Tranmere Rovers 3, Hudds Town 0

Feb 23 2005 By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Man of the Match - Paul Rachubka: IAIN HUME will be cursing the Town keeper, who made three top-quality saves from him and also tipped over a Ryan Taylor free-kick. Excellent. Kept Town in a woeful first half

How they rated:

Paul Rachubka Without his saves in the first half, Town would have been dead and buried. Made at least four top-class saves Rating: 8/10

Tom Clarke Did well to block a fierce Roberts drive on 39 mins. Switched to left-back in the second half and he prompted well from No3 Rating: 5/10

David Mirfin Went off suffering an injury to his right hip at half time after finding it tough to handle the pace of Paul Hall Rating: 5/10

John McCombe Difficult task against Dadi and Hume but stuck at it and played strongly in the second half improvement Rating: 5/10

Nathan Clarke Played with a bruised eye but was the best of Town's defensive line, making some very timely interceptions Rating: 6/10

Michael Collins Did excellently in the second half with some good runs and crosses. Close to a man of the match performance Rating: 7/10

Adnan Ahmed Overrun first half, he was much more like his old self in the second. Strong tackles and well directed free-kicks Rating: 5/10

Jon Worthington Had a great chance to score on 62, when a goal would have put Town right in the game, but the shot was deflected over Rating: 5/10

Danny Schofield Back after illness with his usual brand of trickery. Had a shot well saved on 55 minutes, Town's first on target Rating: 5/10

Pawel Abbott Closest to scoring with a header on 60 and he created Worthington's chance, but gave the ball away too often Rating: 5/10

Luke Beckett Unlucky not to get a penalty award in the second half, but rarely got the service to keep up his excellent record Rating: 5/10

Spotlight on the ref: CUMBRIA referee Mike Pike seemed oblivious to quite a lot which was happening on the pitch.

It's the first time in a long time that players have been able to get away with blasting the ball into the net after being flagged and whistled offside, while some of his decision making seemed unsure to say the least.

It was only the protestations of Tranmere manager Brian Little on the touchline, jumping around in front of a linesman, which led to Adnan Ahmed's booking, while Town had two reasonable penalty appeals totally ignored

Tranmere Rovers: Achterberg, Taylor, Roberts, Jackson Sharps, Hume, Rankine, Hall, Dadi (Dagnall 83), McAteer, Goodison. Subs not used: Whitmore, Linwood, Harrison, Beresford.