Time is moving on swiftly and yesterday’s visit to the Wirral made it our 14th league away outing this season. It’s hard to believe but there are only 9 more away days to look forward to. The next one represents a huge date in the CTFC diary as we travel to Bramall Lane, Sheffield.  It’s not ideal being midweek- Tuesday 5th February- but I am sure that many of you will want to travel, please get in contact with Travel Ken- details here- https://www.ctfcsa.co.uk/travel/.  Whilst on the subject of away matches it’s worth reflecting on our excellent record of 6 wins, 2 draws and 6 losses.

Lovely weather greeted fans on the Wirral ahead of our League one fixture at Prenton Park. It certainly made a welcome change to the monsoon conditions of the previous months.  Under clear blue skies and mild temperatures it was ideal weather for watching your favourite team. It’s a hell of a long way to Liverpool so it great to see so many Reds fans in the away area.  They made their presence felt. For ex Crawley northern exiles and regular away attendees Alf Reynolds and Malcolm Lochead it was like a home match.  Alf lives and works on Merseyside with his wife while Malcolm has recently moved to within one mile of Prenton Park.  He said, “I am really proud that so many fans have travelled up from Sussex today where as I have just had to walk down the road; it’s a match that I have been really looking forward to”.

Prenton Park is really neat with a 17,000 capacity. The home end benefits from a huge all seated stand which goes up quite high. The words Tranmere Rovers are neatly depicted in the seats. If they do go up this year then their ground will have no problems in the Championship.  I was very impressed especially with the view we had in the away end.

Unfortunately, the football on offer from both teams was under par but Tranmere benefited from a slice of luck to secure a two nil home win.  The second (39 mins) was a comical own goal from our keeper- not that we were laughing. After freshening the midfield Town were much better in the 2nd period and ex Brighton player Matt Sparrow, making his debut, looked very solid on the ball. While there was a lot of effort on show the come back never really looked on and we slipped to defeat.

Mid Sussex Reds fan Craig Bratt from Cowfold made the trip with his girlfriend Georgia on the supporters coach. He said, “it was always going to be difficult to get a result here today and giving them the 2nd goal didn’t help”, adding, “we played really well in the second half and Gary Alexander worked his socks off up front but I never felt that we were creating sustained pressure”. He revealed, “there are a couple of us Reds fans at Warden Park but most of my friends support Brighton at the Amex, I get some stick from them but I am pleased to have chosen the Broadfield'”.   In his 6 years supporting the club he has seen back to back promotions and 2 fantastic FA Cup adventures. Why wouldn’t he be happy?! In addition the pair won Travel Ken’s famous quiz (with guest presenter Matt Putland) on the way home, picking up a tub of Quality Street.

Thanks to Clarkes for getting us home safely at 9.45pm. The club now have three key home fixtures starting with Carlisle on Saturday.  It’s a real test to our play off credentials. Be there or miss out!

Words and Pictures from Colin Bowman, CTSA Press

Here’s a song for Colin from all the boys on the coach! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZQL22xOmUM