Tranmere Rovers v Aldershot Town, Second Round, Saturday 28th November 2009

For this round of the cup, I had opted to take in Wrexham v Swindon Town. The day started well with a decent nights sleep behind me and the train to Liverpool being bang on time. One hour later, I transferred at Lime Street onto Liverpool's excellent local rail line to meet my connection to Wrexham at Bidston. This is where things started to go wrong as Arriva Trains Wales had kindly cancelled the service and the next one would not get me there till gone 3.30. It was not 1.30pm and a quick check of National Rail Enquiries revealed the alternate route via Chester wasn't going to get me there any quicker either. As I was already on Birkenhead, the logical option was to once again head to Tranmere.

Disembarking at Rock Ferry, I consoled myself with the fact that at least I knew the way to the ground already and also the location of the local baker which was essential as the catering at Prenton Park is not the best. To try and make for a different experience to my last visit, I opted to go in The Cowshed stand with the Aldershot fans who'd turned up in numbers. Having fueled up on a quality pork pie and pre-match pint, it was pretty much time for kick-off. There was plenty of noise from the Aldershot fans, Aldershot Town were reformed in 1992 when the original club went bust and have worked their back through the various leagues and returned to League football last year and they seemed hopeful of a result today.




The match opened well with the passing from both sides much more fluid than the previous game I'd seen. Tranmere had the upper hand territorially but Aldershot were by and large comfortable with their defending and Tranmere's closest early effort was a long range shot deflected for a corner.


On the 20 minute mark Aldershot had a huge let-off when a superb 20 yard drive from John Welsh beat goalkeeper Ruiz hands down and hit the inside of the post, most fans expected the ball to nestle in the opposite corner but it hit the other post and came back out before being scrambled to safety by a grateful defence. In the run up to halftime, Aldershot managed a couple of long range efforts just wide and Tranmere responded with a couple of decent attacks that Ruiz dealt with comfortably. There was also an appearance on the pitch of Tranmere's caretaker-manager/physio, Les Parry.


Returning to my seat for the second half, the temperature seemed to have dropped sharply in the 15 minute break and I spent the first 10 minutes shivering to get warm. Unfortunately there was not much happening on the pitch to warm the spirits. Aldershot looked comfortable and happy with the draw and Tranmere managed to force plenty of corners but without any clear-cut chances. Aldershot were content with the occasional counter-attack but without the numbers to seriously worry the home defence. When the final whistle came with the score 0-0, the visitors were clearly the happier of the fans.




With both teams surviving until the draw for the third round, both sets of fans can dream of meeting with one the big boys in the first week of January. I also await the draw so I can plot my first outing of 2010. I can assure it will not be at Prenton Park this time.