First-Half Double Hands Rovers the Points

By Deadly Submarine
April 1 2006

At the second time of asking, Rovers travelled to Swindon Town’s County Ground on a damp, but surprisingly not too cold night in the hope of ending a run of two successive 1-0 defeats and a three game goalless run. Thanks to goals from Greenacre and Aiston, Rovers came out on top in a 2-1 win.

 

 

             Cureton 69                                                     Greenacre 21

                                                                                      Aiston 33

 

Attendance:4,139

           6,803

 

At the second time of asking, Rovers travelled to Swindon Town’s County Ground on a damp, but surprisingly not too cold night in the hope of ending a run of two successive 1-0 defeats and a three game goalless run.  Thanks to goals from Greenacre and Aiston, Rovers came out on top in a 2-1 win. 

 

Tranmere’s hosts went into this game in dire straits having been thumped 7-1 away at Nottingham Forest just last week and beaten 3-2 at home to Rotherham before that but Rovers knew it wouldn’t be an easy game as their Official Club minibus taking just 25 fans left Prenton Park for the long trip south.

 

The fact that Rover’s support had been obliterated by the postponement and then quick re-arrangement of the game seemed to have little effect though as the Whites stormed into a 2-0 half-time lead with goals from Chris Greenacre and Sam Aiston before a second half Jamie Cureton goal for the home side gave the game a closer score-line at the end as Rovers won 2-1.

 

Brian Little made five changes to the Rovers side that lost 1-0 away at Oldham ten days earlier with a change of formation that seemed to work well.  Captain Mike Jackson returned from a one match suspension in the heart of defence at the expense of Paul Linwood whilst Ian Goodison and Danny Harrison made way for Sam Aiston and Carl Tremarco as Little opted for a 4-4-2 formation with Gareth Roberts reverting to left-back.

 

Rovers’s veteran midfielders swapped places with Jason McAteer starting the match at the expense of Mark Rankine who took his turn to miss out of the squad.  The final change saw Calvin Zola replace Delroy Facey upfront with Facey settling for a place on the bench along with Steven Jennings, Steve Wilson and the displaced Ian Goodison and Danny Harrison.  

 

The signs were good from early on for the travelling 100 or so fans of Tranmere as the side showed early signs of being able to create goalscoring chances for a change.  In fact it took just three minutes for the first Rovers chance to emerge when Jason McAteer saw his shot at goal from distance deflected behind for an early corner.

 

Chris Greenacre was looking lively for the visitors and had a couple of early glimpses of goal whilst at the other end the Rovers defence were looking unnecessarily shaky on  a couple of occasions as Swindon advanced.  The biggest scare came when Trevor Benjamin forced Dino Seremet into a decent save low to the keepers’ right and David Raven was able to clear the rebound to safety.

 

Another Swindon chance was blocked as it headed goalbound and deflected out for a corner.  In spite of the home side’s share of the chances, Rovers were looking like the better and more threatening team and on twenty minutes Calvin Zola was just unable to reach a Greenacre cross as the pressure continued from the Whites.

 

Three minutes after that chance, the roles were reversed and as a result, Rovers took the lead thanks to an excellent goal from Chris Greenacre.  Greenacre set Zola free down the left hand side with a neat flick and as Zola ran clear he played the perfect cross back to Greenacre who made no mistake with a first time shot into the bottom right of the goal past the stranded Evans.

 

Cue the humourous chants of the Rovers faithful as “We want Seven” rang around the County Ground for several minutes.  Whilst Rovers had deserved to take the lead, they still had to be on their guard as Swindon had efforts from Gurney and Pook saved easily by Seremet before Rovers fans were sent into something of a dreamland as their side doubled the lead on 33 minutes.

 

Chris Greenacre was once again the creator as he sent Sam Aiston clear of the Swindon defence on the right hand side.  The winger shot at goal and even though goalkeeper Evans got a touch, possibly a hand, to the ball, it looped up off him and dipped into the net to surprise of many Rovers fans at the opposite end of the ground who only realised the ball ahd actually gone in when Greenacre and Aiston started their celebrations.

 

So 2-0 up inside 35 minutes and Rovers had their first away win of 2006 in their grasp with an hour still to play.  Rovers had one further chance from Greenacre which was saved by Evans before the half-time whistle blew to the delight of the visiting fans and the boos of the home crowd.

 

Swindon Manager Iffy Onuora made a change at half-time with former Bolton player Ricky Shakes replacing Smith as the Robins looked to get back into the game.  Despite the change, Rovers were still having the better of the game with headed chances falling for Zola and Jackson, whilst O’Hanlon headed straight at Seremet at the other end.

 

Steven O’Leary did well to find space for a shot on the edge of the penalty area after good work from Carl Tremarco but his shot was saved by Evans whilst Aiston had a shot blocked not long after.

 

On 68 minutes, Swindon thought they’d scored but referee Woolmer decided, quite rightly, that Seremet had been fouled in the build-up.  Just a minute later though the home side did pull one back when Jamie Cureton found space on the right of the Tranmere penalty area and finished neatly with a low angled shot across Seremet into the bottom left corner.

 

Brian Little moved immediately after the goal to change the Rovers formation to 3-5-2 with Aiston and Tremarco making way for Harrison and Goodison with Roberts moving to left wing-back.

 

Swindon looked a little more threatening as the momentum swung slightly their way after the goal but they failed to create any further clear cut chances.  Calvin Zola was replaced by Delroy Facey with nine minutes left and just before the end, Greenacre had yet another shot that was saved by Evans.

 

Rovers held on relatively comfortably through three minutes of injury time for a massive win that now sees them move six points clear of the relegation zone ahead of two crucial home games in six days.  The first of those games is at home to Chesterfield on Saturday March 11^th – Kick Off 3.00pm.

 

 

Chris Greenacre  It was difficult to pick out a star man in a game where most players did little wrong.  But for an excellent opening goal, which he also had a hand in creating and generally good all round performance, Chris Greenacre gets the award.

 

 

 

 

"To go 2-0 up at half-time was a massive bonus for us. We got into one or two good scoring positions and created opportunities. We kept their goalkeeper busy, which is something we've not always done in recent weeks.”

     

"We knew we would have to go back to three centrebacks at some stage. We did it soon after they scored but they didn't have any chances after that.”

 

"Their goal came at a time when I thought we weren't under too much pressure but it put a different slant on the game.”

 

 "It was important to get six points clear on some of the teams at the bottom. Two wins now would get us to 50 points very quickly but we've been in the position of going into two home games before and not taking advantage of them."