Shuker: Old boy Zola can give us some big problems

Oct 24 2008 by Nick Hilton, Liverpool Daily Post

WINGER Chris Shuker marks his former team-mate Calvin Zola as a serious threat to Tranmere’s hopes of gaining a toehold in the play-off zone tonight.

Zola returns to Prenton Park at the spearhead of a Crewe Alexandra side that dropped to the bottom of the League One table this week.

Rovers in contrast have their sights set on a top six place if they can reel off a third win in seven days at the expense of the Railwaymen.

But Shuker is in tune with manager Ronnie Moore’s warning that Crewe should not be underestimated. And he has particular respect for striker Zola, who ended a four-year spell with Tranmere last summer in a transfer worth £200,000.

“I think Calvin has an unbelievable talent,” said Shuker, who played and trained alongside the Democratic Republic of Congo international over the last two seasons.

Shuker added: “He is a top man in my view. Although he can be a bit hit-and-miss in his performances at times, he has the ability to give defences big problems. He’s going to be a real danger to us.

“I spoke to Kelvin this week and he is really looking forward to this game.”

Shuker delivered some vintage moments of his own best work this week, scoring Tranmere’s winner at Leyton Orient last Saturday and setting up the goals by Bas Savage and Ed Sonko that secured a 2-0 home win over Cheltenham on Tuesday.

But after a year of problems caused by injuries, the 26-year-old from Huyton is reluctant to judge his current form on anything more than a game-to-game basis.

He can see the side making progress to the kind of consistency that proved elusive in the first two months of the season. Shuker said: “I think we are improving as a team and going in the right direction – up the table.

“I think we have as good as squad here as a most clubs in the division. We just need to get out consistency right. There is so little to choose between most of the teams. Even though Crewe are at the bottom now, there is not a lot of difference between them and the teams at the top like Leicester and Scunthorpe.”

Shuker’s name is on the deflected goal that gave Tranmere victory over Crewe in a Johnstone’s Paint Trophy encounter at Prenton Park earlier in the month. “That was a lucky winner,” Shuker insisted. “Crewe played some nice football that night and the game could have gone either way.

“I’ve always been an admirer of the way Crewe play the game. It’s the way I like to play. The manager, Steve Holland, used to coach me when I was a kid and taught me some of my first tricks, so I owe a little bit to him.”

Moore hopes October can become a pivotal month for Tranmere. He said: “We’ve had three wins in the league this month and one loss, so we are moving in the right direction. We were probably a bit nervy playing at home after losing three in a row at Prenton Park but there was none of that against Cheltenham.

“We approached the game in the right manner from the first minute to the last on Tuesday night,” Moore said. “Now we would like to think we are capable of putting together a run of half a dozen wins that would really put us in a strong position.”

Moore added: “We’ve had Chris Shuker coming back to a bit of form and when he is playing at his best he is a joy to watch. We have the pace with Ed Sonko and Ian Moore to hit teams on the counter-attack, depending on the way we play.”

Rovers have a strong selection hand tonight with only young striker Craig Curran ruled out by a stomach muscle strain.

Moore may well give a vote of confidence to the line-up and tactics that delivered the victory over Cheltenham but he will make sure he has the options on the bench to change the formation.

Tranmere hope for an increase in numbers through the turnstiles tonight. The midweek attendance of 4,535 was the lowest for a league game at Prenton Park in 20 years, although live televised European ties on Tuesday did the Football League clubs no favours.