Tranmere Rovers beaten by Coventry City (From Wirral Globe)

Tranmere Rovers beaten by Coventry City

10:37am Thursday 17th January 2013 in Tranmere News By Craig Manning

TRANMERE Rovers returned empty-handed from the Ricoh Arena last night after losing 1-0 to hosts Coventry City.

Ronnie Moore's squad twice came close to cancelling out Leon Clarke's first half strike but the Sky Blues survived both goalmouth scrambles.

Reflecting on the performance, Moore told the club's website Tranmere Player: "I think we should have got a point. We were poor in the first half, Coventry bossed it.

"We tried to change it and go with three lads with pace up front but we didn’t get going. It was a sloppy goal we conceded from the corner.

"But give them credit we've had a right go in the second half, had four kicked off the line and on another day.

"Someone has to be more ruthless, we had a free header four yards off the line. We showed a bit in the second half what we’re about.

"It was always going to be a tight game. It would have been great to get something and I think we deserved something but in football you don’t always get what you deserve."

Rovers changed from their usual 4-4-2 formation to 4-3-3 at the Ricoh Arena with Danny Harrison in the holding midfield role.

Moore added: "Danny did his job but the others around him didn’t. When we got the ball we never exploited their lack of pace at the back in the first half.

"We only did that in the second half when we went back to the 4-4-2 formation that everybody knows.

"But we need to be able to be adaptable. We can’t always be 4-4-2 because if you’re not careful everybody says 'if you play 4-3-3 they can’t play against that.' We have to prove to people that we can.

"We're disappointed but we’ve got to take it on the chin. We came to a decent club with decent players and we could have got something.

Rovers are away to Brentford on Saturday, 3pm start, and face Swindon Town at Prenton Park the following week.

Looking to Saturday,  Moore said: "We've got to make sure we don’t lose at Brentford but we won't be going there to sit in, we’ll be having a go."