10 men Tranmere fail against 12 man Colchester

Last updated : 18 April 2006 By Matthew Jones
Travelling to Layer Road to play a high flying Colchester United was never going to be easy for Rovers and their job was made all the more difficult once Steven O'Leary had been sent off and Sam Aiston carried off with an injury.

The only goal of the game was scored by Colchester's central defender Brown from a 22 yard free kick on 63 minutes, a goal which propelled the Essex team upto second in the table due to Brentford only drawing.

Brian Little made two changes to the team that lost 1-0 to Nottingham Forest just two days previous, as Carl Tremarco and Sammy Aiston replaced Steven Davies and Jason McAteer in a 4-4-2 formation. Paul Martin and Oliver James travelled but failed to make the 16 whilst Goalkeeper Matt Murray once again didn't travel.

After less than a minute, The U's had their first chance but top scorer Chris Iwelumo headed Mark Yeates' cross straight at the in-form Steve Wilson.

After just 10 minutes, Sam Aiston was carried off the pitch after picking up a knock to his leg. The 28-year old Geordie was replaced by Danny Harrison as Steven Jennings went out to right-midfield.

Yeates shot wide from 20-yards and Billy Clarke, on-loan from Ispwich Town shot straight at Wilson infront of the travelling Rovers fans before Steve Wilson made a brilliant save down to his right on 13 minutes, pushing another Yeates shot round the post for a corner.

The completely against the run of play, Rovers got the ball in the back of the net through Chris Greenacre.

After a good run through the middle by Jennings, the yong midfielder found Facey who's miss-directed shot went straight to Chris Greenacre who volleyed into the back of the net but the celebrations were short lived as the linesmans flag was blowing in the wind to signal Greenacre had been offside.

This proved to be Rovers forst of three shots on target in the game as from then on it was a story of missed chances for the Super White Army, although they had a good shout for a penalty moments later when Danny Harrison was brought down after yet more good play by Jennings.

However, soon after Rovers were down to ten men as Steven O'Leary made possibly his last tackle for Tranmere.

The on-loan midfielder went in hard for a 50/50 ball with John White on the touch line and after a 16 or so man brawl which included all of Rovers players bar Wilson and Sharps, O'Leary was shown Rovers fourth Red card of the season. Then Mark Yeates was only shown a yellow when he had pushed O'Leary in the face twice - and there was me thinking this was a red card offence. White got nothing although he had gone in just as strongly on the tackle and pushed O'Leary.

Wilson saved again from Clarke on 32 minutes whilst Kevin Watson shot wide as Colchester began to make the most of their extra man.

Delroy Facey was now playing right-wing for Rovers meaning Greenacre was left upfront alone where he was unable to win anything although he put in plenty of effort.

Carl Tremarco shot over on 37 minutes whilst Facey forced Davidson to make a save from 20 yards, Rovers best effort of the game.

Wilson made another save shortly afterwards as he caught Watson's volley from outside the area after Rovers had failed to clear a corner.

Ian Sharps was elbowed in the face and left the pitch with a bloody nose. Although it was a head injury, the referee (Colchester's 12th man) failed to stop play until the Colchester attack had broken down, let alone him failing to spot the elbow.

Sharps failed to rejoin the action until after half time as Delroy Facey played at centre-back whilst Rovers were down to just nine men.

In the first minute of the second half Niel Danns, former Blackburn player, saw his overhead kick smartly saved by Steve Wilson who was showing how fine a keeper he really is.

On 53 minutes, Brown curled a free-kick straight into the arms of Steve Wilson as the referee continued to give free-kicks to Colchester for little niggly things but then not giving Tranmere free-kicks when Colchester did the same.

With 30 minutes to go, Carl Tremarco was replaced by McAteer as Rovers changed to a 4-3-2 formation, pushing Delroy Facey kind-of upfront along with Chris Greenacre.

This pleased many Rovers fans as so often the ball had been pumped high in the air towards Greenacre but although on the odd occasions he would win it, the ball would go straight back to where it had come from because there was knowbody to fight for the ball with him.

Three minutes after he had been brought on, McAteer earned a yellow card for a stupid tackle from behind resulting in a free-kick just outside the area. This time there could be no complaints about the free-kick as McAteer knew just what he was doing.

From the resulting free-kick, a well worked set-piece saw Brown curl the ball into the top left past the motionless Wilson and the helpless Sharps on the post who although he had jumped just could reach the ball.

Steve Jennings had the best of Rovers chances as he twice missed free-headers just five or six yards out from crosses by Raven and McAteer and after a good break into the area his low drive heading towards the bottom corner was saved by Davidson down to his right.

With just minutes remaining, Steven Davies replaced David Raven as Rovers led with a 3-3-3 formation. One however has to question why Mr. Little left it so late to bring on Davies when Rovers had been 1-0 down for nearly 30 minutes with nothing to lose.

Davies when he came on did indeed make a big difference as he chased down every ball, put in tackles and in all did all he could to try and change the game.

At the final whistle the travelling Rovers fans (about 130 of them) were less than happy. Around 70/80 of them were chanting "WE WANT LITTLE OUT" at the end of the game and on their way out of the ground and rightly so.

This is no less than the fourth time this season Rovers have gone on a run of three or more games without scoring whilst Colchester are the fourth team Rovers have failed to score against all season. Rovers have now also managed just 14 away league goals in 22 away league games. Hardly great away form.

Jones' Man Of The Match: Steven Jennings would have won the award but his shooting left alot to be desired whilst Sharps and Goodison had solid games at the back. However, again Steve Wilson wins the award for keeping the goals conceeded down to just one by making a string of good saves.

WE WANT LITTLE OUT SAY WE WANT LITTLE OUT