The festive season of fixtures continues this week as Tranmere Rovers make the short trip through
Tranmere will be looking to start the year in better away form than the ended the last one following three consecutive defeats on the road whilst players will be looking to cement their place in the side as the transfer window opens for one month.
Formed: 1877
Ground:
Manager: Steve Holland
Nickname: The Alex/The Railwaymen
Season Finish 2006/07: 13th (Coca-Cola League One)
Previous Meetings:
Tranmere and
However, the Railwaymen only held the lead for nine minutes as Tranmere equalised with 65 minutes on the clock thanks to a strike from Chris Shuker. The goal was set up by Mike Jones, in the side for the injured Steve Davies, as Jones played a beautiful defence splitting pass through to Shuker from the edge of the area, and Shuker did the rest by chipping the Crewe 'keeper to level the scores.
Vital Stats:
Tranmere are unbeaten in their last four games against
These two sides have previously met 62 times at
This will impressively be the 127 meetings between the two teams in all competitions
Tranmere have scored over 200 goals against
None of the last 21 meetings between these two sides have ended goalless, with the last 0-0 draw coming in the 1987/88 season
On This Day:
2007: Tranmere win 2-1 against
2005: Rovers, then managed by Brian Little, draw 2-2 away to Oldham Athletic on their way to securing a place in the League One play-offs at the end of the season
1953: Tranmere win 3-0 against Crewe Alexandra at
Tranmere played 38 matches on New Years Day and they have won 20 of these games, drawing eight times and losing on ten occasions. They have scored 80 goals and conceded 56 on January 1st.
The Form Book:
Crewe last 6 home games: LDLWWW
Tranmere last 6 away games: WDLWDL
It is fair to say that Crewe's home form this season has so far been very inconsistent, as their current run of three games without a win follows a run of four consecutive wins.
In the first match of their six match sequence, Crewe picked up an important 2-0 win over Yeovil Town thanks to goals former Tranmere player McCready and Moore in the first half before The Alex went on to beat MK Dons 2-1 in the F.A. Cup first round and Northampton Town 1-0 in the league.
Since however,
In their most recent home game,
Other notable results at
From 11 home league games, Crewe have picked up five wins, two draws and four defeats, meaning they have a total of 17 points from an available 33.
Crewe's only victory on the road this season came at Port Vale, when Crewe made the short trip through Cheshire to Burslem and beat Vale 1-0 thanks to a strike a 76th minute strike from Bennett.
After a superb start to the season on the road, Tranmere's away form has certainly started to tail away, as they come into this fixture without an away win in the league since October 6th.
In the first match of their six match sequence, Rovers came from 1-0 down to beat
These two results were followed by an encouraging F.A. Cup second round win at
However, Tranmere came back down to earth with a bump three days later as they made the trip across the country to take on
Ronnie Moore's side then travelled to Port Vale and picked up a disappointing 0-0 draw before losing their last away game 1-0 to
Other notable away results for Tranmere include league wins against
From eleven away games, Tranmere have picked up 13 points from an available 33 thanks to three wins, four draws and three defeats.
Important home wins for Tranmere this season include wins over
Double Hit:
Former
Navarro came through the ranks at
In November 2001, Navarro joined Tranmere on an initial two month loan deal. He played four times for the club, scoring twice, and did enough to convince then Tranmere managed Dave Watson to pay £225,000 for his services on a permanent basis.
However, Navarro's time at
He left Tranmere in September 2005 to join Accrington Stanley on a one month contract before joining Macclesfield permanently for free. He played 71 games for the Silk men before following Paul Ince to the MK Dons in the summer of 2007 for free.
Sine joining the club formerly known as
One To Watch: Nicky Maynard
Striker Nicky Maynard burst on to the scene with
Maynard, who signed from local non-league side Quorn, made his debut for Crewe in a 4-2 win over Millwall in March 2005, a game in which he netted, and has since gone on to become a hugely important player for the club.
With bags of pace and natural ability, Maynard is a handful for any defence in League One. In 45 games for
Due to injury, Maynard has only made six appearances for the Railwaymen this season, scoring once, after making his return to the
Around League One:
The leaders of League One (Swansea City) travel to Swindon on Tuesday whilst second placed Nottingham Forest look to put their comprehensive defeat at Gillingham on Saturday behind them with a home game against Huddersfield Town.
On the South Coast, Brighton and Bournemouth do battle at the Withdean Stadium whilst Carlisle look to overcome back-to-back away defeats over Christmas with a home game against Hartlepool United. Leeds face Oldham at Elland Road whilst misfiring Leyton Orient are at home to Gillingham in another local game.
The other games in League One are Luton v Yeovil, Northampton v Millwall, Southend v Bristol Rovers and Walsall v Doncaster.
Team News:
Tranmere will be without Chris Shuker and Steve Davies who are both likely to miss the rest of the season with cruciate ligament injuries. Of the rest, Gareth Taylor is expected to be fit enough to return to the bench but John Mullin may not be fit enough to travel the short journey to Gresty Road.
Jones' Prediction: Crewe 0-1 Tranmere Rovers
I think that Tranmere can win this game against a
However, with McLaren in the form he is in and Zola up front with Greenacre, Tranmere should be too much for