Latics complete double over Ronnie Moore's Rovers

Last updated : 08 March 2008 By Dave Moore

Athletic completed the double over fierce rivals Tranmere Rovers with a convincing 3-1 result. The result was doubly satisfying as it rubbed salt into the wounds of ex-manager Ronnie Moore who never really hit it off with the Latics faithful.

Athletic went ahead in the 41st minute after Ian Goodison brought down Lewis Alessandra and Neal Eardley calmly strode up to place his penalty to the left of the keeper who dived the other way. Chris Taylor doubled the score on the stroke of half-time. Michael Jones pulled one back in the 70th. minute to give Tranmere a slight ray of sunshine but Alessandra (pictured) dimmed the ray soon after by slotting in a simple chance from six yards after being set up by on-loan Leeds striker Leon Constantine, who played much better in his first full outing for the Latics.

Manager John Sheridan was impressed by the contribution of his young guns who are now coming on in leaps and bounds. He told Latics World, "That was a much-improved performance against a strong side who are doing very well in this division. It's very pleasing to score three goals against a team who don't concede many. I got a response from the players today after Tuesday night against Hartlepool, and we showed we're a decent side. I said before the game that I think we're in a decent position considering the younger players have had to come in due to injuries, and I'm not being disrespectful to them in any way."

"There's not many teams in the division whose kids would be doing as well as ours are at the moment. The more experienced ones have done well too, we stick together and we're a good bunch of lads. I was very frustrated at the Hartlepool result because I knew we could do better, but I got a response today. We got in and around Tranmere and the crucial thing was one or two players upped their game, and that showed today."

"I know Bournemouth will be a tough one because we seem to struggle against sides in the bottom half of the table. Not meaning any disrespect to Bournemouth, but I might have to put something in the programme saying we're playing Forest or Carlisle or someone like that! There's just a little opportunity there, because you see the results popping up in this division week in, week out. We'll try to get as many points as possible from our remaining games and see what happens."