Thanks to Andrew Jaworski, from the London Branch, for our latest Fan Match Report.

To find out what the London Branch could mean to you, click HERE.

With the turkey and mince pies now a memory it was off to Prenton Park with Steve and the old man, on a pleasantly mild Boxing Day.

First stop was The Travellers Rest where we'd arranged to collect our tickets. It made Dad's day that his 'senior' ticket was half-price, and that they had Jennings on tap. Having sought the advice of a few locals we decided we'd take the "fifteen minute" walk to the ground and leave the car by the pub. However, as always seems to be the case, it'd be half an hour later when the floodlights came into view and the songs of the Blue Army could be heard drifting down the road.

After exchanging seasonal greetings with some familiar faces we took our seats in the Cowshed, amongst another large Carlisle turnout.

As the teams lined up at the kick-off we were surprised to see Danny Graham starting as we were convinced the tannoy had announced Danny Carlton was to partner Joe Garner upfront. The game started scrappily with both sides enjoying some possession in the middle third, but neither side settling into much of a rhythm.

Tranmere slowly started to work the ball into more dangerous positions, and after quarter of an hour when we failed to deal with a short corner (again), McLaren's shot was deflected / diverted into the net by David Raven. From my position it looked like Keiren Westwood would have made a comfortable save. Unfortunately this early set back didn't seem to inspire the team to up their game, and despite much effort it was Tranmere who were creating all the chances with Greenacre hitting a post, and Westwood producing two good saves from free kicks.

As I started to count down the minutes to half-time and the thoughts of the players receiving the hair-dryer routine from the management, Tranmere scored a second. Their centre-back picked up the ball on the edge of the box after a cleared corner and was allowed the time and space to flick the ball onto his preferred foot and smash the ball into the net.

It was as poor a half of football I'd seen from Carlisle in a long time. I can only remember us having one effort on goal, when Garner had a header saved. We just didn't use the ball well and caused Tranmere few problems at the back. Our need for a right sided midfielder is clear to all, and after eighteen months of waiting for a permanent solution to this problem we surely must get something sorted in January if we are to be serious contenders. From the first half showing it was clear that Marc Bridge-Wilkinson is not the answer, and that he is far more effective down the middle.

Thankfully the second half started brightly and Carlisle created several early chances. The best of these, a header from Danny Livesey which was cleared off the line with their keeper well beaten. The Blue Army roared the team on but it wasn't until the end of the game that we had another period of sustained pressure. Whilst we could have scored a couple of goals in injury time through Kevin Gall and Joe Garner, it never felt like this was a game where we would threaten or deserve to take any points.

Tranmere must be hoping to have ended their poor run of form, and we must bounce back from the disappointment of our unbeaten league run ending. Spirits were very low as the three of us left the ground with the prospect of another half hour walk back to the car. Who's idea was this again? At least the coffee bar at the ground was open at full-time so we had something to lubricate the shredded vocal chords.

As we walked back our depressed states of mind started to lift as other results came in, and it turned out that we'd only lost ground to Swansea with all of our other contenders either drawing or losing.

Boxing Day 2007 will be one of those games best consigned to the deepest parts of the memory, only to be revisited at a much later date. We all know that three points on Saturday will go a long way to ensuring that happens.

Happy New Year,

Andrew Jaworski