Special Kay aids play-off ambition

Apr 27 2009 by Nick Hilton, Liverpool Daily Post

THE long arm of Ryan Shotton and the sweet left foot of Antony Kay rescued Tranmere’s promotion ambitions from nervous meltdown at Prenton Park on Saturday.

Rovers, needing only to avoid defeat to take the battle for the last League One play-off spot into a final game showdown with Scunthorpe next weekend, almost blew it.

An encounter with relegation-threatened Yeovil Town should not, on paper at least, have been a big ask for a team boasting the second-best home record in the division.

But it proved to be a desperately difficult business. When Yeovil took a thoroughly merited lead through Jon Obika midway through the second half, Tranmere were in serious danger of losing sight of the prize they’ve fought so hard to reach over the last two months.

They performed well below par, betraying signs of battle fatigue. Their football was so riddled with anxiety that scoring opportunities from open play dried up after little more than a quarter of an hour.

Shotton’s long throws at least offered a means of getting the ball into the danger area, although not one that promised success, given the team’s meagre profit from them over the course of this season.

But the right-wing throw Shotton hurled into the heart of the crowded Yeovil penalty box on 78 minutes had pace and a dangerous trajectory. The ball glanced off one of the heads stretching to reach it and flew on towards Kay, 15 yards out. The skipper swung his left foot at waist height and made the perfect connection with a volley that catapulted the ball into the top corner of the net.

Prenton Park erupted in a mighty roar of relief.

Yeovil’s young rookie manager, Terry Skiverton, could not hide his admiration for the technical brilliance of the strike.

“You’ve got to give Antony Kay credit because it was an absolutely magnificent goal,” Skiverton said. “For a player to hit a volley like that with his wrong foot is quite something.”

Skiverton could afford to be magnanimous because the point Yeovil finished with was still enough to safeguard their place in League One for another season.

And in truth, the afternoon belonged to the Glovers. They played the more cohesive and penetrating football and created the best chances. If they had shown more composure in front of goal, there would have been no way back for Rovers.

Skiverton, a long-serving player and youth coach thrust into the manager’s job after Russell Slade’s controversial departure from Huish Park in February, admitted many followers of the Somerset club had been “waiting for the car crash to happen” following his appointment.

“This is the proudest day of my career,” the 33-year-old said afterwards. “I am doing a job I have never really prepared for.”

Yeovil plan to send Skiverton on a manager’s course this summer.

But the Londoner knows the game well enough to have plucked a couple of loan players from the fringes of Tottenham’s reserve team – Obika and Andros Townsend – whose pace and nimble footwork gave Tranmere’s defenders a harrowing afternoon.

The home side, missing the authority of Ian Goodison at the rear and the height and strength of Bas Savage up front, could not make their passes fit together and resorted too often on long balls knocked forward from the back.

A firm pitch that made the ball difficult to control did not help.

Tranmere might have settled better if Ian Moore had been able make more of a 16th-minute chance set up by striking partner Craig Curran and midfielder Ed Sonko. But his shot was blocked by the legs of goalkeeper Chris Weale.

From then on Rovers scratched and scrambled in fitful attempts to build attacks while occasionally living dangerously at the back.

The home supporters became equally jittery and elements of the crowd hardly helped the cause by booing the team at half-time.

Tranmere reached the interval all square only after surviving narrow escapes when goalkeeper Danny Coyne stretched to touch over Townsend’s 20 yard shot, Obika lost his footing in front of goal after wriggling into the six-yard box and Townsend grazed the right-hand post with a shot from 15 yards. The near misses continued after the break.

Coyne saved with his feet after Townsend shot on the turn from six yards, then was rescued by the woodwork as Danny Schofield’s 25-yard effort crashed against the crossbar.

So Yeovil’s goal on 67 minutes came as no surprise. Gavin Tomlin dodged and weaved his way into the box on the left, then Obika took the ball to the byline before making a narrow angle to guide a low shot past Coyne and just inside the far post.

Centre-back Aaron Brown should have doubled the visitors advantage with the far post header on 71 minutes but missed the target.

Yeovil adopted a more cautious approach after Kay equalised but still fashioned a late opening that had Tranmere hearts in their mouths as Obika ran clear on Coyne.

Shotton came galloping in with a last-gasp tackle to save the day.