Due to being away for Christmas I couldn't make this game. So this report is from the excellent Rangers Till I Die website written by Tracy Stent: http://www.rtid.co.uk

Oh dear. After our recent 2-game unbeaten run we were all brought back down to earth at Prenton Park this afternoon.

The frustrating thing is that we got off to such a promising start, but in the second half (kind of like against Cardiff a few weeks ago) we collapsed like a deck of cards.

In fact it was rather like comparing our squad to a pack of cards today with Cook and Daly being our jacks, young proteges with lots of prospect about them, and Kevin Gallen being both King and Ace of the pack.

Unfortunately Holloway and Jackett were comparible to being the jokers due to the truly dreadful tactics used during the second half. With the exception of Wes Daly for the injured Marc Bircham in midfield, we kicked off with the same team that started against Wycombe on Boxing day.

And within the first 15 minutes we could have been 3 up. Firstly Clarke Carlisle saw his chance being saved well by the Trannie keeper, John Achterberg.

Moments later, following good work by Lee Cook, Furlong struck inside the area, and again Achterberg made an excellent fingertip save. Achterberg kept up the heroic work with a good effort by Kevin Gallen being thwarted.

This helped to put the Rs contingent in a buoyant mood in the away Cowshed stand, and with us actually getting a grip of a game by playing some good passing football, there was an element of expectancy around.

Tranmere at this time seemed all at sea and the only time they threatened during this period was when Matty Rose lost his footing on the left hand side allowing the nippy little winger, Stuart Barlow through free, but thankfully Nick Culkin was wide awake on this occasion.

As the half progressed though, some slight anxiety began to seep into some of us there, and the fear was that if we didn't make the most of the opportunities that came our way then all it would take would be a split second down the other end that could alter the way the game was progressing.

Then with around 8 minutes remaining we were on the attack down the right. Something happened to make the referee blow up and call Paul Furlong over to him. When he issued a straight red card to PF, with us being down the other end and unable to see what the sending off was for, it left most of us there both bewildered and uncertain.

One thing I did take note of was that Paul didn't protest at all. So with only around 7 or 8 minutes remaining the management team had to make a decision on whether to make a substitution or leave the team alone until half time. No sign of any life on the bench meant that they opted for the latter.

For the remaining time left in the first half we managed to hold onto the ball quite well and with Cook and Daly looking very lively, we did very well indeed to hold any possible Tranmere attempts to take advantage of us being down to 10 men.

At half time I heard that PF had been sent off for an alleged elbow. It will be interesting to see the replay of this incident on tv. So, with Prenton Park becoming colder and darker by the moment, the players emerged for the second half and the first thing we noticed was that there had been no changes.

Ah well, give it 5 minutes or so and then surely a change would be made up front for us? Unfortunately within a couple of minutes of the restart we found ourselves a goal down. A low cross was played into our area, we couldn't clear, and the ball was struck cleanly past Culkin to put Tranmere 1-0 up.

We were still plucky though and only moments later we won a corner. Richard Langley delivered a good cross over and Danny Shittu rose to meet it with his head. It seemed goalbound but right in front of the Rs support the ball went agonisingly inches wide over the bar. Cue heads in hands on both the pitch and in the stands.

At this time it was becoming obvious that Kevin Gallen, poor man, needed some help up front in the middle. He was completely isolated and though Cook and Daly on the wings were doing their best to get some balls to him, he couldn't do it all himself. Just as some of us were crying out to the management team to make a replacement to help KG, Tranmere made another attack, another cross being played into our area, yet again we couldn't clear our line, and with Culkin apparently looking as though he were wrong sided, the ball hit the back of the net making the score 2-0 to Tranmere.

Holloway then made an immediate substitution by taking off Daly and replacing him with Dennis Oli. He slotted straight into Daly's position on the right, thus not helping Kevin in the middle whatsoever!

At one stage I was silently saying to myself "And it's Gallen holding up the ball. Gallen laying it off. Gallen picking it up. Gallen trying a shot." Why on earth either Dou Dou (who was on the bench in place of Thomson, don't know why he wasn't there today) or Angell weren't brought on (in place of one of the midfielders) to play in the middle up front to help Kevin out, I really don't know.

I'm no master tactician of the game but if I, as could many others around us, see it why couldn't Olly and Kenny J?

To our credit we did keep pushing and at one stage Steve Palmer was fouled on the edge of the box, Langley took the resulting free kick which went just wide over the bar. However, Tranmere now had the bit between their teeth, another attack resulting in a cross that was headed home made the score 3-0 and if it weren't for Clarke Carlisle saving our bacon on a couple of separate occasions, the scoreline could have been worse.

Matty Rose, playing at left back again looked vulnerable at times, and with him not being a left footed player it was unfair really of the management team to have left him there when it was obvious that he was needed more in the centre of defence behind Carlisle and Shittu to give them some much needed backing. By the time Olly made the double substitution of bringing on Dou Dou and Murphy for Shittu and Cook the game only had about 10 minutes remaining and thankfully our shell shocked defence didn't have to deal with any further scares.

So the game ended 3-0. We all trooped out of the ground despondently, cursing the fact that we had lost to such a bad scoreline, when in actual fact it should have all been so much different. In fact I heard a group of Tranmere fans outside talking amongst themselves that had it not been for the saves that their keeper had made in the first half then it could have been a different story.

Walking back to the car I received a text message letting us know that we had slipped to 10th in the table (gulp). Next stop Peterboro. Talk about a 6 pointer. For both clubs.

MOTM: Kevin Gallen