Portsmouth . . . 1, Tranmere . . . . . 0

Attendance: 12,250

"THE Wimbledon of the North" was how new Portsmouth manager Alan Ball described Rovers after seeing his side earn a narrow victory, but Tranmere can count themselves unfortunate to have a second-half David Kelly effort controversially ruled offside.

Ball's after match comments angered Rovers' boss John Aldridge, who said: "He wants to keep his mouth shut with silly comments - he obviously didn't see us play Newcastle and Norwich off the park!"

Portsmouth's Australian international John Aloisi, who looked suspiciously off-side, scored the only goal of the game on 36 minutes.

Rovers goalkeeper Steve Simonsen again excelled with three tremendous saves, and Aldridge was livid to see David Kelly, who had an earlier effort ruled out for pushing, hit the target in the second-half only to be ruled offside.

"I've seen the replay and he was clearly on-side," said Mr Aldridge. "They say these things even themselves out, but we've certainly had our share of bad decisions in recent weeks."

Tranmere: Simonsen, Morgan (sub: Frail, 45 mins, sub: Mahon, 72 mins), Thompson, McGreal, Challinor, Irons (sub: Kelly, 45 mins), Morrissey, Mellon, G. Jones, O'Brien, Branch.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.