Tranmere Rovers made to pay for defensive errors (From Wirral Globe)

Tranmere Rovers made to pay for defensive errors

10:51am Monday 18th March 2013 in News By Stephanie Cureton

MK DONS............3

TRANMERE.........0

TRANMERE Rovers boss Ronnie Moore blamed defensive errors for his side’s 3-0 loss at MK Dons on Saturday afternoon.

Rovers went into the match having lost all four of their previous visits to the StadiumMK ground and after two first half goals for the home side that sequence never looked like ending.

On 43 minutes Rovers had a great chance to level. A crossfield pass from Gibson was headed into the path of Liam Palmer by Akpa Akpro.

Palmer crossed towards Sidibe who got in front of his marker in the six yard box but the striker didn't connect with his attempted header.

Moments later Rovers were punished. A through ball from Shaun Williams put Stephen Gleeson one on one with Fon Williams and the midfielder fired low and hard past the keeper into the bottom left corner.

Two minutes into the second half Chris Lines shot wide of the Tranmere goal from Adam Chicksen's cross and three minutes later a free kick gave them another shooting opportunity.

Williams curled the ball against the bar and the loose ball was headed in from ten yards by Darren Potter to put the home side 3-0 up.

The defeat saw Rovers slip down to seventh in the League One table, outside the play-off places.

There were three changes to the team that lost at Walsall as Paul Black, Danny Harrison and Ben Gibson all came into the starting line up in place of Abdulai Bell-Baggie, Michael O'Halloran and Ian Goodison.

The manager said: “You know when you play MK Dons they’re going to have the bulk of the possession, it doesn’t matter whether they’re home or away.

"We set up up to counter attack them and do it in the right way, but two set plays have killed us. We have switched off defensively for both free kicks and it cost us dearly.

“They bounce it around and play it sharply. If you try to match them you get beat, we saw that when we did it at home. So we came and played 4-3-3 with pace up front but we were a goal down after eight minutes through people sleeping. To get caught on the second phase is disappointing.

“It was a great ball [from Liam Palmer] and a great bit of football and we were so close to getting the all-important touch, and then they go down the other end and score the second.

“Our finishing was woeful and the crosses were awful."

Moore continued: “It’s hard when you’ve got players who have played more games than they’ve ever played and they’re running on empty at the moment.

"Can we put the wedge in and stop it?

"Do we give them days off to rest them – we don’t want to be doing that when we want to work on our attacking play.

“We know what we’ve got to do.

We’ve got to win our home games and maybe nick one away. We’ve got to get back to the drawing board and get them right mentally and physically and put some smiles on their faces.

"They’re feeling the pressure a bit and I didn’t think that would happen.”

Meanwhile, Moore said that both Andy Robinson and Adam McGurk are still a fortnight away from returning to the squad.

Tranmere will face Stevenage at Prenton Park on Sunday in a Sky Sports One televised match. Kick-off will be at 4pm.