Wycombe Wanderers maintained their surprising promotion push with a 2-0 win at Tranmere Rovers this afternoon.
The result moved the Chairboys to the summit of League One but left their hosts staring in the face of a long winter and a sure-fire relegation battle.
A goal from a set-piece by Wycombe talisman Adebayo Akinfenwa and a Joe Jacobson penalty, on his thirty-third birthday and five hundredth career appearance, condemned Rovers to their eighth defeat of the season and left them eighteenth in the table, just three points above the final relegation place.
Despite having more of the ball for long periods of the game, Micky Mellon’s men were unable to break down Gareth Ainsworth’s well-drilled unit, with Keiron Morris coming closest, forcing a decent save from Ryan Allsop late on.
The defeat was greeted with disappointment on social media by Tranmere fans. Although Micky Mellon is retaining the support of much of the fanbase, many called for a change of some sort to improve the team’s fortunes.
Plenty identified a weakness in defending set-pieces and not being clinical enough in front of goal as the main problems needing a quick solution.
After the recent joy of back-to-back promotions, Prenton Park is quite a gloomy place at the moment, as the following selection of responses to the result on Twitter illustrates.
Embarrassing. Down we go again.
— Ryan Jones (@ryanjones05) November 17, 2019
https://twitter.com/DSubmarine17/status/1196076388387827713?s=20
Can’t be too harsh on Rovers after today. Our effort is there and we played some decent stuff in the 2nd half, but our discipline really needs sorting out and we’re still hopeless at defending set pieces. December is looking crucial for our season now… #TRFC
— Zak Hayes (@ZakHayes6) November 17, 2019
I quite liked League Two anyway.
— Dickie G (@RichDevall) November 17, 2019
Overall played well against a very good side. Need to stop the goals from set pieces and individual errors.
— 🎗 (@Challinor277) November 17, 2019
Defensive mistakes are killing us conceding first again. Need to be more clinical upfront too as we’re not playing too bad and we’re creating chances but not converting them. Just disappointed is all I can say about today. 🍉 SWA
— Mark D (@thebernieb) November 17, 2019
At the moment the team is too easy to score against and too easy to defend against. Need to be winning games against teams like Wycombe, overall Tranmere were the better team, but just can't score goals, and concede too many silly goals.
— james parker (@james_st_elmo1) November 17, 2019
Couldn't even score a goal and lost 2-0 against a side who has only scored 6 goals away in 7 matches…Only started attacking with 15 shots in the last half an hour after 2-0 down.That's a shame.Can't go to far like this.
— Destroyer27 (@murray_ipezer) November 17, 2019
Not good enough.
— John Hughes (@Johnhughes3006) November 17, 2019
It can't go on like this. Needs whole scale rethink. They are not that good a side, but we are not performing to our potential, changes need to be made to stay in this league.
— Brian Roberts (@brianroberts621) November 17, 2019
