ian Moore. Deadly Submarine reports on the defeat at Cammell Laird.....
Cammell Laird 3 - 2 Tranmere
Barnett 50
Fraughan 88
Referee - John Stokes (Wirral)
After opting to go to Cammell Laird rather than Heswall, it was good to see new Rovers Boss John Barnes in attendance along with the majority of the first team squad but just like the weatherat Kirklands on the night, promising signs turned to misery as individual errors saw Rovers ultimately lose 3-2 against the hosts.
With Ian Moore, Chris Shuker and new signings John Welsh and Alan Mahon all at the other game in Heswall and with Bas Savage injured and Ian Goodison reportedly still in Jamaica, the squad at Lairds was sprinkled with trialists and a couple of recently signed professionals alongside the rest of the first team squad with the starting line up as follows (trialists are marked with an asterisk).....
Lane*
Edds Hansen* Abbey* Cresswell
Barnett McLaren Allott Fraughan
Gornell Curran
Subs: Ashcroft, Rule, Gibbs
The early part of the game set out Rovers intentions for the match which seemed to be possession football with the centre back trialist pairing of Hansen and Abbey seeing a lot of the ball along with Gareth Edds as the ball went back and to across the edge of the Rovers penalty area.
With 35 minutes gone it was the home side who took the lead with a shot from just inside the penalty area after Rovers had failed to clear the ball to safety. Despite Rovers' lack of creativity up to that point in the game, to go behind was harsh given the possession the visitors has enjoyed.
Terry Gornell headed against the Lairds crossbar and Fraughan and Curran both fired just wide as Rovers started to look like making their superior possession count. The breakthrough in the first half didn't arrive though and the hosts went in 1-0 up at the break.
HALF-TIME: CAMMELL LAIRD 1 - 0 TRANMERE ROVERS
Rovers began the second half much brighter and pinned Lairds back with a number of attacks using both Edds on the right and Cresswell on the left as effective fullbacks.
The early improvements in the second half were rewarded after just ten minutes of play when an excellent through ball from Paul McLaren found Charlie Barnett and gave him a sight of goal which he capitalised on superbly to level the scores.
Goalscorer Charlie Barnett in Action
Just when there looked like being some hope for Rovers though, it was quickly evaporated when trialist goalkeeper Patrick Lane failed to hold a shot on goal and the ball was forced into the net by the Lairds player who was running into the area as Lane parried the ball.
Craig Curran fired over from the edge of the penalty area for Rovers after good work from Gareth Edds to head down Aaron Cresswell's cross from the left whilst Gornell and Fraughan both had chances blocked by defenders before the keeper was called into action himself.
Rovers continued to boss the possession but another clanger from goalkeeper Lane on 73 minutes sealed Rovers' fate as he miskicked the ball and allowed the Lairds player to simply tap into an open goal to make it 3-1.
As the weather worsened considerably it seemed that Lairds relaxed at 3-1 because suddenly the only team likely to score the next goal were Rovers as Allott suddenly seemed to wake up in midfield and alongside Fraughan who had been excellent all game began to take control.
There were just two minutes left of the game though by the time Rovers did find the net again to make it 3-2. Ryan Fraughan was put through and his excellent finish went into the top right corner of the goal to cap a fine display from the youngster.
Sadly it was too little to late as Rovers slipped to defeat but with arguably three of Rovers better players appearing at Heswall in the other game and with two more in Savage and Goodison absent for other reasons, the result isn't the end of the world and the performance had its plus points.
Rovers next game at home to Preston North End of the Championship on Saturday afternoon (kick-off 3.00pm) should give fans more of an idea as the squads that were split tonight come together for a much tougher test.
FULL-TIME: CAMMELL LAIRD 3 - 2 TRANMERE ROVERS
Ryan Fraughan - Either goalscorer could have got the Man of the Match award whilst Paul McLaren and Aaron Cresswell also had decent games for Rovers. However Fraughan never stopped working and more than deserved his well taken goal late on even though it wasn't enough to salvage anything from the game.
Of the trialists that played at Lairds, Hansen looked competent enough but both Abbey and the goalkeeper Lane made too many mistakes and looked out of their depth at times. Mark Allott improved in the second half after a poor first 45.
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Fingers crossed that Barnett signs again, it also sounds like our youngsters are really going for it this year, I'm pleased to hear it really, its about time we encourages much more youngsters into the first team/frame.
Seems like we'll be relying on them even more than ever, although it also seems like that they are thriving on that responsibility already!
M.
We still need to find a number 1 though by the looks of it!
C'mon Barnett, Do the right thing and sign up!
Also the two chances we did take were good finishes albeit a deflection of the blocking defender on Fraughan's goal I think.
If you add Shuker (how did he do by the way?), Mahon, Welsh and Ian Moore to the side at Lairds and also Ashton Taylor at the back I'm still quite confident up to know provided as mentioned above we get in that all important Keeper.
George Abbey was clueless, although he was much better the 2nd half, he didn't have a clue positional wise! I don't think his performance helped Hansen and Cresswell either!
The keeper made 2 glaringly bad errors, but possibly worth another go, could be good back-up?
Overall we played OK last night, but there were times we were passing it around to much on the edge of our own 18 yard box, as much as people want to see us play football, we can't pass the ball around our own penalty area.. thats where the big hoof or a ball over the top can be needed!
I certainly think Hansen is worth looking at a few more times yet. Not sure about the Keeper though although having him is better than having none I suppose.