Tranmere Rovers 2 – 0 Bournemouth
Hume 45
Hall 89

Attendance - 8557

Goals in the final minute of each half sealed a much needed win for Rovers as they bounced back from Tuesday’s poor showing with the best possible result at home to Bournemouth on Friday night. It was by no means pretty, particularly in the first half as Tranmere struggled to get going but a Hume header at just the right time in the final minute of the first half seemed to settle the team down when they re-emerged for the second half. Rovers had much more possession and although there were a few shaky moments, Paul Hall’s last gasp goal sealed a comfortable scoreline.

Brian Little made three changes to the starting line-up from the mid-week defeat at Port Vale with captain Jason McAteer returning in place of Danny Harrison, David Beresford replacing Ian Goodison meaning Gareth Roberts dropped to his more natural left-back position and Gary Jones started up-front with Iain Hume in place of Theo Whitmore.

It has to be said that Tranmere were only slightly quicker getting going in this game as they had been in the week but this time they looked more comfortable on the ball and less liable to error at the back. Both sides had half chances in the first 20 minutes with Tranmere’s best falling to Hume who curled the ball over the bar from about 20 yards out after quarter of an hour. Bournemouth were almost gifted a goal in the 23rd minute when Roberts’s over-keen header back towards his own goal was parried away by Achterberg whilst the keeper was half way to the floor.

After that escape there was bad news for Rovers two minutes later when Jackson, who had had to pass a fitness test in order to play in the match was injured and had to be replaced by Goodison who promptly gave the ball away to the opposition in a threatening position with his first touch but luckily the threat from that move passed by.

Shortly after, Goodison and Rankine clashed heads leaving Tranmere with 9 men briefly and although Goodison returned to action, Rankine had to be replaced by Harrison.

Tranmere got the breakthrough just at the right time when on 45 minutes, Beresford picked up the ball on the corner of the Bournemouth penalty area and with the crowd screaming for him to hit it he instead looked like he had run into trouble towards the corner flag. However Beresford knew better than everyone else and whipped in a tidy cross which Hume headed down into the goal and give Rovers the lead on half time.

Tranmere looked the stronger team from the start of the second half and had a number of half chances and long range shots before Bournemouth themselves showed that they weren’t out the game by forcing Achterberg into a couple of good saves around the hour mark. Tranmere came back and had the better of the final ten minutes with Hall firing a powerful shot straight at Bournemouth keeper Neil Moss before two minutes later Iain Hume looked to have beaten Moss with a decent shot but the keeper got his fingertips on it and the ball clattered the inside of the left hand post and rolled back across goal and out for a corner.

Four minutes later though, Rovers got the two-goal cushion they had been looking for when McAteer’s shot deflected out to Paul Hall just inside the right edge of the visitor’s area and he cut inside and lifted the ball into the roof of the net for his fourth goal in the last three matches at Prenton Park to send the 8000 home fans wild. Tranmere played out four minutes of injury time to collect the 3 points move back to second spot in the league prior to Hull’s win away at Colchester this afternoon.

Tranmere now face possibly the most important game of the season so far away at Hull next Saturday at 3pm.
My Tranmere Man of the Match:
Iain Hume – difficult to choose any one in particular really but for his header on half-time and his effort in the second half it goes to Iain Hume. Well done Gary Jones again though for a dogged display.

The Teams:

Tranmere: Achterberg, Taylor, Jackson (Goodison 25), Sharps, Roberts, Hall, Rankine (Harrison 34), McAteer, Beresford (Whitmore 90), Hume, Jones. Substitutes not used: Howarth, Dadi.

Bournemouth: Moss, Young, Cummings (Connell 78), Browning, Broadhurst, Maher, Spicer, Rodrigues (Holmes 73), Elliott, O'Connor, Fletcher.
Substitutes not used: Stewart, Purches, Coutts

Bookings: Maher (50)

Referee: Mr R Booth

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