A Very Frustrating 90 Minutes Tranmere

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A gritty performance from Tranmere Rovers saw them overcome the odds to beat promotion chasing Peterborough 1-0.Chris Whelpdale had to be hurried back to fitne s much sooner than Gary Johnson would have hoped and took his place in the starting line-up, out of position at right-back, due  Oscar Robertson Jersey to an injury to Seth Nana. Grant McCann managed to make it back from Slovenia for 3 oclock but was only fit enough to start on the bench with Charlie Lee taking his place in the centre of midfield. Jay Davies also took his place on the bench after breaking through from the youth team set-up.Les Parry started both recent additions Jermaine Grandison, at centre back, and Arnaud Mendy who played in a defensive midfield position. Captain John Welsh mi sed out due to an injury as Tranmere lined-up in a fairly rigid 4-5-1 formation with Enoch Showunmi expected to use his presence up-front to bring other, deeper positioned, players into action.The unfavoured hosts almost got off to a flying start when Ryan Fraughans cro s was met by the head of Adam McGurk but Joe Lewis made a comfortable save, diving to his left. It was an early warning sign for The Posh and it did nothing to increase the visiting fans confidence in the teams ability to start well, with Peterboroughs first half performances so far this season being lacklustre.The game settled after that. Posh were pre sing but Tranmere were well organised and quite content to stay in the game in the early stages. Tranmere were putting Posh under a lot of pre sure every time they had a period of po se sion and the away side were looking for the long ball far too often against a side that looked more like a basketball team than a football team.Rovers direct approach almost paid off when Chris Whelpdales poor back header left Joe Lewis stranded but McGurks effort went straight acro s Lewis goal before Ian Thomas-Moores, who returned from injury, cro s was headed over by Enoch Showumni who was winning the aerial  Jaylen Adams Jersey contest against Peterboroughs two centre backs, Kelvin Langmead and Ryan Bennett.Enoch Showunmi proved diffucult for the Posh defenceto deal with.An intricate piece of pa sing football almost created the first goal for Posh as the space appeared to open up for Aaron McLean, who wasabout eight yards from goal, after a clever back-heel from Arron Davies, but young Liam Darville got acro s well to block the dangerous front mans effort.Davies was then substituted with an injury to his right thigh, which was heavily strapped when he re-appeared on the Peterborough United bench, to be replaced by Dave Hibbert. It was a blow for Johnsons side as Nana, Little, Mendez-Laing and now Davies, all right sided players, are all suffering from injuries leaving choices limited.Tommy Rowe, who was performing Sam Merrill Jersey  well in the left-back position, had to do his fair share of defensive duties and when Ryan Fraughan fired a low cro s-cum-shot acro s goal, after Chris Whelpdale was caught out, Rowe made an excellent clearance to turn the ball away from danger.Tommy Rowe had a good game at left-back.The game was a little stale with Tranmere seemingly happy at 0-0, still sitting deep and allowing Posh to play the ball around in their own half before pre suring the away team as they played in more threatening positions. George Boyd did have Tranmere goalkeeper, Joe Collister, worried for the first time, however, when his deflected cro s looped over him only to hit the cro s-bar. From the resulting corner Collister made his first save of the game, tipping a Ryan Bennett header over the bar.Boyd almost pulled off the spectacular just before half-time but his delicate, long-range, chip went just wide of Collisters goal. The visitors were becoming a little frustrated now and were resorting to long range efforts to try and break down Tranmeres impre sive resistance.Tranmere, against the run of play, managed to take the lead on the stroke of half-time through ARNAUD MENDY. Adam McGurk collected the ball from a throw thenturned Charlie Lee far too easily and had all the time in the world to calmly slot the ball into the path of Mendy, who was in an attacking position for the first time in the  Bob Lanier Jersey match, to stroke home his first goal in English football.Arnaud Mendy scored his first goal in English football.The goal would provide Tranmere witha lead to defend and allowed them to become even more defensive meaning Posh would have to be creative to find any way to break the home defence down.Posh almost equalised deep into stoppage time when Craig Mackail-Smith latched onto a loose ball, that was smashed down field, ahead of Joe Collister, but Ian Goodison was in the right position to clear the danger with the last kick of the half.The visitors, always better in the second half, came out with determined attitude and a George Boyd free-kick was drifted into the box but it eluded everyone and went out for a goal kick. Moments earlier Dave Hibbert wasted a chance, volleying wide of the target.James Wesolowski went close to equalising but Peterborough were looking a little impatient and seemingly were running out of ideas. Gary Johnson needed to change things and therefore brought Charlie Lee off to be replaced by Lee Tomlin in an attacking switch.Posh had five very attacking players on the pitch now  Tomlin, McLean, Boyd, Mackail-Smith and Hibbert  and the result was that they were unorganised and their attacks were easy to defend against. Grant McCann was next to come off the bench, to try and find an ever elusive equaliser, with Aaron McLean coming off. McCann, indeed, nearly did score with his first touch but the set-piece specialists free-kick was inches over the bar.A flowing move by Posh, who were pa sing the ball around more freely with the introduction of McCann, resulted in James Wesolowski firing a volley at Collister but the goal-keeper was equal to it and clutched the  Nik Stauskas Jersey ball to his chest.James Wesolowski performed well in midfield for Peterborough today.In the dying minutes Peterborough were throwing everything at Tranmere who were defending heroically. Dave Hibbert was to have the last chance of the game but his header was poor and went tamely wide of the target when he should have tested the goal-keeper in truth.The final whistle from referee Steve Rushton, who was awful throughout, was greeted with elation from the Prenton Park faithful and frustration from the visiting fans. If we are to win promotion these are the sort of games we need to be winning with all due respect to Tranmere.Our away form is becoming worrying, I thought we had solved our away jitters with a comfortable, and impre sive, win against Plymouth last weekend but it seems not. This performance was very poor against an awful Tranmere side that just looked to smash the ball downfield at every opportunity.The Posh need to learn how to battle and develop an ability to break teams down that are happy to def