Tranmere vs Colchester United | England League Two – Oct. 8, 2021

Because of international fixtures, there are no Premier League or Championship matches. Even many League One fixtures are postponed because of international call-ups. So, this weekend is usually for true English lower league lovers.

 

The weekend’s first match is playing in Wirral at Prenton Park, between Tranmere Rovers and Colchester United. In the text below, we are going to analyze that match.

Tranmere

Last season they finished in 7th place and went into playoffs for promotion in League One. But, only days before the playoffs started, they sacked manager Keith Hill, who was only appointed in October, to put inexperienced Ian Daws on the bench. Of course, they lost in the semifinals of the playoffs against Morecambe with 3-2 on aggregate.

This summer, they changed manager once again. Daws is gone, more precisely, he was put back in the assistant manager role, and Micky Mellon was named a new/old manager. Mellon was manager from 2016 to 2020, and with him, Tranmere achieved b2b promotions from the fifth to the third tier in two seasons. He left the club after the coronavirus pandemic.

Tranmer lost a large number of key players during the summer. The last season’s top scorer James Vaughan is retired, the 2nd and the 3rd top scorers Kaiyne Woolery and Paul Lewis also left. They were one of the busiest clubs in England during the summer, with 18 new signings.

Ten games into a season, they are 9th in the table with 15 points, which isn’t bad results at all. They are only 3 points below 3rd Port Vale. But, the thing for which is Tranmere characteristic club this season are – goals. They are not strikeforce, the opposite – Tranmere’s games saw the lowest number of goals in the whole English football! Ten games – 10 goals, only goal per game. The top goalscorer in the team is center-back Peter Clark with two goals. The attack is the worst in League Two with six goals, but the defense is the best with only four goals conceded. Simply amazing.

Colchester United

Two seasons ago, Colchester finished the season (that season hit by coronavirus) in 6th place and participated in the playoffs, where they lost to Exeter after extra time in the semis. Because of the pandemic and no fans at the stadium, the money problem started to grow, so they sacked the manager, sold some key players, and in the last season, they were in a relegation battle till the end. They manage to finish in 20th place and stay in the league.

 

During the summer transfer window, key players were sold: Harry Pell, Jevani Brown, Kwame Poku, Callum Harriott (the top scorer and top assistant in the last season). The difference from last summer is that they brought some exciting players, and maybe they will not be in a relegation battle like last season. Interesting fact: Colchester brought six ex-Ipswich Town players; five from that number comes directly from Traktor Boys. Ipswich and Colchester are two close towns, so that is normal. 

 

After nine games (one less than other teams), U’s is 18th with 10 points, but they didn’t win in the last three games and didn’t score a single goal.

 

What do Tranmere Rovers and Colchester United both have in common? In Colchester matches, like in the Tranmere’s, there are no goals. Only 16 goals in 9 Colchester games – 1.8 per game. The second-lowest number in the league.

 

Team News

Colchester will be without center back and skipper Tommy Smith who is with the New Zealand national team, and midfielder Armando Dobra who is with the Albanian U21 squad. Both are starters, especially Smith. Colchester can’t postpone the match with Tranmere because of International calls. EFL says that every club must have a minimum of 3 players away on international duty; to do that and Colchester has only two.

H2H Comparison and Trends

In the last 6 years, they play each other 4 times: Tranmere has one win and three games finished with a draw. All three were finished with under 2.5 goals.

Free Betting Pick

This is the game between two teams that showed some boring football this season. We are going on a home win here, and playing Tranmere -0.5AH priced 2.13, all at 22bet betting site.

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