Macauley on Target But Reserves Go Down to Dale

A second half goal from Josh Macauley was all Tranmere’s young Reserves had to show for a gritty display as they eventually went down 4-1 against Rochdale’s Reserve side on a cold evening at Rossendale United’s Dark Lane Ground up in the hills of Lancashire.

Rochdale 4 - 1 Tranmere R

                             Macauley 47

First team squad members Joe Collister, Ashton Taylor, Ryan Fraughan, Josh Macauley and Kithson Bain all started the game for Rovers with the rest of the side made up of youngsters and a trialist defender by the name of Zoumana Bakayogo.  The starting line up was as follows....

Collister

Pursehouse  Ashcroft  Taylor (c)  Bakayogo

Mackreth  Power  Roberts  Fraughan

Macauley Bain

Subs: Coughlin, Gibbs, Fairclough, Oliver, Benson

There were probably a number of spectators, including Rovers Boss John Barnes who weren't even in through the turnstiles when Rochdale took the lead after around 30 seconds as Rovers defence seem to fall asleep down its right side.

The Dale scorer was able to cut inside on the right and unleash a shot into the bottom right corner of Joe Collister's goal leaving the keeper helpless but frustrated early on to make it 1-0 to the hosts.

Within five minutes of the goal though it seemed that the early goal may be just a blip as Rovers began to get a hold on the game with Ryan Fraughan and the impressive looking trialist Bakayogo getting involved down the left on a number of occasions.

One particularly good cross from Fraughan sailed into a dangerous area but there seemed to be no green shirt there to meet it for Rovers and soon after, Fraughan also bent in a dangerous free-kick from just outside the penalty area to the far post where Bain narrowly failed to make contact.

Dale had chances of their own at the other end to keep Collister on his toes but in midfield Rovers seemed to be winning the battle through Power and Conor Roberts in the middle and Jack Mackreth and Fraughan out wide.

However, Rovers were dealt a second cruel blow late in the first half as the Dale striker found himself with some space in the Rovers penalty area and was able to finish past Collister via the far post, much to the disgust of the young Rovers stopper.

To be going in at half-time 2-0 down was harsh indeed on a decent enough performance by Rovers and clearly they would have to step up their game in the second half to get anything from it.

HALF-TIME: ROCHDALE 2 - 0 TRANMERE ROVERS

It seemed Rovers had stepped up their game when Josh Macauley pulled a goal back for the visitors early in the second half but despite again performing reasonably well on the pitch, the visitors were allowed to score two goals in quick succession midway through the half to make it 4-1, the fourth coming after a defensive error by Rovers.

The game then became something of a bad tempered affair with Conor Roberts seemingly booked for nothing late on and leading to vigourous but somewhat humourous protests from both Shaun Garnett and Les Parry on the Rovers bench.

Josh Macauley Scored Rovers Only Goal just after Half-Time

That came after the referee, Mr Bond, had only minutes earlier given a foul against Josh Macauley for an incident which seemed barely to have contact let alone be seen as an infringement and so it was that Rovers fell to what looks on paper to be a crushing defeat but in reality is a flattering scoreline for the hosts on this occasion.

The trialist performed well on his first appearance for the Club and Ash Taylor captained the side well as we have become used to seeing in the Reserves of late.  Kithson Bain showed flashes of good play but on the whole was disappointing in this game.

FULL-TIME: ROCHDALE 4 - 1 TRANMERE ROVERS

Ryan Fraughan

Playing on the left wing, Ryan Fraughan didn't always get the ball when he asked for it when perhaps at times he should have been given it but when he did get the ball he was influential in helping Rovers attack the Rochdale goal as well as working fairly well with a relative stranger in trialist Bakayogo down the left side.