Tranmere Rovers 1-2 Peterborough United

Last updated : 03 December 2006 By Matthew Jones
Sherriff goal not enough for Tranmere
For the third consecutive season, Tranmere Rovers have failed to make the F.A. Cup Third Round, after defeat to Peterborough United by a 2-1 scoreline for the second time in three seasons.

Tranmere were set to name an unchanged side from the one that defeated Blackpool 2-0 eight days previous, but John Mullin limped off injured with an ankle injury part way through the warm up, giving Kevin Ellison a chance in central-midfield and allowing Craig Curran to once again take his place on the substitutes bench.

Tranmere were straight into their stride, as they had the best of the early chances. John Thompson played a ball down the right-wing to Chris Shuker on the overlap, who skipped past Guy Branston and found Chris Greenacre with his cross. However, Tranmere's leading scorer could only watch as his header was saved brilliantly by Tyler.

Shuker had a shot blocked a couple of minutes later, before Peterborough came into the game on 14 minutes, with Danny Crow firing wide from outside the area.

Ellison failed to test Tyler when he shot narrowly over and wide before Gavin Ward pulled off the save of the match, diving to his right and pulling off a fine one-handed save from Butchers shot, with the ball coming through a crowd of bodies and swerving in the air on its way to goal.

Tranemre took the lead on 30 minutes, with Shane Sherriff scoring his second Tranmere goal, again in the cup after he headed Rovers into the lead up at the KC Stadium against Hull City in the first round of the Carling Cup.

Chris Shuker sent a looping corner in from the Tranmere left and the Tranmere captain rose highest at the near post to flick the ball into the net.

Peterborough now began to crank up the pressure, as Ward made saves from Newton and Crow before Kevin Ellison then smashed his effort against the side netting, with most of the Borough Road stand believing the former Chester player to have scored.

In the third minute of injury time, Peterborough scored a controversial equaliser after the fourth official had originally signalled there would be just two minutes of additional time.

Newton got away from Sherriff on the Tranmere left and whipped in a brilliant cross to the near post where unmarked Crow turned the ball into the back of the net.

Tranmere began the second half in much the same way as they had started the first, with Steve Davies hitting a free-kick off the wall and out for a corner whilst after more good work by the Tranmere trainee on 63 minutes, Kevin Ellison produced another good save out of Tyler, this time with his legs.

Sterling shot across goal and Huke over into the Cowshed for The Posh in one goal mouth scramble as Keith Alexander's team began to put more and more pressure on the Tranmere defence.

On 67-minutes, Tranmere had perhaps their best effort of the game since the goal, as after he had brought the ball down well 25-yards from goal, Welsh international Gareth Taylor hit his shot perfectly but saw it deflected just over the bar.

Peterborough scored just minutes later thanks to one of Tranmere's old tactics, a long throw. Perhaps not as lethal as the old Dave Challinor missile's, but this effort reached the six yard boxs.

The Tranmere team in general failed to clear the throw as it bounced all the way across the six-yard box and again landed at the feat of an unmarked Danny Crow who shot into the net to give Peterborough the lead for the first time.

Tranmere now had 20 minutes to change the game around and Ronnie Moore made a substitution almost immediatly, as Calvin Zola replaced Kevin Ellison and Tranmere moved to a 3-4-3 formation.

Thompson was brought down by Branston shortly after the loanee had switched to midfield from right-back, with Branston lucky not to see a red card instead of yellow.

Substitute Zola was very unlucky not to get an equaliser for Tranmere on 82-minutes, as he watched his header from Davies' pinpoint cross acrobatically tipped over by Tyler.

This was really the last clear cut chance Tranmere had in match and ultimately in the F.A. Cup this season, sa they were once again sent crashing out of the competition before the big boys entered.

The defeat means Tranmere have now only won one of their last six F.A. Cup games over three years, thanks to defeats to Peteborough (twice), Bradford and Millwall, along with a draw against The Lions and a victory against Conference side Woking.

Rovers cannot say they didn't deserve the defeat. Peterborough had the bulk of the chances, with Gavin Ward having to make a number of saves for Ronnie Moore's team.

Jones' Man Of The Match: Knowbody really stood out for Tranmere on what turned out to be a very dissapointing day for everybody assossiated with the club. The player who probably performed best on the day was John Thompson, with the right-back making a number of good runs down the right aswell as attending to his defensive duties at a high standard.