Exhausting to watch, but there is no doubt we deserved the victory. We had the better chances and Ashmore kept them in it with a string of saves.
Despite all the time-wasting, I thought they were a decent side, dogged defensively and Whiteley and Weston were always a threat. However, they were effectively a spent force after half time and it was a case of whether we could break them down. We showed great character, behind twice, the second time to a comedy goal in a half where Davies did not have a save to make. Scott and Ritchie owe Ginnelly a drink tonight for digging them out of that hole.
There was a massive release of tension at the end, and I don't think I have ever celebrated a Tranmere goal like I did our third today. The noise in the closing stages was the best I have heard in Prenton Park for a long time.
Individually, I thought Hughes and Ridhelagh had excellent games. However, midfield was a problem as Norburn largely went missing and we did not get tight enough to them without the ball. Cole started well but faded, but produced a great strike for the fourth goal. However, man of the match was Josh Ginnelly who chose a fitting occasion to produce his best performance for us. The cynic in me would ask why we have not seen that from him more often. Great credit to Norwood as well. All the talk has been about Cookie in recent weeks, but Andy had a quiet game, well marshalled by their centre halves, and it needed two moments of magic from James to win us the game.
On to Wembley......