TRANMERE’S bold pursuit of a victory that would have opened up a second route into the play-offs ended in a crash landing at Elland Road.

But this was no terminal wreck of Rovers’ promotion ambitions on a day when Scunthorpe, rivals for sixth place, also lost.

Like a Spitfire that’s taken a few bullet holes in a dogfight with a powerful foe, Ronnie Moore’s team can patch up the damage, refuel and go again.

For now, the dream of Championship football, though as fragile as the two-point advantage they hold over Scunthorpe, remains intact.

The difficulty of the mission they face over the final two games of the campaign rests on how a Scunthorpe perform in matches against Northampton tomorrow and champions Leicester on Friday night, before Rovers return to action with a home encounter with Yeovil on Saturday.

It would have been cruel for the light of Tranmere’s unlikely challenge to the wealthy cartel at the top of the League One table to be snuffed out after such a gallant action.

Rovers were closer to overturning the most powerful home side in the division than the scoreline suggests. They took the game to Leeds, won more of the possession and created more scoring opportunities than their hosts.

But they could not match the high-quality counter-attacks that delivered two first-half goals for the Yorkshire giants, whose 16th League One win at Elland Road effectively secured a ticket to the play-offs.

Manager Simon Grayson acknowledged just how tight the contest had been. Grayson said: “We took our chances and Tranmere did not. We got the breaks and they did not.