Tranmere Rovers 1 - 1 Rochdale

A dramatic late Gary Jones goal salvaged a point for Rochdale to maintain their unbeaten start to 2011 after Lateef Elford-Alliyu gave the hosts the lead after just 4 minutes.

Keith Hill made 2 changes to the side that beat Yeovil 10 days previous. Nicky Adams & Josh Thompson got the nod ahead of Barry-Murphy & Dickinson as the Dale boss opted for a 4-1-4-1 formation with Josh Thompson in the holding midfield role.

The opening moments of the game were dominated by the hosts and the energy showed by Les Parry’s side earned them the lead with just 4 minutes on the clock. A mistake by the usually solid Craig Dawson gifted Rovers a corner after the West Brom loanee tried to cushion a header back to Fon Williams. The corner was played short which caught Hill’s men napping a little and when the ball was swung over to the far side of the box, defender Ian Goodison laid the ball to Elford-Alliyu who drilled the ball beyond Fon Williams to make it 1-0.

Tranmere’s game plan was obvious as they gave Hill’s men little time on the ball, forcing the visitors to hurry passes meaning many didn’t reach their intended target. It was a plan that worked although it was clear the Rovers players wouldn’t be able to sustain the energy levels for the whole game. As the Dale players tried to get a foothold in the game, the hosts had chances to extend their lead but couldn’t find a way through. Ash Taylor couldn’t divert a Dale Jennings cross goal wards whilst Jennings and Showumni linked well to create a chance for Labadie but he didn’t connect with the ball when well placed.

Rochdale didn’t really come into the game until the midway point through the first half and when they got a fortunate corner from a McChrystal mistake, Joe Thompson missed the target when unmarked from a Nicky Adams corner.

Dale’s best chance of the half fell to O’Grady when he really should have leveled the scores. A long clearance by Fon Williams was picked up by Wiseman down the right who beat his man brilliantly before sending a pin point cross but O’Grady headed over from 6 yards. Moments later and O’Grady gave himself another chance after turning his man but he fired straight at Warner when again he should have done better.

Dawson wasn’t having the best of games in the heart of the Dale defence and when he had his pocket picked by Showumni, it was down to Holness to cover his defensive partner when he blocked a shot from the big number 7.

Keith Hill changed his personnel & formation at the interval replacing Josh Thompson with Will Atkinson and the change seemed to work well with Dale having a little more movement. Nicky Adams saw his header go just over whilst Gary Jones set his sights on number 14 for the season but his 25 yarder went wide.

Tranmere still posed a threat and when Labadie got into the area his cross deflected of Kennedy and Holness diverted the ball over his own bar under pressure. Dawson was again guilty of dwelling with the ball and when Showumni stole it off him he and Jennings had a 2 versus 1 but Jennings missed the target when played in.

Another Rovers corner wasn’t dealt with by Dale with the lively Elford-Alliyu firing a shot from 30 yards that ricocheted inside the box before dropping at the feet of Taylor but the midfielder snatched his shot wide.

Fon Williams had been a virtual spectator in the second half but had to be alert when substitute Andy Robinson drilled a free kick towards the top corner but the Dale stopper tipped it over.

From the moment they took the lead, Tranmere seemed content to waste as much time as possible with keeper Tony Warner the biggest culprit and being warned on many occasions by referee Drysdale. This time wasting seemed to play into the hands of Hill’s men could then control the pace of the game better. As the 90 minutes were up, the 4th official indicated 5 minutes of added time. Rochdale pushed forward in search of the equaliser and looked to be frustrated by the Tranmere defence until Gary Jones popped up with 4 minutes 33 seconds of added time played. A deep ball into the Rovers area was nodded back into the 6 yard box by Wiseman where Jones got some connection to loop the ball over a stranded Warner to send the travelling support (and press!) into raptures.

The referee soon blew the full time whistle to make it just one defeat in 11 games for Hill’s men as they move 7 points clear of the drop zone.

 

Keith Hill said: "I thought our second half performance was really good, we kept good possession, we tried to create opportunities. I thought the first 25 minutes they caught us by surprise, they created one hell of a tempo and we sat far too deep; we gave them too much respect. We couldn’t get the ball up to Chrissy (O’Grady) and we got it wrong.

"Tactical we didn’t get it right. Our 2 full backs were integral to us getting a point tonight, because they were far too deep in the first half but when we started pushing them on, we managed to get the support up for Chrissy and used the wide areas of the pitch then we looked a proposition for Tranmere.

"Tranmere were excellent, I thought they were excellent defensively; they really came out of the blocks which caught us by surprise. We conceded from a set play which we should have dealt with far better than we did. But when you’re going into the 90th minute and your losing 1-0 you’re more than happy with an equaliser but it’s the least we deserved from the game and as one of the directors has just said to me, we will probably have performed worse than that and won.

"I thought we played some really nice stuff but we couldn’t penetrate Tranmere as we would have liked. We spent a lot of the second half in Tranmere’s half of the pitch which left us vulnerable to the counter attack but we put a lot of trust in Marcus Holness & Craig Dawson to deal with defending our own half of the pitch so that the full backs could push on.

"Their goal was a beautiful strike but we have to clear our lines better. The first 15 minutes of a game is a real battle and we have to win that battle. We cannot be giving silly corners away like we did. The basic jobs need to be done but with young players they learn from their mistakes and they will. As I said, we got it slightly wrong for the first 20 minutes but Tranmere got it very right.

"Unbelievable save from Fon Williams from the free kick in the second half and its down to him keeping his concentration levels when he didn’t have all that much to do. I thought his distribution was good but that save was a match winning save.

"Tranmere used the delaying tactics to good effect but the referee got the amount of time added on right but the keeper did it a little bit too much and paid the price. We were asking the question of the opposition at the end, they were getting deeper and deeper and we put in a great ball which Wisey (Scott Wiseman) has headed back across to Gary Jones to finish. He will say he smashed right into the top corner and I would never doubt Gary Jones as it’s his 14th goal of the season!

"We changed things in the summer with respect to Gary Jones; he was a bit uncomfortable with at the beginning but I think he’s really been rewarded with that change. He is further forward and he’s scoring goals and he creates the tempo. We tried to bring in 3 or 4 players before the transfer window shut but we just didn’t have the money to pay fees for these players. We brought Robbie Williams in and he has a wand of a left foot, we witnessed it in training yesterday."

 

Tranmere Rovers 1 (Elford-Alliyu 4)
Rochdale 1 (Jones 90 +5)

Att: 4,766

Rochdale: Fon Williams, Widdowson, Dawson, Holness, Wiseman, Jones (c), J Kennedy, Josh Thompson (Atkinson 46), Joe Thompson (Dickinson 66), Adams (Akpa-Akpro 76), O'Grady.
Subs (not used): Edwards, Done, Barry-Murphy, Gray

Tranmere Rovers: Warner, Cresswell, Goodison (Wood 74), McChrystal, Showumni, Welsh (C), Taylor, Kay, Jennings (Robinson 80), Labadie, Elford-Alliyu.
Subs (not used): Collister, Fraughan, McGurk, Akins, Morrow

Referee: Mr D Drysdale
Assistant refs: Mr G Hilton & Mr S Oldham
4th official: Mr P Dermott