By Matt Jones
February 21 2005

Tranmere Rovers’ automatic promotion hopes were dealt a huge blow this weekend, after results once again didn’t go their way. As if going up automatically wasn’t already going to be hard for Rovers, weekend wins for Luton and Hull added a little more water to the fire, which is slowly dying out.

Tranmere were not playing on Saturday because of Brentford’s F.A. Cup run, which took them to Southampton, meaning Tranmere’s away game at Brentford, originally arranged for Saturday was postponed.   This meant Hull would have played the same amount of games as Tranmere and Luton one more by the end of the weekend.

 

The results of these games hardly went Tranmere’s way.  Hull City got their first win since Peter Taylor won the December manager of the month award, beating Wrexham 2-1 at the Kingston Communications Stadium.  When Tranmere played Wrexham at Prenton Park, the result was 1-1, another game they should have won.

 

Luton managed a 1-0 win away at Valley Parade to Bradford.  Rowan Vine scoring the only goal in the 10^th minute to put Luton seven points clear of Hull, the same as before the game, but more importantly, they went eleven points ahead of Tranmere, so it looks as if they are running away with the title.

 

Other worrying results for Tranmere included a 3-1 win away at Chesterfield for Sheffield Wednesday and a 1-0 win away at Port Vale for Hartlepool.