Late Rovers Goal the Quay to Success on Deeside

On a mild evening in Deeside in North Wales, a mostly youthful Rovers side added to a couple of first team fringe players took to the field against Welsh Premier League outfit Connah’s Quay Nomads where goals from Ryan Fraughan and Ross Rule gave the away side victory in front of watching Assistant Manager Jason McAteer.

The final pre-season friendly of the 2009/10 campaign for Rovers saw a young Rovers side with a hint of first team experience added in, record a relatively comfortable 2-1 win over Welsh Premier League side Connah's Quay Nomads at the Deeside Stadium on Wednesday night.

With Rovers playing yesterday in the Carling Cup first round against Grimsby Town, it was something of a surprise to see no fewer than five first team squad members playing in the game including relatively new professionals Terry Gornell, Josh McAughley, Ryan Fraughan and Joe Collister as well as one of Tuesday night's goalscoring heroes Gareth Edds.

The starting line-up was as follows.....

Collister

Pursehouse  Baker (Capt) Benson McNamara

Mackreth Power Edds Fraughan

McAughley Gornell

Subs: Coughlin (GK), Ashcroft, Roberts, Rule, Gibbs, Fairclough

It was the Nomads who started the brightest having a shot over the bar after just 60 seconds of the game and four minutes later Joe Collister sliced an attempted clearance high into the air but fortunately for him and Rovers the danger was cleared on this occasion.

At the other end, winger Jack Mackreth was making his presence felt with his pace twice getting him into decent crossing positions.  In the 7^th minute his cross found Ryan Fraughan whose shot went over the crossbar and eight minutes later, it was Josh McAughley who was on the end of a Mackreth cross but he fired wide of the mark.

One of the Nomads strikers then fired a half volley high over Joe Collister's crossbar in the 17^th minute and then had a free-kick blocked by the Tranmere defensive wall three minutes later.

The home side continued to create the chances despite Rovers' dominance in most other areas of the field and after they hit the post in the 24^th minute, Terry Gornell fired over the bar from 35 yards at the opposite end a minute later.

As the half continued, Rovers looked more and more threatening through both Jack Mackreth and Ryan Fraughan and in the 37^th minute, Terry Gornell had the ball in the Nomads net only for it to be ruled out a handball by the striker.

With just seconds of the first half remaining though, Rovers did take the lead when they were awarded what should have been a penalty for a foul on Mackreth but was instead given as an indirect free-kick right on the 18 yard line, much to the annoyance of Jason McAteer in the Stand.

No worries though as Ryan Fraughan lifted the free kick off the right hand post and into the net past the stranded Nomads goalkeeper to give Rovers a lead they kept until the break.

HALF-TIME: CONNAH'S QUAY NOMADS 0 - 1 TRANMERE ROVERS

At half-time, Rovers Manager Shaun Garnett made two changes, taking off first-teamers Terry Gornell and Gareth Edds who had an excellent half and replacing them with Conor Roberts and Callum Fairclough.

In the first minute of the half, Connah's Quay had a long range effort easily collected by Joe Collister but ten minutes later a mistake at the back from the otherwise excellent Tom Baker let in Nomads for the equaliser which gave Collister no chance in the Rovers goal.

Rovers continued to attack the home side with the substitutes Roberts and Fairclough performing well along with Max Power until another double substitution on 65 minutes which saw Power and David McNamara replaced by Jay Ashcroft at centre-back and Jay Gibbs in centre midfield.

The home side could have taken the lead in the 75^th minute but inexplicably their striker struck the crossbar from all of four yards out and as the ball bounced down it was cleared away to safety much to the relief of the Rovers staff and fans.

Ryan Fraughan made way for Ross Rule just after that chance for the home side before a free-kick out wide on the right from Jay Gibbs was met by the head of Callum Fairclough in the 79^th minute but it went wide of the target.

With just under ten minutes remaining, Jay Ashcroft who had a decent game at centre-back despite more often being a striker, made a superb blocking tackle to put the ball out for a Nomads corner which came to nothing and shortly afterwards, Max Power returned to the action in place of Josh McAughley.

With four minutes left Alex Pursehouse limped off injured and was thereafter seen sporting an ice pack on his left heel meaning that David McNamara returned to the action for the final few minutes.

It was in those final few minutes that Rovers claimed the win they just about deserved when a superb long ball from Power left Ross Rule through on goal and he made no mistake to seal the 2-1 win for Garnett's men.

FULL-TIME: CONNAH'S QUAY NOMADS 1 - 2 TRANMERE ROVERS

Tom Baker

There were no players who had a bad game for Rovers on the night with McNamara, Power and Pursehouse all having good games.  However it is central defender and captain Tom Baker who gets the award despite the error for the goal as he was confident and assured at the back and led by example.