By Quayle
January 4 2005

Today we look at the Daily Post in episode 4 of What The Papers Say? We take a look at Little having sympathy for striker Eugene Dadi, who scored the opening goal at Torquay but was subbed at half time due to him getting a booking.

Newspaper : Daily Post

Author : Nick Hilton

Little sympathises with sacrificed striker Dadi

TRANMERE closed to within three points of an automatic promotion spot with a 4-1 win over Torquay at Prenton Park.

But while Brian Little sang the praises of Paul Hall, who swung the game decisively Rovers' way after being pushed into a forward roll in the second half, the manager had words of sympathy for sacrificed front-man, Eugene Dadi.

The Ivory Coast striker, striving to regain a regular place in the Tranmere starting line-up, was withdrawn at half-time after scoring a fine first-half goal.

Little explained the decision was made after Dadi collected a booking on 29 minutes. He feared that after losing strikers Iain Hume and Chris Dagnall to illness before kick-off, he was in danger of losing Dadi to a second yellow card.

Hall went on to set up second-half goals for Jason McAteer and Gary Jones, before adding Tranmere's fourth himself in injury time.

Little said: "Our performance grew as the game went on. We had a funny day. I got a call at 9am to say Chris Dagnall was ill and at

11.30am to Iain Hume was ill. Then when Eugene got booked, I decided to take him off at half-time. We had that many things happening that if Eugene had got sent off, it really would have rounded the day off.

"He's disappointed but the way the day was going, I wasn't going to wait for a third thing to go wrong.

"It was important go get a ball player up front. That was the key. Paul Hall made a difference for us in the second half.

"Eugene's booking forced me to take him off. If he had not been booked, I might have taken Gary Jones off instead, because I knew I was going to have to make a change up front.

"As it was, things turned out well, but I knew I was going to upset Eugene when he had just scored a goal. Perhaps I have knocked him back a bit but it was meant with the best of intentions."