Morecambe beat Tranmere in first leg of play-offs

Tranmere Rovers hosted Morecambe at Prenton Park tonight with a 6pm kick-off in the first leg of a League Two Play-Off semi final.

Rovers, under the caretaker charge of Ian Dawes and Andy Parkinson, finished the season in 7th place in League Two scraping a place in the Play-Offs for the fourth time in five seasons.

Morecambe missed out on automatic promotion on the final day of the season and finished in 4th place, their joint-highest EFL finish.

Match Report – League 2 – Tranmere Rovers 0, Morecambe 0

Despite Tranmere controlling the first half, with them having nearly 80% possession in the first 45, it wasn’t to be their night tonight at Prenton Park with Morecambe winning the first leg on the play-off semi-final 2-1.

Morecambe took the lead in the 15^th minute through a Nathaniel Knight-Percival goal from a Liam McAlinden cross.

They held on to their lead for just four minutes, when Tranmere deservedly levelled through a powerful header from skipper Peter Clarke from a Liam Ridehalgh cross, that sent the crowd into a frenzy.

But, the home fans were silenced, when during added time at the end of the first half, Morecambe’s McAlinden tapped in a cross from Cole Stockton to give them the one-goal advantage that they held on to for the rest of the match.

Tranmere struggled to match the same intensity from the first half, during the remainder of the game. However, there were a couple of notable chances for the home side, when Rovers nearly bagged an equaliser from a corner which was well saved and directed behind and near the end, a deep cross by Spearing nearly found Nugent perfectly but he lost his balance and nothing came of it.

Morecambe will take a one-goal lead to Globe Arena as these sides battle again in the second leg on Sunday for a 12:30 kick off.

Matt Hibbert’s thoughts…

No idea how we lost that game, 1st half was back to our best, the intensity, the energy, the high tempo, still everything to play for on Sunday, up the Tranmere!

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 Morecambe podcast:
Soundcloud
Apple podcasts
Spotify