Tranmere Rovers keeper Luke McGee gets sent off after handling the ball outside the box in his side’s defeat at Crewe Alexandra.
The Railwaymen had been one up at the time, Jack Powell seeing his free-kick on the money for Mickey Demetriou and he nodded in the opener on 11 minutes.
Just minutes into the second half, Luke McGee came rushing out to close down Baker-Richardson, blocking the chance, but as Chris Long attempted to loft it over him from long range, McGee had goalkeeper’s instinct, quickly saving the shot with his hands, but was well outside the box. He was sent off and back-up keeper Joe Murphy subsequently being subbed on to replace Kieron Morris.
Chris Long doubled the hosts’ lead on 52 minutes, with Crewe tweeting: “One of the training ground from the lads! Tabiner and Powell were involved in the free-kick, but Long was the one to smash it past Murphy!”
What is the Tranmere keeper thinking here?? 😭 pic.twitter.com/x8ZTBGuDPT
— The92Bible (@The92Bible) October 14, 2023
After that, an extended pause in play saw the referee speak to the stewards over an off-field matter. It was alleged that Tranmere fans threw items towards the linesman.
On 66 minutes, Connor Jennings saw his strike clip the top of the bar.
The game entered the final 15 minutes, with Murphy producing a fine save from a Finney shot before Crewe were penalised for a dive on the edge of the box. Tracey being booked for the offence.
Tranmere won a corner as Saunders’ ball into the box was tapped behind. Jennings then headed at goal but it was cleared off the line by Courtney Baker-Richardson on 90 minutes.
The board went up, showing 13 minutes of additional time, before a number of yellow cards were dished out.
Powell booked for time-wasting, Hendry’s challenge on Finney got him a yellow, Tom Davies was also cautioned.
The right at the end, the ball bounced off the bar again. Saunders’ header hitting the crossbar after a cross from the right.
On the verge of full time, Tom Davies was then shown a second yellow card with Tranmere going down to nine men.
The result leaves Tranmere 21st in the League Two table with 10 points from 13 games, Crewe meanwhile are 4th with 23 points from same games played.
Interim Tranmere boss Nigel Adkins said post-match: “We didn’t start very well, give Crewe Alexandra a lot of credit. I didn’t realise how windy it was. We’ve started games really well and for me, we’ve started poorly. We couldn’t get out of our half.
“They’ve hemmed us back in, they won too many knockdowns and one-on-one duels and then they had an opportunity to go and pass it.
“I’m really disappointed with the first goal that we conceded. Seven yards out, right in the middle of the goal, we should be able to defend that and we haven’t done.
“We were up against it first half. I’ve challenged the players at half time, ‘Come on, we’ve got to be better than that, do all the basics that I talk about, the basics done well and that resilience.’”
Meanwhile, Crewe boss Lee Bell slams bottle throwing fans with the game stopped for around five minutes by referee Ross Joyce police and stewards dealt with objects hurled at the officials.
Bell said: “We can’t be seeing these sort of things, the officials are trying to do a job and people said coins were thrown.
“They were talking of calling the game off when we were 2-0 up. It was ridiculous and you can’t be doing these things.
“But we were exceptional in the first half and we should have been 3-0 up at half-time, although we didn’t handle playing against 10 men particularly well.
“The supporters wanted to see more goals but the players lost their way a bit and we should have done better.
“But we’d been exceptional before then. Shilow Tracey was outstanding considering he was at the training ground having a fitness test before the game.
“He gave it a go and if that is how he plays when he may not be match-ready then you can only wonder what he can do when he is.”
This is how Twitter users reacted after the Tranmere keeper gets sent off for handling the ball outside the box and the Crewe boss slams bottle throwing fans…
@LDBtalks: Good save tbf 🤣
@AustinWash84: Absolutely nothing going for us. Has all the hallmarks of a relegation season.
@Pete_3008: @TranmereRovers #trfc luke Mcgee and Connor Wood both poor players who not even football league standard
@Adders100: Sums up the decision making at Tranmere, could have left it, but why was the Crewe player allowed to run so far unchallenged?
@FerryLad: Our season was summed up in a mad 5 minute spell. We lose the ball in attack, Luke McGee gets a straight red, they score from the free kick, and the game gets stopped because someone throws a bottle of coke on the pitch. It was a bizarre afternoon, even by Tranmere standards.
@DaniSpooren: Relegation it is.
@Prentonian1: Obviously needs some time off during half-term!
@DanPerryTRFC: Where was the hand ball just before that?
@TrfcZac: Comical, this club just gets fuckinh worse by the week
@matthew_j194: Tbh he’s probably done it intentionally cause he can’t be arsed with this defence 😂
@Doyleyy98: Not even pep guardiola could fix this haha the club is rotten to the core niceone palios you nobhead 👍
@Leg_Meat3307: I wasnt sure how things could possibly go any worse and somehow they actually have
@johnrtrfc: He has finally had enough.. don’t blame him
@mikey_met: Get Murphy on to sort that defence out
@nigel_atkinson: Quality from the centre backs again 😳😂😂😂😂😂
@PeterCo27578446: Oh come on.. this is so poor…
@JoeMurr04116909: For fuck sake
@brianroberts621: We have two defenders sitting on the bench!!
@Alexron_19: All came from Hendry letting their player run past him
@rigsby913: Defenders putting him in that position yet again, we are so shite.
@RyanRandles5: Gets better and better
Crewe 2 tranmere 0 poor game by tranmere again atmosphere was class though 👌 pic.twitter.com/RQwiBR0pOG
— Keiran Martin (@KeiranMartin17) October 14, 2023
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