Sportblog | The Guardian — Tranmere RSS

Jan 25, 2020

Solskjær hopes FA Cup win at Tranmere can finally kick-start United’s season | Paul Wilson

Defiant manager looks for spirited performance that will set his team on the road to a grace-saving appearance in the finalThe good news for Manchester United supporters seeking a little uplift at the end of a depressing week is that Ole Gunnar Solskjær is looking forward to playing on the notorious Tranmere Rovers pitch. “A game on the Prenton Park surface sums up the romance of the FA Cup for me,” the United manager said. “We should be able to go to a League One side and outplay them but, if the state of the pitch makes that impossible, then we’re up for a scrap. We want to go as far as we can in this competition, I’d love to...

Jan 11, 2020

Tranmere and Rochdale’s TV snub suggests FA Cup replays have had their day | Paul Wilson

League One pair have cause for excitement this week but the rewards may be slim – so why not ditch replays until the semis?The FA Cup, once the competition that brought all of English football together, has become incredibly divisive. As the third‑round replays get under way this coming week, it will be hard not to notice that Wolves did not actually want an extra game at Old Trafford. It will be their 38th of an already long season, it will still be only mid-January, and Nuno Espírito Santo would have been perfectly happy for the matter to have been settled on penalties at Molineux.Traditionalists keen to hang on to the magic of the Cup will have been more encouraged...