|
Ronnie Moore named an unchanged side from the one which defeated Crewe 1-1 in midweek at Prenton Park, with Calvin Zola retaining his place in the side despite Chris Greenacres return to fitness.
Rovers were under pressure early on, as Jermaine Johnson strolled past Ian Goodison but his cross eluded everybody before Gareth Taylor forced a great save out of Ricketts from Zola's knock down.
Taylor scored with his and Tranmere's next chance, thanks to some great play down the wing from Tranmere. Mullin found Zola, who in turn crossed to Davies. Davies put the ball back towards goal, where Taylor diverted the ball past Ricketts for his ninth of the season, and still Tranmere have never lost when he has scored!
It was end to end stuff for the next 20 minutes or so, with Hart saving from Schumacher, who scored against Rovers in the reverse fixture in September, before an ambitious lob from Gareth Taylor saw the ball land way over the cross bar.
Johnson shot across goal again on 20 minutes, with Logan's deflected shot hitting the roof of the net and going out for a corner along with Bower shooting wide all in a short space of time.
On 34-minutes, Bradford got the equaliser, with a goal almost a carbon copy of John Mullin's winner for Tranmere at the same end of the ground against Bristol earlier in the season.
Johnson found Schumacher by the penalty spot who sent goalkeeper Joe Hart the wrong way to score his fifth goal of the season.
Minutes later, there was a mini goalmouth scramble in the Bradford penalty area from Shuker's corner, with McCready eventually shooting wide after Taylor and Zola had also had chances.
The half finished 1-1, although Rovers had a chance in the last minute to tae the lead again, with Mullin arriving just too late from Sherriff's cross on the left.
Taylor had the first chance of the second half for Rovers, but headed over after 48 minutes from Shukers cross and the striker put wide again with Tranmere next chance of the game 14 minutes later.
Searching for the win, McLaren shot over from 25-yards before Ronnie Moore made his first substitution, replacing Calvin Zola with leading scorer Chris Greenacre, not a bad player to have on your bench.
Greenacre had a chance only minutes after coming on to the pitch, but his weak effort was easily saved by Ricketts after Rovers had had claims for a penalty turned down by referee Mr. R Booth for a foul on Taylor.
Logan fired across goal on 71-minutes, with the ball going close to Hart's right-hand post Ricketts pulled off a brilliant save from John Mullin, who should probably have scored with the header as he was only 6-yards out and unmarked.
Hart fumbled a Johnson shot, hit straight at him, on 79-minutes and similar result happening a couple of minutes later, whilst Ronnie Moore replaced Steve Davies with Kevin Ellison in the 82-minute as he strived for the win.
In injury time, Rovers saw Chris McCready and Ian Goodison booked, the later for hitting Bradford player Eddie Johnson who also got booked for his part in the proceedings.
After recieving his caution, Goodison left the pitch limping with physio Les Parry as support and was replaced by left-back Carl Tremarco as Shane Sherriff moved to centre-back.
Ronnie Moore will no doubt be dissapointed not to have won another home game, with Rovers having drawn 7 of their last 10 games, but a point is a point and next Tranmere face Gillingham live on Sky TV next Friday.
Jones' Man of the Match: No Rovers' players really stood out for me, but John Mullin did put in a very good performance in midfield. The ex-Rotherham player made a lot of key tackles and also got forward on regular occassions and was unlucky not to get on the score sheet.