Tranmere head to Newport County on Saturday as they look to extend their unbeaten run to five games in all competitions.
The games comes on the back of last week’s superb performance at Salford as Mike Jackson’s team rallied from two-down to salvage a point with a 2-2 draw. The real talking point was of course the COVID-19 crisis that hit the club and the unsurprising spineless and misleasding reaction from the EFL.
Despite being without eight players due to the virus alone, the EFL refused to confirm the club would not receive a 15-point deduction if they postponed the game. The EFL tried to deny this in a contradictory statement (in which they essentially failed to rule out a 15-point deduction) but TRFC put them straight in a statement of their own which remains unanswered.
As we head to south Wales tomorrow, Rovers may have one or two of those players back, but the majority remain isolated. The club have not named who those players impacted by the virus are, so we won’t speculate on here either.
That said, if he wasn’t caught up in it, Corey Blackett-Taylor was due to be nearing a return from injury so let’s hope he has a chance of being involved tomorrow. No word yet on what’s keeping Morgan Ferrier out but whispers suggest Liam Feeney could be involved after a hamstring injury.
There will also be a potential debut for young midfielder Jack Young who joined on loan from Newcastle this week. Rovers were also trying to secure another player today (we understand it to be a striker), but no news yet as to whether they have been successful in that.
So, expect some of the youngsters involved last week to again be on the bench at least tomorrow. Jake Burton started for a senior debut last week and did very well before being subbed, he may make the bench once again.
As for Newport, well they’ve had a great start to the season and sit third in the table. They tasted league defeat for the first-time last weekend with a narrow loss at fellow high-fliers Cambridge United.
This is going to be a very tough game for Jackson and his team, but one which is sure to be fascinating. Shame there’s no Connor Jennings to nod in a late winner this time around…
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