A valiant effort wasn’t enough for Tranmere Rovers as they fell to Premier League Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup second round.
Elliott Nevitt’s opener provided Prenton Park with an air of belief. As soon as the ball hit the back of the net from the right foot of the former Warrington Rylands forward, everyone in the ground exploded into jubilation.
It would only last 15 mintues but that fifteen minutes of pure belief resounded around all three sides of the stadium that were occupied by Tranmere Rovers fans.
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Newcastle showed their Premier League quality as the game wore on and they eventually fought their way back into the contest.
Emil Krafth went down with an awful injury that led to the defender being stretchered off but an immediate consolation for the Magpies was that they scored seconds after play resumed.
Jamal Lascelles turned the ball in from a corner on the right side, slamming the ball beyond Mateusz Hewelt in the Tranmere goal to bring his side level.
The visitors were held until the break but they once again flexed their quality after the interval, no doubt buoyed by a stern Eddie Howe in the changing room.
Kiwi Chris Wood added the second not long after the change of ends and it was another set-piece that was the undoing of Rovers.
The defensive unit – which has been completely usurped in the heart of the defence this season, with three new centre-halves in the starting team - struggled to deal with the strength and presence of Wood.
He found himself in enough space to flick a header on from the penalty spot into the top left corner, handing Newcastle the lead.
The heart of Tranmere was evident. They stayed in the game for the duration, showing Newcastle that they weren’t being given a free ride through the early rounds of the cup.
As the old adage goes, hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. Tranmere absolutely forced Newcastle to work hard. They made the Toon give every ounce of what they had in order to come away with the victory.
Rovers could have even equalised on a number of occasions with Jordan Turnbull, Elliott Nevitt and former Sunderland winger Josh Hawkes all having half-chances as the game continued on.
It wasn’t to be for Rovers as they just couldn’t find the slice of quality that they needed in order to force the game to a penalty shootout.
Rovers brought on Paul Lewis as one of their subsitutions to try and change the game, Newcastle brought on Joelinton and Bruno Guimaraes. The level of discrepancy between the two teams was too much for Mellon’s squad to deal with.
They have wholeheartedly proved that despite bringing in so many new players in the summer and completely changing the squad for the second-straight season, this team is absolutely one that is together.
A cohesive unit, playing for each other and the badge on the shirt. The real task is now translating the performance against Newcastle into the games that they play in League Two.
They’ll need to take that passion and hunger to play as a team into every match if they are to undo the poor start to the season that they’ve had, having won just one of their games in the league so far this campaign.
Their next challenge is Colchester United. It doesn’t quite have the same ring to it as Newcastle but it’s just as, if not, more important than the game against Eddie Howe’s team.
Tranmere: Hewelt, Dacres-Cogley, Byrne, Turnbull, Jameson (Lewis 69), Bristow, O’Connor, Nolan (Hawkes 58), McAlear, Hemmings, Nevitt
Subs not used: Doohan, Fisher, Hockenhull, Merrie, Hughes, Lomax, Lewis, Taylor
Newcastle: Darlow, Krafth (Trippier 39), Lascelles (Botman 70), Dummett, Targett, Longstaff, Willock (Joelinton 70), Anderson (Guimaraes 85), Ritchie, Murphy, Wood
Subs not used: Gillespie, Botman, Joelinton, Lewis, Fernandez, Manquillo, Almiron
Goals: Nevitt 21; Lascelles 40, Wood 52
Bookings: Hemmings
Referee: Anthony Backhouse
