Winter of Discontent ahead for Tranmere

Shrewsbury eased their way to a 1-0 victory against a struggling Tranmere Rovers at Prenton Park. Grenada international Aaron Pierre and Wigan loanee Callum Lang may well be arguing long into the night about which of them scored the game’s decisive goal midway through the first half, but the visitors’ manager Sam Ricketts is unlikely to care.  Shrewsbury remain 12th, but with a top half that’s concertinaing together nicely, they are beginning to look up at what’s going on above them with ever more interest.

Tranmere, meanwhile, were last in League One in 2013-2014. Since then they’ve had two relegations and two promotions. A dozen or so games into 2019-20 and there’s a very real chance that the Superwhites could be extending that rollercoaster record by adding another relegation to the list.

As will always be the case with Micky Mellon’s sides, Tranmere worked hard and did all they could to try and deal with having to play the entire second half with ten men. Quite how Connor Jennings, sent off in first-half injury time for two completely avoidable yellow cards, explained himself to his team-mates as they filtered back in to the dressing room is not known; diving in recklessly in the middle of the park when you are already on a yellow certainly won’t go down as a particularly savvy call.

Shrewsbury, meanwhile, were much improved on last week’s messy performance against Fleetwood. Former Tranmere player Ollie Norburn purred his way through much of the second half, hitting the post late on as Salop kept pushing for that elusive second goal. Callum Lang again looked bright up front and regardless of whether he ends up being awarded the game’s only goal, his movement and goal threat offers Shrewsbury an attacking dimension that they were missing through August.

The game’s only goal came courtesy of something that is becoming a bit of a Shrewsbury trademark; their battery of centre-halves have attacking tendencies lurking deep within and this week it was Aaron Pierre who crossed from the left towards the back post. Lang may have got his toenails on to the end of the cross, but no one in blue and amber cared too much. The ball was in the net and that was all that mattered.

With Cummings forced to take an early bath, Shrewsbury had much the better of things in the second half. Ryan Giles and Don Love offered width whilst Josh Laurent came ever more into the game as the hosts tired. Manny Monthe’s periodic attempts to dribble his way out of defence did little to settle home nerves, but poor decision-making coupled with wayward finishing meant Shrewsbury were never able to kill the game off.

As is often the way, Tranmere generated just enough pressure to rustle up one last chance.  With the clock ticking into second-half stoppage time, Neil Danns subsequently found himself little more than 12 yards out with the ball at his feet. Salop keeper Max O’Leary rose to the challenge, diving sharply to his left to make a crucial save.

With that, Rovers’ day was done. Micky Mellon will know that with Bury having already gone bust and Bolton well adrift at the bottom, this year is a decidedly odd one at the bottom of League One.  Rovers do still remain three points ahead of Wimbledon in the last of the relegation places, but they’ll know that, sooner or later, they’ll still need to put a run of results together. On this evidence, it could be a long, hard winter.

words Dan Hough, Shrewsbury Town fan