Tranmere hosted Harrogate Town at Prenton Park this evening and held on for a 3-2 win over the now 20th placed visitors, but not without a few scares.
A pair from Vaughan and one from Woolery secured a win over the boys in blue.
Rovers’ Danny Lloyd had a chance for an early opener, but Harrogate goalie, James Belshaw, scuppered his chance.
It was the visitors who opened the scoring when, at 25 minutes, Josh McPake ended a counter-attack by potting the ball in the back of Tranmere’s net.
In an equally matched game, it was Vaughan who equalised 10 minutes later when he thundered home a penalty, following a foul on Manny Monthe by Warren Burrell.
The second half started 1-1 and within just seven minutes Tranmere had raised the stakes and made the score 3-1, with both Kaiyne Woolery and Vaughan scoring from close range.
Harrogate lost a man 20 minutes from the final whistle when Connor Hall was shown a second yellow for a bad foul.
However, Tranmere did not cash in on the man advantage for the rest of the game and it was just 3 minutes later that Josh March pulled back a consolation headed goal for Harrogate.
The visitors did not relent and kept up the pressure to the very end but Tranmere held on to make it three wins in the last three.
Matt Hibbert’s thoughts…
It wasn’t a vintage performance by any means and we made hard work of it, but it’s another huge 3 points. That makes it 9 points from 9 in the last 7 days, and it’s put us right back into the picture at the right end of the table.
It’s wins like these that get you promoted, 1 goal margins, whether it’s 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 or 4-3. Win on Saturday at Morecambe and we would leapfrog them, possibly into the top 3 depending on other results, so it’s a massive game.
Matt Hibbert – Presenter, This is Tranmere Podcast
Matt Hibbert, Paul Harper and Jake Keogh present the “This is Tranmere” podcast available on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts & Spotify with post-match reaction for every Tranmere game. #TRFC #SWA
These are the links to the Tranmere v Harrogate podcast:
Soundcloud
Apple podcasts
Spotify
These fans express their opinion on today’s game …
Tranmere Rovers
1 Scott Davies (C)
17 Otis Khan
18 Calum MacDonald
26 Peter Clarke
6 Emmanuel Monthe
8 Jay Spearing
14 Kaiyne Woolery
22 Paul Lewis
19 Liam Feeney
35 Danny Lloyd
9 James Vaughan
Substitutes
13 Joe Murphy
2 Lee O’Connor
21 George Ray
3 Liam Ridehalgh
16 Nya Kirby
7 Kieron Morris
10 Morgan Ferrier
Manager
Keith Hill
Referee
Andy Haines
Harrogate Town
1 James Belshaw
6 Warren Burrell
22 Ed Francis
12 Jake Lawlor
20 Connor Hall
4 Josh Falkingham (C)
14 Brendan Kiernan
7 George Thomson
28 Joshua McPake
18 Jack Muldoon
10 Aaron Martin
Substitutes
5 Melvin Minter
27 Jay Williams
8 William Hondermarck
15 Connor Kirby
30 Simon Power
24 Josh March
Manager
Simon Weaver
