Was an excellent evening's entertainment at the Echo Arena. Very impressive building, and our team did us proud. Excellent performances throughout by everyone involved and we're in the grand finals!
I'm a bit gutted cos I'm gonna miss it as I'll be in Barcelona for the England game the same weekend I think it's on - Sept 7th, at NEC Birmingham.
1. John Achterberg, made some great saves and proved to me he's still Tranmere's number 1! He's still a great goalkeeper.
2. Ian Nolan - showed his class and defended well.
3. Ged Brannan - lots of energy in the middle, which was in short supply with it being veterans football! He showed why he's still playing in the non-leagues, very good.
4. Eddie Bishop - Elvis was immense, ran his socks off, and bagged 2 goals in the final!
5. John McGreal - bagged a beautiful goal against Wigan, great player and defended really well.
6. Stuart Barlow - bagged a hat-trick in our 5-1 demolition of Everton! Missed a couple of easy chances but played pretty well otherwise.
7. Steve Mungall - solid as his usual self! Underused being one of the elder players but was strong at the back.
8. Kenny Irons - dominated games from the middle. Still has the class he always had.
9. Georges Santos - quality. So strong, so tenacious and very good for us.
Tranmere kept the ball incredibly well throughout all 4 games, and defended immensely, throwing bodies in the way of everything. We beat Everton 5-1 in the first game, with a superb hat-trick from Stuey. Then unlucky to lose to Liverpool 2-1. Then kept the ball for the majority of a 1-1 draw with Wigan to secure a place in the final - saving energy for the final by doing so, very impressive.
Then the final we beat Liverpool 4-2 and deservedly so, breaking well and scoring some good goals. Then keeping the ball like Brazil, with the Oles coming from us Rovers fans in the crowd!
Man of the competition for us was King Kenny imo. Almost didnt recognise him with a lack of barnet now! But was quality, but they all were and deserve to make the final. Player of the competition overall was Neil Redfearn though, who scored 4 or 5 absolute screamers for Wigan! Superb.
But a good night overall, well worth the entrance price, bring on the finals!
