RONNIE BLAMES ‘IDIOT’ HOLMES
AFRUSTRATED Ronnie Moore branded Danny Holmes an ‘idiot’ after the defender collected two first half cautions in quick succession to cost Tranmere Rovers.
Ryan Colclough’s double sealed the hosts’ first League One win of the campaign, despite John-Louis Akpa Akpro’s late effort, leaving Rovers searching for their first win at Crewe since 1999.
Moore felt his side were comfortable until the sending off and believes Holmes was lucky not to be given his marching orders earlier.
“The ten men were magnificent, but one idiot lets the whole team down and we’re unlucky because we were just about to bring him off,” said Moore.
“That’s the sickening thing for me as he’s done it before and I’ve told him to stay on his feet, you work all week and then somebody lets the team down by not doing his job properly.
“We’ve kept them hanging on and kept pegging away and I saw a lot of Tranmere Rovers fight, we looked like a team.
“I honestly believe with 11 we win the game.”
It was League One not the Premier League in need of goalline technology when Tranmere’s Ash Taylor saw his header crash down off the crossbar after six minutes before being scrambled away by a combination of Crewe goalkeeper Alan Martin and defender Matt Tootle. With 33 minutes played Akpa Akpro was denied by the outstretched leg of Martin and the keeper’s save sent the Railwaymen on the counter attack.
Holmes broke up the move with a trip on Anthony Grant and was shown a second yellow after two earlier fouls on Byron Moore. Moore began to attack the space Holmes’ dismissal had left behind, and on 42 minutes his out-swinging delivery was only cleared as far as Colclough, who fired leftfooted into the roof of the net.
With five minutes remaining Colclough added his second from close range after Kelvin Mellor’s deep cross.
Akpa Akpro slid in to poke home from Andre Jones’ delivery in the dying minutes to provide a nervy finish for the Alex faithful, but there was no way through for Rovers.
Crewe boss Steve Davis has called on his players to deal with the pressure of late goals after fearing a repeat of the three-goal draw at Rotherham earlier this season.
“I have to trust the players, but at the moment some of them aren’t handling the pressure of that situation very well so they’ve got to be better,” he said.
“At times I thought we should have buried the game and that always gives the other team a bit of hope – we didn’t do that and they went down and got a goal right at the end.
“But it’s important to get that first win, it gives us something to build on going into next week. Leyton Orient are going well with maximum points after another win – it’s going to be tough.”