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Everyone was in a good mood following last Saturdays win but that happiness didn’t take long to disappear – just 38 seconds in fact.
Graham Allen headed Tranmere in front after a clever and sharp free kick from the home side.
Just 10 minutes later Notts found themselves 2-0 behind after ANOTHER header, but this time from Simon Haworth, adding to his
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Notts had numerous chances to close the deficit, the best one from Tony Hackworth on 25 minutes, who started today because of injuries to both Heffernan and Allsopp in training yesterday. His powerful shot hit the right hand upright and rebounded away but no one was there to put it away
Only 2 minutes later Darren Caskey was fouled in the Tranmere box, the whistle was blown for Notts’ first penalty since the Blackpool game at the end of last season.
"Just our luck, we wait all this time for a penalty and then we’ll go and miss it" I thought to myself. But I was wrong; Mark Stallard stepped up to take it in front of the huge Kop Stand at Prenton Park (The Notts fans, incidentally, were seated at the opposite end of the field in a very much smaller stand). Stall slotted the penalty to keeper, John Achterberg’s, right hand side to get the Pies back in the game.
Just before half time, Ryan Taylor was sent off for a late, 2-footed challenge on Ian Richardson. As a result of that, Richo was booed by the home fans for the rest of the match. For once it wasn’t Notts that was on the receiving end of a card!
But instead of playing like they only had 10 men, Rovers looked like
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Mildenhall had to be on his toes at the end of the first half to make a good 1-on-1 save. If the score had been made 3-1 with that chance then I think it would have been game over even with an extra man.
HALF TIME: Tranmere 2-1 Notts
In the second half Notts were not a lot better than they had been in the first half but they did pass it around much more, admittedly they didn’t actually go very far by passing it thought.
A lot more urgency was also needed from the players in Black and White. We passed it around at the back rather than getting it forward to create chances, which we needed to try and get a point out of a game where we should have the advantage.
Rovers continued to attack the Magpies but they weren’t as effective as in the first 45 minutes. Fenton and then Ireland had to block good shots from Gareth Roberts and Gary Jones respectively early on.
Mildenhall made another superb save from Roberts as Tranmere created a chance down the left-hand side.
Then with just 3 minutes remaining of normal time, Tranmere were
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Caskey put in a great free kick but Achterburg produced another fine save to keep it out.
There was no way that we could come away from this game, having played 11 versus 9, without a point.
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FULL TIME: Tranmere 2-2 Notts County