Rovers Move Out of the Drop Zone at Last!!
By Mark Ridgway
February 21 2010
Mark Ridgway reports on Tranmere's somewhat fortunate but absolutely vital 2-1 home win over Leyton Orient in Coca-Cola League One which not only moved Rovers out of the League's relegation zone but also moved them up five places in the table thanks to first half goals from Ian Thomas-Moore and Marvin Sordell......
Tranmere R 2 - 1 Leyton O
Ian Thomas-Moore 27 Jonathan Tehoue 86
Marvin Sordell 35
Attendance: 5,357
A 2-1 victory over in form Leyton Orient proved crucial for Tranmere as they moved from 22nd to 17th in one afternoon. Ian Thomas-Moore opened the scoring before Marvin Sordell scored his first for the Club. Orient pulled one back late on and Rovers did well to hang on with some committed defending.
Les Parry only made one change to the side that drew at Southend, with Shay Logan being suspended new loanee Luke O'Neill came in at right back; the rest of the team looked like this....
Daniels
O'Neill, Broomes, Goodison, Bakayogo
Taylor, McLaren, Welsh
Thomas-Moore, Sordell, Curran
The temperature of the game was bound to be high when Rovers fans realised that traditional villain Sean Thornton was lining up against us.
Rovers started the brighter without creating any clear cut chances, Sordell and Curran were lively and Sordell hit the first effort of the game high and wide after being set up by Thomas-Moore. From a Mclaren corner Edds flicked it on and Goodison was inches away from his second goal in a week.
Rovers weren't to be denied with the next attack though when Ian Thomas-Moore found space wide which and surprised the keeper by going near post and it nestled in the bottom corner for his 9th goal of the season.
On the half hour Craig Curran screwed wide after being sent through by Sordell and soon after Rovers doubled their lead when a rushed clearance by the Orient keeper fell to John Welsh who drove forward and picked out Marvin Sordell who placed a perfect left footed effort into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.
Leyton Orient's first real goal attempt came on 40 minutes when former Premier League player Ryan Jarvis drilled a low effort goalwards, but Luke Daniels was equal to it with a strong tip around the post. Bakayogo and Sordell both missed the target late on in the half for Rovers.
Half Time: Tranmere Rovers 2 - 0 Leyton Orient
The first act of significance of the second half was Geraint Williams' decision to withdraw Sean Thornton and he left the field to a chorus of boo's and jeers from the home fans who it seems have long memories.
Daniels for Orient blazed a free kick way over the bar and Thomas-Moore nearly nicked the ball off the Jones in the Orient goal for a chance to add Rovers' third.
Terry Gornell came on for Rovers with 25 minutes in place of Sordell before Luke Daniels did well to deny Scowcroft, tipping round the post before Tehoue blazed over from close range for Orient.
Thomas-Moore's back flick was easily kept out by Jones before at the other end Jonathan Tehoue placed a low effort beyond Daniels with five minutes left to make things interesting into injury time.
Demetriou was denied a stunning equaliser in the last minute when his free kick beat the massive Rovers wall and had to be tipped over by Daniels and Rovers had to survive a number of goalmouth scrambles and nervous moments.
Rovers nearly counter attacked perfectly when Curran broke down the right and did superbly well but flashed a shot across goal in injury time as Rovers saw the result out for a massive three points.
Full Time: Tranmere Rovers 2 - 1 Leyton Orient
Ian Goodison
Goodison was a rock at the back and kept the defence together superbly during a lot of pressure in the second half.
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League looks so much healthier now.
BUT...
It was obvious that 2nd goal had negative effect on the lads and meant we sat back and invited pressure on to us where we may have pushed further had we still only led by 1 so I'm hoping on the bigger picture we don't do exactly the same thing. Now were finally out of relegation if the team think the hard works done and take their foot off the pedal then we'll soon find ourselves in league 2.
As things stand, the way I look at it is that our position looks much healthier but the gap to the drop zone is still very small.
However, the positive thing is that compared to where we were, we can now say that we are one of maybe six teams that could go down (as opposed to before where we were looking like certainties to go down regardless).