After a quiet opening quarter of an hour, the chances began to come for both sides and Tranmere found themselves in front after 22 minutes through a rather fortunate Paul Hall strike.  However, just two minutes before the break, the Rovers defence was breached by a close range Matthew Mills header.  Neither side could produce any further goals in the second half which meant that for the fifth game out of the last six, the scoreline in a Tranmere game ended 1-1.

Manager Brian Little again stuck with the 4-4-2 formation that has been much used of late by Rovers but Little was forced into one change from the side that started the 3-0 win over Huddersfield at Prenton Park on Tuesday.  During that game, Striker Eugene Dadi picked up a groin injury that he ultimately failed to shake off meaning that Chris Dagnall who had replaced Dadi against Huddersfield was in the starting line-up in his place.

Goalkeeper Russell Howarth and Gary Jones returned to the substitutes bench to replace David Beresford and the injured Dadi.  They joined Paul Linwood, Theo Whitmore and Danny Harrison.  Despite Rovers having a lot of attacking possession in the opening ten minutes, the game was almost twenty minutes old before the first real chance of the match.

Ryan Taylor whipped a free kick into the area but Mike Jackson could only head the ball wide of Neil Moss’s goal.  Having waited so long for one attack, another was almost instant in coming, this time for the home side as Achterberg had to punch clear a powerful shot by Wade Elliott after the Bournemouth player had done well to beat Ian Goodison.

Just two minutes later and probably against the run of play at that particular part of the game, the visitors found themselves in front and there was an element of good fortune about the goal.  After playing a one-two with Iain Hume on the edge of the Cherries’ penalty area, Paul Hall managed to scuff a shot in the direction of goal but Tranmere’s luck was in as the ball took a deflection of Matthew Mills and rolled underneath goalkeeper Moss for a possibly undeserved opener for the visitors.

As before Rovers’ goal, it was Bournemouth who continued to apply the pressure and had a number of chances in quick succession with Mills and O’Connor having reasonable chances going begging.  Tranmere could only last so long it seemed and this proved to be the case just two minutes from the end of the first half as Bournemouth got the goal their pressure had deserved.  Wade Elliott put in a cross that Achterberg failed to make contact with and Matthew Mills, who had earlier deflected Paul Hall’s shot into his own net, made amends by heading in.

Shortly after half-time, Hume and Fletcher had good chances for each side before Mike Jackson received a yellow card.  It was his fifth booking of the season and means that he now misses the crucial match against Hull City on Saturday at Prenton Park.  Ten minutes into the second half, McAteer was replaced by Danny Harrison and with twenty minutes remaining, Theo Whitmore was brought on to replace Chris Dagnall but the substitutions had little effect on Tranmere’s play as the second half wore on as Bournemouth had more of the chances than the visitors.

At the death, Gary Jones came on to replace Iain Hume but the final few minutes were played out and the game ended all square.  Hull City’s home win over Colchester now means they are five points ahead of Rovers going into Saturday’s showdown at Prenton Park but results behind Rovers did go in their favour.  Sheffield Wednesday held a 3-1 lead in the final ten minutes of their game at Brentford but the Bees pegged them back to 3-3 by the final whistle.  Another side chasing Rovers are Hartlepool and they surprisingly lost 1-0 at rock bottom Stockport County.  Leaders Luton lost 3-1 at Port Vale but still look too far ahead for Tranmere or even Hull to catch them.

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