Hume 8                  Leitao 62

Dagnall 50

Attendance: 8651

Rovers hung on in the final minutes to record their second victory of the season over Walsall and close the gap on the top two who both dropped points as once again the results went Tranmere’s way. It should have been plain sailing for Tranmere after Iain Hume had put them 1-0 up out of nothing just 8 minutes into the match and after a disallowed goal from Harrison, Dagnall rounded ex-Rovers goalkeeper Joe Murphy to put the home side 2-0 up.

As is the norm with Tranmere at home however, a stupid goal conceded from a corner just after the hour, changed the flow of the game and in the end Rovers once again found themselves hanging on to a slender lead which this time they managed to the relief of the Prenton Park crowd. As news filtered through of Hull’s defeat at Doncaster and that Luton had only drawn at Colchester, Tranmere fans went home satisfied at closing the gap on the top two yet again.

Brian Little made two changes to the team that started at Wrexham but both were enforced. Paul Linwood made his first start of the season after returning from injury to replace the suspended Ian Sharps and injured captain Jason McAteer was replaced by Danny Harrison in midfield. The possibly departing Gary Jones was on the bench along with Jennings, Dadi, Beresford and Hall. Tranmere employed a 3-5-2 formation as they did against Wrexham with the partnership of Hume and Dagnall continuing upfront.

The opening exchanges were tight with Rovers playing at what appeared to be no more than walking pace. After 8 minutes, Rovers were ahead out of nothing. Good hold-up play by Rankine in the centre circle led to him finding Harrison whose mis-hit pass deflected off a Walsall player and fell for Hume 25 yards from goal. Hume struck the ball goalwards and out of the reach of Joe Murphy into the bottom left hand corner to give Tranmere the early advantage.

Just after half-time Tranmere thought they had doubled their advantage when a ball across the goal line was bundled in by Danny Harrison only for the linesman to signal for offside and the goal was disallowed. Two minutes later though, Tranmere did get a second goal as Dagnall went through on goal and he went past Murphy and scored in front of a jubilant Kop.

News filtered through to me on my phone that Hull had gone behind at Doncaster but before I had finished breaking the news to those around me, Tranmere had conceded an unnecessary goal. A ball forward from Walsall unluckily deflected off Paul Linwood and went out for a corner on the right. As the ball came in and bounced around it fell to Jorge Leitao who scored past Howarth into the same corner as Hume had earlier.

It was backs to the wall after that for Rovers as Walsall pushed for an equaliser. Rankine was replaced by Steven Jennings immediately after Walsall’s goal and towards the end Little threw on first Hall in place of Whitmore then a minute later Eugene Dadi replaced Iain Hume who appeared to have cramp at that point. Following the last two substitutions, Little reverted to a 4-4-2 formation.

Rovers held on for victory despite three minutes of injury time and the relief of the result was accompanied by the news that Hull had failed to come back at Doncaster and that Luton had drawn. All in all a good day for Tranmere who will go to Oldham for the LDV semi-final on Tuesday with some degree of confidence and hopefully a good result at Boundary Park can get the players up for the big game away at Luton next Saturday.

Tranmere:

Howarth, Taylor, Roberts, Linwood, Goodison, Jackson, Rankine (Jennings 64), Harrison, Whitmore (Hall 77), Hume (Dadi 78), Dagnall.

Subs Not Used: Jones, Beresford

Murphy, Aranalde, Osborn, Emblen, Standing (Robinson 80), Leitao, Merson, Wrack, Wright, Bennett, Kinsella (Broad)

Subs Not Used: Paston, Dann, Williams

Referee: Mr P. Prosser