Tranmere Rovers 0, Oldham 1

Nov 7 2007 by Chris Beesley, Liverpool Daily Post

TRANMERE manager Ronnie Moore admitted that Oldham deserved their last-gasp win at Prenton Park last night.

But he thought that his side were going to get away with a let-off as the visitors were denied on several occasions by home keeper Danny Coyne.

For the second season in succession, Moore was undone by a last-minute strike by his former club following last year’s defeat at Boundary Park.

However, there are late goals and there are late, late goals, and this winner arrived in the 95th minute from Craig Davies and Rovers can’t really deny that it was coming.

Moore said: “We got out of jail so many times, to say we were naive is probably an understatement.

“Until the final kick of the game almost we thought we were going to come off and take a point saying we were lucky and could move on to the next game.

“Danny’s kept us in the game. When you saw how many chances they had but didn’t take then maybe you thought it was going to be our day but we’ve got to take it on the chin.

“We were at home and should have taken the game to Oldham but we under-performed again.

“The ball was never out of the sky. Everything was long and we never put them on the back foot.

“Overall, when we came off nobody would say that Oldham didn’t deserve to win the game.”

Moore made just one change to the side that started the 2-0 defeat at the City Ground on Saturday as Chris Shuker returned from injury to take his place on the right wing at the expense of Steve Jennings who dropped to the bench.

The day before the game, Moore had suggested that he had fallen foul of many of Oldham’s fans while in charge at Boundary Park for supposedly playing too much direct football but Rovers almost took an early lead through a delicate exchange between their front two.

Chris Greenacre played a slick one-two with Gareth Taylor, receiving possession back via a neat chipped pass that opened up the Latics’ rearguard but Stefan Stam was on hand to intercept.

Another player who continues to show his fair share of silky touches, on-loan Kevin Cooper was starting his third game in 11 days on the left wing after being frozen out at Cardiff. He forced keeper Marlon Beresford down to his left when he let fly from the left-hand side of the area.

The return of Shuker on the other flank obviously brought extra creativity back into the side but when the diminutive winger cut inside following a Greenacre lay-off he could only warm Beresford’s gloves with what proved to be a simple catch.

Tranmere’s best chance of the first half fell to skipper Ian Goodison, who connected well with a Cooper free-kick but his header was also straight at Beresford.

The lively Greenacre went close with a well-struck snap shot from the edge of the area which Beresford palmed away for a corner but Oldham remained a threat on the counter attack.

Welsh international Davies, who joined the Latics following an intriguing spell in Italy with Verona, combined speed, strength and control to keep the home defence on their toes throughout.

Davies’ most notable opportunity came just before the break when he was picked out on the right by a well-placed diagonal pass by Chris Taylor and left Goodison in his wake with a powerful run before bringing the best out of Coyne, who managed to block the low shot heading for the bottom right-hand corner of his goal.

Both sides went close soon after the restart only for the ball to prove tantalisingly out of reach for Antony Kay following a Cooper pass across the six-yard box and Davies had a chance at the other end after Neal Eardley’s shot had been blocked by Coyne.

Oldham were starting to open up Tranmere’s defence with alarming ease and Dean Smalley picked out the unmarked Davies on the right-hand side of the area but again he found his compatriot Coyne in fine form.

Coyne was once more called into action to block a powerful Neal Trotman header as the Rovers goal under sustained bombardment.

The heroic Coyne was finally beaten by Davies in the 85th minute when substitute Lee Hughes picked out the striker from the right wing but the shot ricocheted off the crossbar and bounced away to safety much to the despair of the vocal Lancastrian following in the Cow Shed Stand.

But just when it looked like Tranmere were going to escape with a goalless draw, the Latics struck in the fifth and final minute of added stoppage time when Davies thundered a bullet header past Coyne from Andy Liddell’s right wing cross and there was barely time to kick-off let alone mount a comeback.

Rovers are still searching for scraps in what Moore described as the “meaty” month of November that has yet to bring them a point or even a goal from their first two games.