By Jon Colman

Last updated at 12:18, Tuesday, 29 December 2009

Tranmere Rovers 0 Carlisle United 0: When Matthew Dicicco took a painful tumble on Prenton Park’s chilly turf yesterday, first on the scene to attend to the wounded linesman was Les Parry, Tranmere’s physio-turned-manager.

United’s Kevan Hurst and Rovers winger Zoumana Bakayogo

With his Samaritan bolt from the dugout, Parry briefly reverted to his old job before Mr Dicicco was patched up and this arduous League One set-to could resume.

Parry – who also cooks for the Rovers players, recorded a Christmas single in 2006 on the subject of his legs and recently claimed that “being fat” provided the best insulation against winter’s sharp temperatures – might very well be the character of the third division’s season.

Don’t presume that the Wirral’s chief multi-tasker is all odd-jobs and gags, however, since Parry has also repaired Tranmere’s flagging team to the extent that they posed an energetic and persistent threat to Carlisle’s unbeaten run here.

Birkenhead’s answer to Nigel Adkins – the Scunthorpe pioneer who traded treatment room for tactics board in 2006 - has collected up what was left of Tranmere’s smashed team spirit after the mind-boggling John Barnes era and fused it back together with a mixture of basic competitive values, lower-league organisation and a dash of Merseyside camaraderie.

The result was that Greg Abbott’s United side were given a highly demanding stretch by opponents who had succumbed embarrassingly at Brunton Park three months earlier, at a time when Barnes was sending them out with high-minded carpet-football ideals but no defensive backbone.

Give or take a couple of dramatic chances, yesterday's goalless scoreline represented a fair return for both teams. Other than Ian Thomas-Moore’s eye-rubbing miss for Tranmere, and then two close shaves from Scott Dobie and Joe Anyinsah at the other end, this was a third-tier skirmish low on attacking class but high on commitment and sweat.

The fact it brought Abbott a fourth consecutive clean sheet – extending that unbeaten sequence to seven games – entitled the manager to return to Cumbria with a general air of contentment before the Blues spin back towards Merseyside in four days’ time for their appealing clash with Everton in the FA Cup.

Yesterday the United manager’s task was to convince us that his team’s rumbling momentum had not been buried by the Christmas snow. “The situation hasn’t got any different – we’re still in good shape,” was Abbott’s answer to pre-match questions about the potentially damaging effect of 13 days without competitive action.

Would United’s run of five wins from their last six games be sufficiently fresh in his players’ memories that they could carry its psychological effects into battle at Prenton Park? Or would successive cancellations against Colchester and Huddersfield - replaced, in the main, by bursts of indoor training - have put out the Blues’ winning flame?

The first part of Abbott’s response to that poser was to exclude Tom Taiwo from his starting line-up; the Chelsea loanee confined to bench duties while Peter Murphy inserted his versatility into the Blues’ midfield again. And Carlisle’s start was brisk - Adam Clayton sending an early shot down Rovers keeper Luke Daniels’ throat from the left - before a first half of limited quality was played out.

Tranmere, opening sluggishly, briefly emerged with a left wing surge from Zoumana Bakayogo and a poked effort from Thomas-Moore which failed to trouble Adam Collin. At the other end, United - and chiefly the industrious Clayton - were occupying some promising territory without finding the crucial moment of cutting class.

Ian Harte bashed a free-kick into the Tranmere wall and Matty Robson drilled a low effort against a home defender as United toiled for inspiration. Then, after a brief interlude caused by Mr Dicicco’s unfortunate plummet, Parry’s men perked up with a Gareth Edds half-chance and another Bakayogo run.

United were by now struggling to penetrate Rovers’ steady back line, with Vincent Pericard fended off convincingly by Ian Goodison, although they nearly took advantage of a rare mistake by the Jamaican’s gangly team-mate Ash Taylor. His sliced, airborne clearance was scooped up by Graham Kavanagh, before Evan Horwood’s cleared cross dropped for Clayton, who fizzed his volley narrowly wide from the edge of the area.

