Game Fifty Eight - Tranmere away

11 March 2009

After 23 matches unbeaten, it was time to head over for our final midweek away adventure of the season and the trip to Merseyside to see us take on Tranmere on their own patch. It was well known that this would be a very tough game due to the shocking pitch and the suprisingly good home record at Prenton Park but after that many games unbeaten, we knew we had nothing to fear. For the first time this season, I was to be joined at a game by Samantha, my girlfriend, and we had decided to make a night of it and stop over to take a break from work / uni.

After a quick stop off in Nottingham for Sam to have a job interview, we were soon on the way to Chester managing to get lost on the longest road in the world (that was closed in places for no real reason). It wasn't long before we found the hotel though and checked in, grabbed some food and set of for Prenton Park. The plan was to park at the ground and then head to a pub and meet up with folk at one of the many places to drink around the area. Katy, Joe Baker, Lisa and Joe Brewin were all in there already killing time pre game. Introduced Sam around to folk and we just had the usual laughs and jokes as more and more people arrived.


James was next to show up and was unfortunate enough to be sat next to a strange old man who clearly didn't know much about modern football as he was expecting a Man Utd fan to be beaten up for wearing his clubs colours in Tranmere.... naive!

Roy strolled in not long later soon followed by Jodie and Helen so there was a good mixture of people in the pub by the time it was time to head outside and meet up with Maybes, Bert and Chloe.

After loitering around outside for a bit, we ventured into the turnstiles and we soon joined by Fez, Tommeh, Jamie, Andy and Lil Dave so there was quite a gathering in the concourse.

Prenton Park is another of those pretty dull grounds with no real defining points that set it apart from any others in the football league. A collection of local chavs gathered to the left of us were to provide the entertainment for the evening though on a night when the football didn't particularly get us going.

The turn out from the locals was also disappointing as by the time kick off came around, you could still clearly make out "Tranmere" written across the stand opposite us.

The teams came out to the usual sounds from the crowd and oddly the local chav contingent had taken to blowing up condoms and waving them around for no apparent reason.

Neither side really got going during the first 45 minutes on the contest with long range efforts being the main cause for concern from the home side. Due to the dodgy pitch, we couldn't get the ball down on the deck and pass it around well like we had against Cheltenham a few days before. Bas Savage up front caused us a few problems... until he got near our goal and then he would mess up.

The banter between the two sets of fans was good though with "we'll never play you again" and "you've got school in the morning" ringing out to the pubescent teens. The sound of "who's the slapper in the white" brought back fond memories of Hull away last season and the fun that we had there.

At half time everyone headed about to see friends and catch up, with me and Sam heading down to see Helen and her mum after being childish with waving at each other for a few mins. Maybes, Bert and Chloe meanwhile headed down to see Bald Jim - legend!

Straight from the kick off for the second half, we found ourselves behind. A long ball was knocked on by Savage and Kay blasted in from the edge of the area past Stockdale in the City goal. What followed though was one of those surreal moments where all the travelling fans became united for 20 minutes singing "1-0 down, who gives a fu*k? We're leicester boys and we're going up." The Tranmere fans had no answer to it and instead just attempted to insult Jobber without any real success.

As the fans responded to going one down, the team responded in a similar way as we started to take a grip on the game. Howard had a header cleared off the line, and Oakley went close with a volley from range. The game was played almost solely in the Tranmere half now as we pressed for an equaliser that just didn't want to come.

With seven minutes left, the sucker punch came that finished us off. Savage went down under a challenge from Powell (that looked to be outside the box) and Jennings smashed the penalty into the net to seal the three points for Tranmere and our first defeat since October. 5 months and 23 games.... a hell of a record to have!

At the final whistle, we all said our goodbyes and headed back to the car and back to the hotel to unwind and enjoy the rest of my mini-break with Sam - it was just what I needed and being with her took the edge off of the defeat so I can't even say that I was too down as a result of it. Ideally of course we would have taken the three points to really make it a spot on couple of days but you cannot really argue with how it turned out in the end. As a result of this defeat though, it's made things even more tense around the place than it had been before.... we really need to go to millwall and get a result now... tough job!