The National League, North and South are hotting up
Mellon’s men close in with polished display
VERDICT: This was Tranmere’s most accomplished home display of the season. With Ben Tollitt and James Wallace returning to full fitness, they are surely now the team to beat
MICKY Mellon lavished praise on his Tranmere Rovers side as a whole after clocking up another impressive home win over Ebbsfleet that moves them menacingly to within two points of the National League summit.
Andy Cook and James Norwood gave rampant Rovers a 2-0 half-time lead before the latter clocked up his 50th goal for the club, extending the Birkenhead side’s winning run at Prenton Park to eight matches.
The match also saw the return from injury of star winger Ben Tollitt, with a late substitute cameo, but Mellon was more than satisfied with the collective effort.
He said: “We’re pleased to get the result, delighted to score three goals and get a clean sheet at home, keeping that home record going – it’s obviously very pleasing. A good day’s work.
“We worked very hard and there were some professional men’s performances all over the pitch. I’m really pleased to be able to get people like Tollitt and Mangy on.
“All over the pitch – I think it would be wrong of my to single anyone out, they were all superb.
“(But) we love Nors (Norwood). We’re going to need our big players performing all the way through until the end of the season and he’s certainly doing that for us at the minute.”
Just past the quarter of an hour mark Rovers went ahead when Cook collected the ball on the edge of the box and steadied himself before unleashing a piledriver into the top corner.
United seemed to want a physical battle but their hosts were up for the fight. A beautiful sweeping move from Tranmere saw Josh Ginnelly cross low for Norwood but his side foot shot was just tipped around the
post by Nathan Ashmore. The Ebbsfleet keeper then denied Norwood again after Cook fed his strike partner and from the resultant corner Noburn saw a snapshot cleared off the goal line.
Rhys Taylor was forced to deny Dave Winfield low to his right when the Fleet centre back headed a corner towards goal.
But moments later Tranmere doubled their lead when Norwood picked up the ball in similar spot to Cook and shifted it onto his left foot before he smashed a low strike past Ashmore.
United fought back just before the break. First Taylor acrobatically denied Weston before a rocket from Danny Kedwell flew inches off target.
Norwood should have made it three shortly after the restart but his unfortunate knack for missing one-vone chances rung true again here as a weak shot was saved by Ashmore.
A spill from Taylor almost allowed Winfield to pull one back for the southerners, but he could only find the side netting.
That would prove costly for Ebbsfleet as with their next attack Rovers got a third and this time when Norwood got in behind the defence he made no mistake, stroking it past Ashmore to notch a half-century of goals for Tranmere.
Accepting defeat, Fleet manager Daryl McMahon said: “I thought we worked very hard against an excellent team. When we played Tranmere at our place a few months ago I said I fancied Tranmere to win the league and I still do.
“I think they’re the best side in the division. They’ve got real men in their side and they’re difficult to play at home as well.
“I thought we did alright throughout the game to be fair, but the goals that we conceded from our perspective were poor.
“We had a couple of chances in both halves and worked hard, but we’ve been beaten by a side who are better than us.”
“All over the pitch, it would be wrong to single anyone out. They were all superb. It was a good day’s work” Micky Mellon Tranmere manager “I said a few months ago that I fancied Tranmere to win the league and I still do. They’re the best side in the division” Daryl McMahon Ebbsfleet manager