Still Top Of The League!

I was at Prenton Park on Saturday to see Tranmere draw with a Portsmouth side struggling to put out a team and with no permanent manager in place. They are currently managed by caretaker Guy Whittingham following the departure of Michael Appleton to Blackpool and had not won a match in eight going into this clash at Prenton Park.

The first half was a cagey encounter, a few drummers operated at the bottom of the kop who made a bit of noise but the fans were more confused as to why their ears were suddenly being invaded by a few beats of the drum and sticks hitting together than interested in adding to the "beat". Portsmouth appeared to have more of the ball without creating any real goal scoring opportunities, when Tranmere took the lead in the 31st minute through Ash Taylor it was out of nowhere, the free-kick was a good one and the connection Taylor got on the header left Pompey goalkeeper Eastwood with no chance. The remainder of the first half was played out without much incident.

Half-time saw the pitch announcer inform the three men doing the "rock the crossbar challenge" that he had never seen all three contestants hit the crossbar successfully on the same day and that he felt confident today would be the first time all three qualify for the semi-final. Whether they did or not I don't know - I was in the unnecessarily long line for a hot chocolate, by the time I got to the till they had run out! I returned to my seat to jokingly inform my friend that it was his fault the half time entertainment had never had a 100% crossbar hitting success rate, last season me and another guy had hit it whilst my friend had missed all three attempts!

Onto the second half and after another cagey first few minutes Gyepes equalised for Portsmouth, based on the first half they probably deserved this goal but the manner in which we conceded it - all of the defenders stood still as Pompey's monstrous central defender ran through and headed it simply past fon Williams - was disappointing. When former Tranmere loanee Jake Jervis came on for Portsmouth in the 69th minute the Tranmere fans had a bit of a laugh, he was generally considered a bad player during his short spell at Prenton Park. Gradually we grew into the game and took a deserved lead in the 73rd minute through Michael O'Halloran after some brilliant skill from Andy Robinson put the ball on a plate. The celebrations ended up being extraordinarily short-lived, football is a funny old game and yes, you guessed it, Jake Jervis equalised about fifteen seconds after the restart, delight had turned to a feeling of "how did we know he was going to score?" football is a funny old game. As the game opened up, players tired and gaps in the pitch became bigger Liam Palmer almost won it for us after a good run, however his shot when one-on-one with Eastwood was straight at the goalkeeper, his and the Tranmere supports frustration was clear to see. After seeing Doncaster and Brentford score in injury time at Prenton Park this season we feared for the worse, Scott Allan somehow found himself inside the penalty area but thanks to Ian "god" Goodison's pressure he put it just wide. We left the ground with mixed emotions - after going 2-1 up at home we should have held out for the win and combined with Palmer's late miss we maybe should have won the game, however the miss from Allan right at the death saved us a point.

The usual routine of checking the other scores on our phones begun and we soon realised we were still top of the league. The team who went into this game joint on points with ourselves, Doncaster, had drawn with Swindon and a recent slight blip in form meant Sheffield United's win over Carlisle left them third. I was pleased to see national hate-figure MK Dons had lost to Brentford until I realised Brentford are now fourth and only two points behind us!

At the other end of the table Hartlepool had lost (again) meaning they are now a massive eleven points off safety, take the ten points Portsmouth are being deducted into account and it's thirteen points. A minor miracle is needed if they are to stay up, with the season not even halfway through saying that shows just how bad their results have been this campaign. The other team I always back to lose on the football coupon, Bury, also lost this time against Leyton Orient, they are only one point off safety though so with 25 games still to play they will be optimistic they can move away from the relegation zone under new boss Kevin Blackwell.

Mathematically by 5pm next Saturday we could be in fourth position... typical Tranmere fan, always pessimistic! However Sheffield United are certainly beatable and we are statistically still the best team in the league... bring on Bramall Lane!