Southend 1, Tranmere 2 - Post Match Analysis

Oct 8 2007 by Nick Hilton, Liverpool Daily Post

SITTING at the top of the League One table is unusual for Tranmere Rovers. Occupying pole position on the strength of outstanding away form is almost unprecedented for a club with a long history of travel sickness. The new season is, for the moment, turning a few old habits on their head.

Saturday’s victory at Roots Hall was described by manager Ronnie Moore as the most controlled performance of Tranmere’s five unbeaten games on the road.

It was also the most satisfying of the three victories, being won in challenging circumstances.

Southend, usually at their most dangerous at home, started the afternoon level on points with Tranmere and had their own eyes on top spot.

Rovers went into the game without leading marksman Chris Greenacre, a victim of blood poisoning, and consequently changed tactics and formation for the first time this season.

The familiar 4-4-2 set up, mainstay of an eight-game unbeaten run before Saturday, was abandoned in favour of a 4-5-1 system.

The players’ limited opportunity to practise the system was scarcely apparent. They looked like they had been playing it in their sleep.

Moore could look down his line-up and note that every player did his job well on the day.

The charge, levelled by Southend manager Steve Tilson, that Tranmere had come for a point didn’t really stand up on the even balance of play, pressure and chances created by the two teams. It looked like a good game of football from where I was sitting.

Gareth Taylor was never isolated as Rovers’ lone striker because the midfield players were always in close support. The experienced target man capped another accomplished performance with a classic headed winner.

Antony Kay, a defender of versatile means making his first league start of the season, was often the most advanced of the central midfield players and clearly enjoyed himself.

The deeper role, just in front of the back four, was filled by Paul McLaren, whose economical passing and deadly accurate delivery of free-kicks and corners made him the game’s most influential player.

Tranmere’s back-line coped admirably with a dangerous Southend attack and permitted on-loan hot-shot Leon Clarke scant opportunity to extend a run of five scoring performances.

Goalkeeping coach John Achterberg made several good saves, including a couple of unorthodox ones.

Moore took particular delight that the two goals came from set-plays rehearsed during the week.

Shane Sherriff provided early evidence of Tranmere’s activity on the training ground by peeling away from his marker at a 10th-minute corner, taken by McLaren, to force a sharp save from Southend goalkeeper Steve Collis with an angled shot.

The potential menace of Southend strike force Clarke and Eric Odhiambo was illustrated in a brief flurry of pressure soon afterwards.

Achterberg saved from Odhiambo after he was played into the box by Clarke, stopped a 30-yard effort from Nicky Bailey that bounced awkwardly in front of him, then was grateful to see Clark’s header fly over the bar.

Tranmere rode the brief storm and then bounced back in decisive fashion.

They might have gone ahead on 28 minutes when Taylor’s header from a right-wing cross by McLaren was touched out at full stretch by Collis, with the loose ball just eluding Kay.

But two minutes later McLaren swept a right-wing corner towards the edge of the box which arrived low enough for centre-back Ben Chorley to strike his first Tranmere goal into the corner of the net with the side of the foot.

Tranmere looked to be in no immediate danger of conceding an equaliser until Mark Gower opened them up with a piercing ball down the right.

Full-back Lewis Hunt swept the cross to the far post and Adam Barrett struck a sweet first time half-volley past Achterberg from a dozen yards.

The contest turned decisively in a two-minute spell early in the second-half.

If a 53rd-minute header by centre back Gary Richards had dropped into the net, Southend might have taken the initiative. As it was, a deflection from the stretching fingertips of Achterberg sent the ball against the crossbar and out to safety.

Another dead ball delivery of perfect accuracy from McLaren – this time a free-kick and a powerful header into the far corner of the net by the unmarked Taylor put Tranmere back in the lead on 55 minutes.

Rovers were usually one step ahead of the home side from that point on.

Taylor, wide left midfielder Carl Tremarco and Sherriff each threatened a third goal and Ian Goodison was convinced he had scored one on 80 minutes.

Defender Peter Clarke knocked Goodison’s shot out of the goalmouth while several Tranmere players claimed, in vain, that the ball had crossed the line.

No matter – by that stage Southend had run out of ideas. Achterberg proved equal to the best they could offer, long-range shots from Bailey and Gower, and Tranmere played out the final quarter hour without a major alarm.

Match Facts

SOUTHEND: Collis, Hunt, P Clarke, Richards, Barrett, Gower (Black 74), Bailey, Maher, McCormack (Foran 74), L Clarke, Odhiambo (Harrold 74). Subs: Flahaven, Wilson.

GOAL: Barrett 43

TRANMERE: Achterberg, Stockdale, Chorley, Goodison, Sherriff, Shuker (Curran 67), Kay, McLaren, Jennings, Tremarco, Taylor (Zola 84). Subs: McWeeney, Ahmed, Jones.

GOALS: Chorley 30, Taylor 55

REFEREE: Rob Shoebridge, Derbyshire

ATT: 7,619.

NEXT GAME: Tranmere v Walsall, Coca-Cola League One, Friday, October 12, 7.45pm