It still has not really sunk in. While my feelings at the final whistle did not quite match the euphoria of last year, Connor's winner was a moment of ecstacy that matches any in my time supporting Tranmere. I really felt at that stage that we were drifting to penalties, and I felt certain we were going to lose as psychologically Newport would have had the upper hand. I never quite believed back to back promotions were possible, until that moment in the 129th minute today.
I thought Newport gave us a very tough game and were unfortunate to lose, if I am honest. In the first half they were the better side. We started brightly for fifteen to twenty minutes, but they gradually got a grip of things in midfield through the physicality of Labadie, and Matt led the line really well for them and was a handful.
However, once again Micky made vital tactical changes which effectively won us the game. With Newport by-passing midfield he saw that Harris was surplus to requirements and replaced him with Pringle, switching to 4411. Our midfield play immediately improved, with more quality on the ball, and we were the better side for the first twenty minutes of the second half. However, Newport came strong again, but the unlikely introduction of McNulty was equally inspired. We were still struggling with the aerial threat of Matt, but switching to 532 we had three centre halves to deal with the aerial bombardment, and also benefited from Macca's leadership and experience, which was vital in extra time.
I was pleased that Buxton and Pringle played a part in the winning goal, two maligned and marginalised figures in recent weeks. It was a great little shimmy by Bucko to get into the box which created the opening for the cross from Caprice and Connor's finish.
We were never really at our fluent best today, but there were some massive performances: the two centre halves were excellent and limited Newport to relatively few chances; Perkins and Banks worked very hard in midfield; there was an incredible double save from Scott in the second half; both full backs had decent games, although the deliveries into the box were generally poor, with Caprice saving the best until last.
Micky surely now stands behind Kingy as our second greatest manager, and huge credit also has to go to Mark Palios. When we were relegated to the Conference in 2015, he said he wanted to return us to League One within five years. We have actually made it with a year to spare.