Rovers Fight Back to Stun Leeds at Prenton Park

Goals in either half from Antony Kay and a screamer from Ian Moore saw Rovers fight back from 1-0 down early on in the game to deservedly win 2-1. The win is the second good home result in a row for Rovers following the recent 2-0 win over Scunthorpe Utd.

Tranmere R 2 - 1 Leeds Utd

    Kay 17                                            Showumni 11

    Moore 49

Attendance - 8,700

A passionate game at Prenton Park between Tranmere and Leeds United went the way of the home team.  Despite Leeds taking the lead, Rovers fought back to earn the points thanks to Antony Kay's header and Ian Moore's screamer against his former club.

Rovers made two changes to the side that held Peterborough to a 0-0 draw last week as John Johnson made his debut at right back due to Ryan Shotton's return to Stoke.  Mark Wilson came back into the side in place of Gareth Edds meaning the starting XI look like this....

Coyne

Johnson Chorley Goodison Taylor

Moore Wilson Kay Jennings Sonko

Savage

Rovers nearly took the lead after three minutes in bizarre fashion as Johnson broke down the right wing and from almost the by-line, whipped in a cross that was going in and had to be palmed over by David Lucas. The atmosphere was buzzing as both sets of fans were getting behind their teams.

Leeds took the lead against the run of play though on eleven minutes. A corner was whipped in and it fell nicely to Enoch Showunmi, whose over head kick found the net from close range.

The lead didn't last long at all, as Rovers got a free kick for a foul on Ian Moore six minutes later.  Andy Taylor floated a perfect ball onto the head of Antony Kay who got there ahead of the defender and goalkeeper to head in Rovers equaliser.

On 26 minutes, Luciano Becchio looped an effort goalwards which was heading for the top corner only for Danny Coyne to impressively palm his effort away.

The game had heated up as Telfer was booked for a lunge on Savage, a decision which angered the away fans and one particular fan ended up throwing a megaphone at the linesman.  David Prutton was also booked for a foul on Savage.

Robert Snodgrass drilled a left footed effort just wide as an exciting first half came to an end.

Half Time: Tranmere  Rovers 1 - 1 Leeds United

The first attack of the second half resulted in a Rovers goal and it brought the game back to life.  Ian Moore cut inside and drilled an effort goalwards which curled away from the goalkeeper and into the corner, an immense goal from a player who is making a habit of scoring against his former club Leeds.

Eddy Sonko then hit a dipping volley just over from 18 yards as Rovers looked for a third.

Danny Coyne then did fantasticly well to keep out a cross shot from Snodgrass.  From the resulting corner Becchio headed in only for it to be ruled out for a push, much to the relief of the Rovers faithful.

Becchio then headed straight at Coyne and Andy Taylor curled a free kick into Lucas's hands at the other end.

Andy Taylor nearly played Rovers into trouble as he tried to dribble out of the area, but luckily the reliable Ian Goodison was there to clean up.

Mark Wilson was then stretched off on 82 minutes, hopefully the injury is not too serious but he was replaced by Gareth Edds.

Ian Goodison continued to be a brick wall as he threw himself in front of everything and nothing was getting past him.  Chris Shuker got a late run out replacing the impressive Eddy Sonko.

Showunmi then shot wide in injury time as Rovers saw out the result.  It was a great result that was appreciated by the fans, many of whom stayed after full time to applaud the player's efforts.

Full Time: Tranmere  Rovers 2 - 1 Leeds United

Ian Goodison

Goodison was hands down the best player on the park and it was an immense performance from the defender who threw himself at everything and was calm as every towards the end.  Every player was fantastic though and it was a great performance.