Aiston Brace Helps Tranmere to Vital Win
By Deadly Submarine
April 1 2006
A Sam Aiston brace and a goal each for Greenacre and O’Leary sees Rovers record an excellent 4-1 win over Chesterfield and also ensured that they recorded their second double of the season following their win of the season over Swindon in midweek. Rovers now climb to 11th in League One.
TOTAL TRANMERE – Match Report
Aiston 36, 39 O’Hara 30
Greenacre 45
O’Leary 65
Attendance: 6,435
By Deadly Submarine
At last a match report worth writing as Tranmere came from a goal behind to win 4-1 at home to a high-placed Chesterfield side at Prenton Park. So let’s get all the words in that have been unusable to describe recent Rovers performances such as entertaining, exciting and great team performance.
After falling behind to a stunning 25-yard strike from Jamie O’Hara, Tranmere fought back with two excellent goals from Sam Aiston and a Chris Greenacre tap-in to lead 3-1 at the break. A further goal from Steven O’Leary in the second half gave Rovers a comfortable win and a valuable three points to round off a decent week.
For the first time in a while, Brian Little stuck with the same side as the previous game, the side that beat Swindon 2-1 on Tuesday night with Aiston and Tremarco on the wings in a 4-4-2 formation.
In the opening quarter of an hour the game failed to really get going and there certainly didn’t look like a goal feast was approaching. Tranmere though did have the better of the early chances as Zola had a curling shot cleared in the fourth minute and a Spireites defender almost caught his own keeper out with a mis-placed header back.
Ian Sharps headed wide from a Jason McAteer free-kick after 23 minutes but on the whole the game was generally a midfield battle with former Rovers player Paul Hall looking lively but Gareth Roberts seemed to have the measure of him on most occasions and was able to keep him relatively quiet.
Larkin shot wide for the visitors on 28 minutes and as if that chance, Chesterfield’s first of the game was some kind of warning, they then took the lead just two minutes later out of virtually nothing.
Jamie O’Hara found the ball sitting up for him about thirty yards from the Rovers goals and he unleashed an unstoppable curling and dipping shot that left Seremet stranded to hand the Spireites a leads they possibly didn’t deserve. No-one could argue though with the quality of O’Hara’s strike.
Rovers resolve would now be put the test. After going behind to Barnsley in their last home game, Rovers failed to recover and lost the game 1-0 but this time, even though the visitors were in front there seemed little to suggest that Rovers would not get back into the game as Chesterfield seemed to be little threat.
Those thoughts proved to be spot on as just six minutes later Rovers were level with an excellent goal. Roberts, Tremarco and McAteer worked the ball around on the left side of the Chesterfield penalty area and when the ball came back to McAteer he curled the ball into the area and just when it looked like it was curling past the far post and out of play, up popped Sam Aiston to poke the ball home for his second goal in five days to draw Rovers level.
Chris Greenacre did well to set up Carl Tremarco who fired wide but Chesterfield did not hold out for long as Rovers went in front just three minutes after drawing level. Sam Aiston’s goal on Tuesday night at Swindon was his first for Tranmere and having doubled his season tally on 36 minutes in this game, he took just three further minutes to score again.
A long clearance from Seremet was flicked by Calvin Zola into the path of Sam Aiston who unleashed a wonderful strike into the goal from about 20 yards to the delight of the home faithful. Rovers had a scare three minutes later when Downes headed over the bar and Chesterfield were made to pay for missing that chance as Rovers made it three on the stroke of half-time.
Calvin Zola ran into the penalty area and held of two defenders and when his shot was parried by Muggleton, Chris Greenacre was on hand to tap in his 17th goal of the season and give Rovers a comfortable half-time lead.
Chesterfield began the second-half well and forced three early corners which were the first of the game but fortunately for Rovers they came to nothing and McAteer curled a free-kick just wide of the post at the other end after Zola had been fouled just outside the area.
Tranmere looked like scoring a fifth on a couple of occasions when Steven Jennings who replaced McAteer immediately after Rovers’ fourth goal went on a mazy run but couldn’t find the target. Muggleton also saved brilliantly from a Delroy Facey header after he had replaced Calvin Zola.
Rovers were forced into a third substitution when Carl Tremarco was forced off near the end with what appeared to be cramp. The home side though never looked in danger of conceding again and played out for a deserved 4-1 win that will give them massive confidence ahead of the home game with Walsall this coming Friday night (March 17th) at Prenton Park – Kick-Off 7.45pm.
Sam Aiston: Every player worled hard and played well and Chris Greenacre can be singled out for praise but for two great goals and a hard-working performance, Sam Aiston gets the Man of the Match Award.
Tranmere Rovers: Seremet, Raven, Jackson, Sharps, Roberts, Raven, McAteer (Jennings 68), O'Leary, Aiston, Tremarco (Harrison 89), Zola (Facey 71), Greenacre.
Substitutes Not Used: Wilson, Goodison.
Chesterfield: Muggleton, Bailey, Blatherwick, Niven (Folan 68), Allott, Larkin (Heath 80), Downes, O’Hara. Picken, Hurst (Smith 58).
Substitutes Not Used: Kovacs, O’Hare.
Booked: Allott (Chesterfield)
Referee: Colin Webster (Tyne and Wear)
Brian Little Speaking the Tranmere Rovers Official Website:
"I'm delighted. We have said all along anyone in the bottom half who puts two wins together will feel better about things because it is so tight. You look at the table and it is a lot better. One or two teams have a game in hand on us so we have to bear that in mind. Winning today after going behind was important to us.”
"It has been a good week's work. We can rest tomorrow but get straight on to the training ground on Monday to get ready for the next one. The first goal was great as Sam got round the back which is something we say he has to do more. The second was a great strike. It has been very important to have players from different positions score.”
His attitude is fantastic and his energy is great. Sometimes his final ball isn't what you would like but you can't knock Sam, he is a really wholehearted player. The third goal was a great bonus for us and from there on it was important to stop them getting back in the game. We could have scored more, Carl Muggleton pulled off a fantastic save from Del.”
"We've not had many games this season where in the last ten minutes, you know deep down we've won the game. Everybody is working hard to ensure we recover something this season. We have a good nucleus of players, we have just missed a little something throughout the season. We have one of the best defences in the division, we are working at trying to improve our goals tally. There are a lot of things to prove to ourselves and our supporters."