TRANMERE ROVERS 1, Wanderers 1. COLIN Todd disappeared down the players' tunnel looking like a man who'd found a quid and lost a fiver! There was still the best part of a minute to go but the Wanderers boss had seen enough.

Just when he thought it was safe to rely on his recently-strengthened side to hold a lead, they dropped their guard and up popped Kenny Irons in the fourth minute of overtime to spoil his 50th birthday party.

When he emerged it was a toss up who he held more responsible for making this yet another bad day at Prenton Park - referee David Laws or his own players.

The last gasp stunner, which sparked memories of the Lee Jones goal that robbed Wanderers of their century of points seconds from the end of the 1997 runaway Championship campaign, should have been purely academic.

Considering they had three cast-iron second half chances to add to Super Bob Taylor's 12th minute goal, they know they only have themselves to blame for not having the points in the bag. The manager acknowledged that from the start.

But it was impossible to ignore the role of the Whitley Bay official, who incensed Wanderers and surprised even the Rovers players in the 65th minute when he failed to play a simple advantage that could have put the result beyond doubt.

Arnar Gunnlaugsson did well to ride Clint Hill's fierce two-footed tackle before advancing and drilling the ball past Danny Coyne . . . only to be pulled back and awarded a free kick two yards outside the penalty area! Then Mr Laws compounded his astonishing error. Having booked Hill two minutes earlier for a cynical foul on the Iceland striker, he kept his cards in his pocket and amazingly allowed the defender to stay on the field.

He'd penalised Tranmere but Wanderers lost out - twice!

It was significant that, just a minute later, as Gunnlaugsson was being booked for kicking the ball away in frustration (and who can blame him?), John Aldridge hauled Hill out of the action. "I'm not blaming the referee for us drawing the game," Todd said, instantly establishing his defence against the charge of 'sour grapes'," but he was an absolute disgrace. I didn't see any consistency from him and I don't think he knows what advantage is."

Ironically, twice in the game Mr Laws showed good use of the advantage rule - waving play-on then waiting for natural breaks in the action to book Jason Koumas and Michael Johansen. That's what made his handling of the Gunnlaugsson-Hill incident so infuriating.

Jon Newsome, whose centre-back partnership with fellow loan recruit Paul Warhurst looked like helping Wanderers to their fourth clean sheet in five games, was careful not to be seen criticising the referee nor advocating that a fellow professional be sent off. But he summed up his team-mates' anger at the injustice: "The ref should have played the advantage but I think he thought it was such a bad tackle he wanted to stamp down on it right away.

"Then when he realised it was the kid that he'd booked, not five minutes before, for some reason he changed his mind. But his body language, when he blew up for the free-kick, said it all. David Kelly turned to me and said 'He's off!'. Everybody on the pitch and everybody in the stands thought the kid was going to get sent off.

"The kid realises he was very, very lucky to stay on."

Gunnlaugsson, who by his own admission had a second successive poor game, was furious that he'd been denied his 15th goal of the season. "He blew the whistle too soon," he argued. "He should have waited to see that I was one against one with the keeper.

"When I had played badly it would have been nice to have got the goal."

What is it about Bolton-Tranmere games? There is no basis in history or geography for their rivalry but since Rovers beat Wanderers in the 1991 Play-Off Final there's been an edge to their confrontations that fires the passion and creates controversy on a par with any traditional local derby. Four weeks ago Wanderers' normally mild-mannered chairman Gordon Hargreaves stormed into the referee's room at the Reebok to let rip at St Helens official Chris Foy, who had awarded three penalties and sent off Mark Fish when the teams drew 2-2. Now Todd, whose attacks on referees can be counted on the fingers of one hand, has risked a rap from the authorities with his outburst.

His anger, however, was born more out of frustration with his team's performance.

Wanderers were not at their fluent best at Prenton Park but they did enough to have the game won before Johnny Morrissey's right wing cross somehow managed to reach Irons at the far post.

Taylor had shown terrific determination to escape his marker and win a tussle with Coyne to take full advantage of a gem of a cross from Neil Cox to take his personal score to nine for the season and four in the last five games. And he fought as hard as anyone to keep the lead intact, working the Rovers defenders for all he was worth.

Unfortunately the chances - Taylor had a hand in all three - that could have secured Wanderers their fourth win in five games fell to players who aren't in the same rich vein of scoring form.

Like Gunnlaugsson, who wanted a touch too many before pulling the trigger in the 57th minute when Taylor pounced on Hill's misplaced pass; Johansen, who eventually screwed his shot wide 12 minutes later after Per Frandsen's power in midfield gave Wanderers three against one; and Scott Sellars, who shot wide after Ricardo Gardner had sprinted 50 yards to force George Santos into conceding a free kick.

The clock showed 90 minutes at that point and the 'overtime' board let Wanderers know they had just four more to negotiate.

With the defence having restricted Rovers to just two serious threats - Hill missing the target with a close range header from one of Dave Challinor's monster throws and Jussi Jaaskelainen being alert enough to deny David Kelly on the only occasion he was left exposed - they looked comfortable and more than capable of securing the win that would have taken them up to fourth in the table and just four points behind second-placed Ipswich.

It was only a question of playing out time when, with the last seconds ticking away, Gardner lost possession in the Tranmere half . . .!

"It's a 90-minute game and that was the 95th minute, wasn't it!" Irons said provocatively. Aldridge claimed his players felt they were denied a sure-fire penalty when Santos was bundled over by Newsome but there was no escaping the fact that the Rovers boss, whose side is without a win in nine games, was the happier manager.

"The team hasn't played as well as it can do but we controlled the game and 1-0 should have been enough," Todd said.

"We had opportunities to get the second goal and we restricted them to just one or two half chances.

"There's no point looking at anybody else but ourselves; we have let ourselves down. It's definitely two points lost and it's the manner in which we succumb that bothers me most. It's knowing how to win games of football that counts.

"We certainly deserved to come away with three points."

Looking at the broader picture, which has been much brighter of late, he suggested cause for concern when he acknowledged: "Draws aren't good enough. Wins are what we want and what we should have had."

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