Crewe 1-1 Tranmere

Last updated : 28 April 2007 By Matthew Jones
Harrison scores as Tranmere draw
Tranmere Rovers final away game of the 2006/07 finished a 1-1 draw after Rovers played with 10 men for well over half the game following the dismissal of Gavin Ward.

Ronnie Moore made two changes to the team that lost to Scunthorpe last weekend, as he switched to a 4-5-1 formation. Craig Curran Chris Greenacre replaced by Chris Shuker and Jason McAteer whilst John Mullin was on the bench.

On 12-minutes, Tranmere came close to opening the scoring as Steve Davies drifted in from the left before hitting a weak right-footed shot just wide of the post whilst Rovers continued to have the best of the possession but fail to find an end product for the next five minutes or so.

On 20-minutes, the game was turned on it's head as Gavin Ward was given a straight red card by referee Williamson, standing in for the injured Uriah Rennie.

Ward hit a terrible clearance straight down the middle of the pitch and low towards Nicky Maynard. The striker took the ball in his stride and with Ward rushing out of his penalty area, Maynard had a shot which Ward dived to save and handled outside the area. A free-kick was awarded and Ward was quite rightly red-carded and will now miss the final game of the season against Brentford. That could be the last action Gavin Ward has in a Tranmere shirt.

Ben Hinchcliffe was brought on to replace Shuker as Ward made his way down the tunnel, the Preston shot-stopper making his senior debut and he was able to watch the resulting free-kick drift wide of his left-hand post.

Lowe had the next two chances for Crewe, first curling another free-kick wide before miss-hitting another effort wide on the half hour mark.

Hinchcliffe was called in to action soon after though as he dropped a cross before Ian Goodison tried to head the ball back to the 'keeper who slipped whilst trying to get the miss-guided header.

On 41-minutes Varney had the 19-year old beaten four minutes before half time whilst Calvin Zola missed from a Paul McLaren cross as the last action of the first half.

With just six minutes of the second half gone, Tranmere scored with the first chance of the half thanks to a fantastic shot from Danny Harrison, the most unlikely of candidates.

Shane Sherriff curled the ball inside to Zola after good work on the left from Davies. Zola held the ball up with his back to goal and passed backwards to Harrison, just outside the area, who hit a wonderful shot with the outside of his foot into the top right-hand corner of the goal, leaving Williams with no chance.

With 30 minutes left in the game, Zola who had held the ball up well for Rovers on his own upfront despite no help from the rest of the team, limped off with another injury, probably to his hamstring, and was replaced by leading scorer Chris Greenacre.

The chances now began to flow for Crewe with knowbody to hold the ball up for Rovers, as captain Baudet vollied over before Hinchcliffe pulled up a fantastic flying save from Luke Varney's header on 67-minutes.

On 69-minutes Baudet headed wide again from Rix's free-kick before Hinchcliffe made a fantastic block from Varney at point-blank range soon after.

On 77-minutes, Hinchcliffe was once again called into action as he did well to tip Maynard's cross over the bar when it could have dipped in before saving from O'Donnell's header soon after.

With 88-minutes gone, Tranmere had another injury problem as Paul McLaren limped off this time, replaced by John Mullin whilst Crewe could have equalised from the corner straight after Mullin had come on following a goal mouth scramble.

With 92-minutes on the clock, Crewe equalised with a highly controversial goal which didn't please the Tranmere fans.

Greenacre was clearly fouled by his man on the half was line but the referee played on. The ball came to Maynard who crossed when the ball appeared to be out. Baudet flicked on the cross at the near post to Shaun Miller who netted at the far post leaving Hinchcliffe with no chance.

Tranmere could have got a winner with seconds left as Davies broke down the middle and saw his show go for a corner but the set-piece was wasted by Rovers.

In the end, a draw was probably the fair result but what will annoy Rovers fans is the manner in which the goal was scored after a clear foul on Greenacre.

The end of the game was marred by crowd trouble as a good number of Crewe fans ran on to the pitch at the end of the game. Some fans thought it right to walk up to the Tranmere fans and make obscene hand gestures to which some Tranmere fans took it upon themselves to run onto the pitch.

Had their been police on the sides of the ground populated by Crewe fans instead of just all down the Tranmere end, trouble would never have happened.

Jones' Man Of The Match: Despite stand-out performances from Danny Harrison and Ian Goodison, todays man of the match was young Steve Davies. The attacker-come-winger was excellent all game with some fantastic runs and crosses. His work rate was second to none.