O so simple for Leyton

Last updated : 09 January 2008 By Matthew Jones
Tranmere Rovers crashed to another away defeat in Coca-Cola League One last night, as they were in the end comfortably beaten 3-0 by Leyton Orient at Brisbane Road, this despite dominating the match for long periods.

Ronnie Moore made two changes from the side that drew 2-2 with Hereford, as Chris Greenacre replaced Craig Curran on the wing whilst Jennison Myrie-Williams replaced Andy Taylor, who was pulled out of the squad after Blackpool made an offer for the player, with Shane Sherriff moving to left-back.

Although Tranmere possibly had the majority of the early possession, it was Orient who had the best chances in the opening few moments of the game.

Danny Coyne was called into action three times, as he first saved from Wayne Corden on six minutes before punching clear the resulting corner.

Only a handful of moments later, Coyne made another good save from Andy Barcham, on loan at Brisbane Road from local Premiership club Tottenham Hotspurs.

Barcham managed to some how weave his way through the heart of the Tranmere midfield and defence, skipping past a couple of weak challanges, before breaking into the area. One on one with Coyne, the striker his his shot was goalbound before the diving Coyne saved with his legs.

However, on eleven minutes Orient took the lead, as Tranmere once again failed to deal with another corner, which once more cost them very dearly.

The ball bobbled and bounced around in the area, this after Tranmere had won the first header which just looped up in the area. The ball eventually fell to Wayne Gray at the back post, who bustled the ball into the net to give Orient the lead.

Orient taking the lead seemed to wake Tranmere up, and for the rest of the half they completely dominated, having the best of the possession and easily the best chances.

Gareth Taylor first headed straight at Nelson from a Paul McLaren corner before Adam Chambers shot a free-kick wide for the home team.

On 17-minutes, Shane Sherriff picked up a silly yellow card for Rovers, as he brought down the Orient attacker on the Tranmere left when he really posed no threat to the Tranmere goal.

Rovers though continued to stream forward and Jennison Myrie-Williams in on the Tranmere left was a constant threat, or would have been if he crossed the ball earlier.

After some patient build up from a Tranmere throw in on the right, Calvin Zola broke free of his man and shot from 20-yards only for his shot to be turned round the post by the goalkeeper before Nelson made another superb save a few minutes later, this time pushing a McLaren shot around the post.

Jennison Myrie-Williams made a couple of good runs down the Tranmere left, showing good pace and skill at times to beat his man. He put in a couple of decent crosses, but there was no body on the end of them and in the end his flashes of brilliance, mixed in with moments of frustration as he held on to the ball too long, were wasted.

Taylor had another effort for Rovers, whilst the away side managed to force a large amount of corners, but on too many occasions they failed to get on the end of the set pieces.

The closest Tranmere came to scoring from a corner was when Calvin Zola got on the end of a McLaren ball at the far post, but his weak header dropped well wide of the goal.

The half time whistle came though, and Tranmere had failed to make their pressure and chances count. Mutterings around the Tranmere end ensured that the fans felt that Rovers could have let their chance of getting a result slip but not getting themselves on the score sheet.

So it was to prove on 50-minutes, as Shane Sherriff made a silly tackle on the half-way line, resulting in his second yellow card and Tranmere being reduced to ten men.

Andrew Barcham got the ball on the Tranmere left and as he turned past Sherriff, and with it appearing as if the ball might go out of play, the Australian left-back tripped up Barcham and was given his marching orders.

Ronnie Moore responded to the sending off by bringing Carl Tremarco on at left-back, replacing Chris Greenacre, as Tranmere switched to a 4-3-2 formation.

At first, it looked as if the booking was not going to make too much of a difference, as Rovers still had a good amount of possession and Martin Ling's Orient side rarely threatened Danny Coyne's goal.


Barcham and Corden both shot wide for Orient from distance before Myrie-Williams, now on the right, broke in field before firing well wide from outside the area for Tranmere.

Soon after, Tranmere had what was to prove their best chance of the half, with Calvin Zola hitting the ball just the wrong side of the post.

The tall striker ran on to a Gareth Taylor flick on, and after first out-muscling and then out-pacing his man, Zola turned into the box and shot across goal, with the ball going narrowly wide and with 'keeper Nelson well beaten.

On 73-minutes, Craig Curran replaced Gareth Taylor upfront. However, the substitution took away the momentum that Tranmere had built up after some pressure on the Leyton Orient goal. From then on, Orient were quite comfortably the better side, creating a number of chances and having a large slice of the possession, with Rovers at times looking uninterested.

With six minutes to go, Leyton Orient killed the game off as back-stabbing, lying, cheating, money-grabbing, former Tranmere player Sean Thornton got a wonderful second goal.

The blond-haired midfielder broke down the Tranmere right and cut into the area before unleashing a brilliant right-footed shot, which curled into the top corner with Coyne quite comfortably beaten.

Jason Demetriou, a young and hot prospect for Orient, was to get a third and possibly undeserved goal for the home side in injury time.

Tranmere had had some possession in the Orient half, winning a couple of corners but again they came to nothing and the ball came down to the other end.

Demetriou, who had come on the pitch after 83-minutes, had already shown that he was capable of carving open the Rovers defence, as the winger easily beat Robbie Stockdale with pace and skill on the right before putting in a couple of superb crosses which were just cut out.

On 91-minutes though he struck with a quite brilliantly taken goal. The youngster beat Stockdale and broke into the area before hitting a great, low effort across Coyne and into the goal from a very narrow angle.

Rovers were now despondent and their heads had completely dropped. The travelling Tranmere fans, 252 of them, were showing their displeasure for not only the way their players had performed in the second half but also the referee and his assistant on the far side, who had made a number of baffling decisions through-out of the match.

Full time came though, with Rovers slipping to yet another away league defeat, as they are now without an away victory in the league since October 6th.

Losing Andy Taylor so close to kick off was probably a huge blow to Rovers, as he has been a key player in the last six weeks or so. However, that does not excuse the Tranmere performance in the second half, where they faded badly against a side who really didn't look like one of the best in the division.

Tranmere hammered the home side for the majority of the first half, as they banged on Nelson's goal but again the strikers didn't produce the goals, although at times the quality of crossing left a lot to be desired, and they came out in the second half looking like a different team for the majority of it.

The Shane Sherriff sending off was yet again, like Goodison's at Crewe, needless and stupid, and that of course effected Tranmere too whilst it seems odd that Ronnie Moore continues to keep Mike Jones out of the team by playing the likes of Chris Greenacre out of position on the right-wing.

Jones' Man Of The Match: It's hard to pick a man of the match for this game. The award can certainly not go to the defence after they conceeded three goals, especially when the goalkeeper had so little to do, whilst the midfield did little to impress at times, with Jennings having a quiet game in the middle. Therefore, probably the away should go to an attacker, and the best of them was Zola. Taylor won headers and worked hard but did very little with the ball on the floor, but Zola had a couple of shots, at least testing their 'keeper and once again proving to be a handful, if not as much a handful as he has been in the past month or so, to the opposition defence.