Seasider's in Town for Rover's Home Opener

By Deadly Submarine
August 9 2005

Tranmere will be looking to notch their first win of the season at home to Colin Hendry’s Blackpool side at Prenton Park on Tuesday night following Saturday’s disappointing defeat at the hands of newly promoted Swansea City at the New Stadium which saw a below par performance from Rovers.

 

Rovers will be looking to get their first points on the board this season after the defeat at Swansea City.  Although the side lost in South Wales on Saturday, they do find themselves in the fortunate position of now having two consecutive home matches in which to hopefully bury the memory of that defeat and notch up six points.

 

Tranmere’s first opportunity to lay to rest the ghosts of Saturday comes on Tuesday evening when they host near neighbours Blackpool at Prenton Park.  A 3-1 defeat at home to Chesterfield on Saturday has ensured that Blackpool also go into the game having failed to score any points so far.

 

Kiegan Parker scored one of the first goals of the season in League One after just five minutes to put the Seasiders ahead but goals from former Rovers striker Wayne Allison, Mark Debolla and Steve Blatherwick saw Chesterfield run out winners and move to the top of League One early on.

 

Blackpool have lost Ritchie Wellens over the summer but have added striker Scott Vernon from Oldham to their attacking options.

 

As far as Rovers fans are concerned, the big question is whether Iain Hume will again have to settle for a place on the bench at the expense of Calvin Zola as was the case at Swansea on Saturday.

 

In last season’s meetings between the sides, Rovers came out the better, taking four points from the two games.  The first encounter was at Blackpool’s Bloomfield Road on a cold November afternoon when a first half cracker from Ian Goodison was enough to secure all three points.

 

The return game at Prenton Park was not so good for Rovers as the sides fought out a rather drab 0-0 draw back in April.

 

In all past meetings at Prenton Park, Tranmere have the superior record with ten wins, three draws and just one defeat in fourteen meetings.  Rovers have also scored nearly three times as many goals as Blackpool in Prenton Park meetings.

 

In overall meetings, Rovers have won sixteen and drawn four out of twenty-eight meetings in total, scoring almost fifty goals in the process.

 

DEADLY’S MATCH PREDICTION:  TRANMERE  2 - 0  BLACKPOOL

 

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