Swansea’s Bafétimbi Gomis scores twice in FA Cup rout at Tranmere
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Version 0 of 1. To add insult to six-goal injury, Tranmere slipped into the relegation zone as a result of inactivity on third-round day. This could be the season when league football disappears from Birkenhead but otherwise the magic of the Cup was conspicuous by its absence at Prenton Park. It was clear from the start that even a barely recognisable Swansea side had too much quality for their hosts. Garry Monk – “I love the FA Cup, it’s what I was brought up watching” – made nine changes from the lineup that earned a draw at Queens Park Rangers on Boxing Day. It was Nathan Dyer, one of the few regulars on show, who gave the Premier League side the lead after half an hour, but Tranmere had been struggling to contain Swansea’s precise passing game and penetration down the flanks for some time before that. Tranmere probably knew their luck could not last after Bafétimbi Gomis and Marvin Emnes missed early chances, and nor did it. Though Marcus Holness managed to block Dyer’s first shot after the winger had taken Tom Carroll’s pass and neatly made space for himself, the ball rolled straight back to the Swansea captain and he found the target at the second attempt. Tranmere enjoyed their best period of pressure between the goal and the interval, Max Power bringing a save from Gerhard Tremmel with a firm shot but within four minutes of the restart Swansea scored again. When Steve Jennings made a mistake to concede possession on the left Gomis and Mo Barrow took full advantage, sending Carroll sprinting into the area where he rode a heavy challenge but stayed on his feet to pop the ball past Owain Fon Williams. When Barrow scored his first Swansea goal with a close-range tap-in on the hour, after Gomis had set him up with an unmissable opportunity, it was clear the tie was over. Tranmere gained a consolation when Power got his reward for stalking Tremmel, though he did not know much about it. His back was turned after making a token challenge to charge down a clearance but the goalkeeper still managed to hit him anyway, for the ball to loop back over his head and into the net. It was not quite the signal for a fightback, as Marvin Emnes and Dyer took the ball back downfield for Gomis to score the goal he had been threatening all afternoon. Cole Stockton cheered up the home crowd by beating Tremmel with a well directed close-range header but the last word went to Swansea. Wayne Routledge came on and scored a fifth before Gomis, all but unstoppable at this level, added a sixth in stoppage time. It was a harsh lesson for Tranmere in how much has changed in just over a decade, since they knocked Swansea out of the FA Cup, but Monk defended his decision to put out a second-string side. “I used my whole squad today,” he said. “We don’t have the biggest squad but the players we do have I trust. I thought we controlled the game very well.” Micky Adams accepted the truth of that. “Our focus is Morecambe now,” the Tranmere manager said. “I was a bit disappointed with the final score but when you are out of the Cup you are out, it doesn’t matter if it is 1-0 or 6-2. We were basically hoping Swansea weren’t going to turn up, but that didn’t happen. Their attitude was spot on, at times we couldn’t live with them, but we weren’t disgraced.” |