Goodness me, what a game that was. A 7 minute blitz by Cheltenham sent Tranmere packing and means we’ve had our best start to a football league season EVER with ten points from the opening four matches.

Let’s start from the beginning. Nothing really to report on the journey there, apart from that I was surprised that the train to Liverpool was pretty empty and also impressed by how trendy it looked. I had to check I hadn’t accidentally got into first class! Pre match pint was had at the Prenton Park hotel after a half hour or so walk to the ground, which involved me being confronted by a very large puddle.

After dipping my foot in and discovering it was about ankle deep, I decided to go around the puddle.

So onto the game, Tranmere took the lead after 11 minutes when Elliot Richards strolled through our defence and beat Trevor Carson in the one on one. He could have twirled a cane as he strode into the area. After that, Tranmere zipped the ball around nicely and looked a class above us. My verdict on the game at that point was that we were losing to the better side, which we were. They were spraying the ball around while we were hoofing it.

Then something changed and we started to put on some pressure, but we just couldn’t get that final ball, or final touch. Terry Gornell put one across the face of the goal, Craig Braham-Barrett fired over from the edge of the box and we had a series of corners. It looked almost certain that a goal was coming and sure enough a goal came…but it wasn’t Cheltenham who scored it. Troy Brown’s shot from the edge of the box was charged down and fell kindly to Cole Stockton who found Marc Laird and he put the ball beyond Carson’s despairing dive Oh well, I thought. We’re going to lose to a side that will probably be in and around the promotion picture.

At half time, Mark Yates did something he doesn’t do very often at all. He made a substitution. It did turn out it was somewhat forced upon him-Steve Elliott was feeling somewhat peaky at half time and was unable to take further part in proceedings. Omari Sterling-James, the new man in from Redditch came on for his first league appearance. This meant a switch away from 3-5-2. I wasn’t sure at first how Yates would go-would he move to a straightforward 4-4-2 and play Omari on one flank and maybe Matt Richards or new loan signing from Bristol City on the other? It was in fact more a 4-3-1-2, with Omari in the hole behiind the strikers, though Wynter did drift out wide quite a few times.

We carried on what we’d been doing for most of the first half and took the game to Tranmere-though I did have a slight worry about being picked off on the counter. A minute into the half and Lee Vaughan fired a shot wide, then OSJ saw a diving header bounce off the inside of the post and somehow not over the line from Braham-Barrett’s (I’ll call him CBB from now on) cross. We were all ready to celebrate a goal. At this point I was thinking of the play off final where we did everything but score. Maybe it was going to be one of those days. At the other end it could have been 3-0 but good old Trev made a save from Richards’ long range shot. Poor Terry Gornell was getting into all the right positions but his shooting was somewhat off and he was taken off for our Ghanaian winger/striker Koby Arthur (on loan from Birmingham). This was a change I was hoping to see as I felt Arthur’s pace and youthful exuberance alongside Harrison’s strength and power would make for a good combination.

Mere moments after he came on, OSJ’s shot from just outside the box was saved and Matt Richards pounced upon the rebound. Game on. 66 minutes played.

Tranmere were rocking and two minutes later, Arthur got onto a Byron Harrison flick and finished sublimely from the edge of the box. Cheltenham had made it Desmond! Two apiece and the 151 away fans celebrated with great jubilance.

At this point our game against Wimbledon last season sprung to mind. A game that holds terrible memories-though I wasn’t in attendance, only listening on the radio-where we comfortably held a 2-0 lead before conceding three goals in as many second half minutes and ended up losing 4-3 to a 97th minute goal. Was this our turn? Part of me wanted us to go for it, part of me wanted us to just calm things down a little bit.

It wasn’t quite three goals in three minutes but with 73 minutes played, Matt Richard’s cross was met at the far post by Jordan Wynter who volleyed home and us away fans, including Chairman Paul Baker partook in some wild celebrations, and then informed the Tranmere contingent of the fact that they had let a two goal lead slip through the medium of song.

The time that followed after the goal went somewhat slowly and I’m sure there was an extra two minutes before the referee put his board up, but really Tranmere never threatened too much. A couple of corners which came to nothing and the odd pot shot from long range, that was about it and how we rejoiced when the final whistle went. Even the normally laid back and some may say languid Byron Harrison seemed animated as he applauded the fans.

Mark Yates suggested after the game it was his best moment as Cheltenham manager. It probably has a big case to qualify as my best away day. It was the best I’ve seen us play in a good two or so years. CBB, scapegoat last season, one of the players involved in not-trying gate and expected to make way for new boy Paul Black was a revelation at left wing back and then left back, Yates even compared him to Roberto Carlos! Another misfit, Jason Taylor, transfer listed and as I’ve said previously, someone I expected not to play for the club again bossed the midfield. Are we finally seeing the player we signed? A mention to Yates too who I think got his tactics and substitutions spot on, maybe that coaching course, or holiday as some unkind fans suggested, is paying off.

We’ve played four games then, and have ten points. Three of those games were against teams that I’d expect to be in the upper reaches of the table, and the other was against a team who have beaten us at home three times in the last four seasons. It’s early days of course, but we’ve shown steel and resilience, and today we showed we can also have a bit of pace and also have a plan B.

We play Hartlepool on Saturday, a game I hope to attend, and a game that I am worryingly confident about. It took us 13 games last season to pass 12 points, if we win on Saturday it will have taken us four.

It sure is a happy time to be a Cheltenham fan right now.

 

Here are some vids…courtesy again of the ever reliable healer_ctfc

 

OSJ went excruciatingly close. 

Matt Richards set the ball rolling. 

And there’s Wynter’s winner. Due to still celebrating the first goal, the second goal was not caught on Healer’s camera. 

Here’s how the chaps on Radio Gloucestershire described the goals: https://audioboo.fm/boos/2417997-ft-tranmere-2-3-cheltenham