A late flurry of set-pieces threatened Carlisle’s well-being before the interval - a few hasty clearances being required to see off the hosts - but 0-0 remained an accurate return on the opening half’s entertainment value. Tranmere moved through the gears at the start of the second period: Taylor dropping a header just wide from Paul McLaren’s free-kick, and Clayton scampering back to thwart the raiding Craig Curran.

Dobie was summoned from the bench on the hour to add his presence to an under-achieving attacking effort, but it was Tranmere who then made the game’s most memorable surge. First, they worked decent space on the left before their ex-United loan midfielder John Welsh clipped the ball into the box.

Curran, onside, lunged and got there ahead of Adam Collin, the ball bashed the underside of the bar - and was then casually stroked wide by Thomas-Moore as he approached the gaping goal from the right.

Time briefly halted as Prenton Park contemplated Thomas-Moore’s perplexing inaccuracy. Eventually, the game resumed and the hosts continued to raid down the flanks, through the fleet-footed full-back pair of Shaleum Logan and Bakayogo.

United’s own attempts to profit from their remarkable reprieve were misguided until the closing five minutes. Then they almost snaffled the points.

First, Pericard’s strength set up a crossing chance for Horwood, whose measured delivery was nodded a fraction wide by the rising Dobie. Two minutes later, a counter-attack down the left led to another Horwood cross which cleared the jostling Pericard and Goodison and dropped for Anyinsah (on for Hurst), who smashed the ball into a white shirt and then swiped at thin air when it spun back towards him.

At that point, it was clear enough that Carlisle’s decade was going to close without a goal, but Abbott can still take some satisfaction from the added steel his team have found in 2009’s final movements.

There are worse things to take to Goodison Park in the Cup than a six-hour stretch without conceding - and shabbier stats with which to spin into the second half of a league campaign, too. The Blues’ defensive stubbornness, on the days when they are not at their most brisk and adventurous, means that bold talk of a play-off push cannot yet be dismissed as the result of too much festive grog.

Time was this season when a goalless draw against Tranmere would have been written off as two points down the chute. Those days are dead thanks to Les Parry and his magic sponge. Unquestionably, 2010 will pose Carlisle United any number of examinations. It’s reasonable to say that they passed this year’s final, awkward test.

ADAM COLLIN - Early communication issues aside, the goalkeeper looked confident and assured throughout.

RICHARD KEOGH - Did the defensive basics well and put heaps of effort into everything he did.

EVAN HORWOOD - Almost helped United break deadlock with a couple of excellent crosses, and worked hard at the back.

DANNY LIVESEY - His usual afternoon of no-frills defending kept Tranmere’s frontmen at arm’s length for most of the game.

IAN HARTE - The occasional lapse, but the ex-Leeds man was generally a sturdy presence alongside Livesey.

PETER MURPHY - Did some good, tidy work in front of the back four before being sacrificed for Abbott’s tactical switch.

ADAM CLAYTON - Industrious effort from the Man City loanee, who gave hosts a scare with first-half volley.

GRAHAM KAVANAGH - Unremarkable afternoon. His efforts had mixed results and who chatted his way to a yellow card.

MATTY ROBSON - A few sporadic surges down the left but the winger has had many more influential days than this.

KEVAN HURST - Competitive but unspectacular display from the right-winger, who eventually made way for Anyinsah.

VINCENT PERICARD - Slugged it out with Goodison for 90 minutes but rarely looked like turning the game for United.

Subs: Scott Dobie (for Murphy 61) - Header nearly won it; Joe Anyinsah (for Hurst 76) Close with late chancesNot used: Lenny Pidgeley, Tony Kane, Marc Bridge-Wilkinson, Tom Taiwo, Tom Aldred.

Booked: Kavanagh, Horwood, Pericard, Clayton

Tranmere: Daniels, Logan, Bakayogo, Goodison, Taylor, McLaren, Welsh, Edds, Gornell (Shuker 76), Thomas-Moore, Curran. Not used: Cresswell, Broomes, Collister, Ricketts, Barnett, Fraughan.

Booked: McLaren

Ref: Phil Gibbs (West Midlands)

Crowd: 6,313

First published at 11:21, Tuesday, 29 December 2009
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk