Paul Rideout gave Rovers the lead on 12 minutes when ex-Latics player Nick Henry laid the ball to him just inside the box. His shot hit the bottom corner and that’s how it stood up to half time. Athletic increased the tempo in the second half and Eyres was unlucky two minutes into the half when Achterberg made a superb save from his effort. Achterberg then denied Murray after another good attempt. Athletic’s new Argentinian star, Cristian Colusso (pictured) , made his full debut and he put the Latics level on 57 minutes with a powerful strike from the edge of the box which rifled into the corner. Mick Wadsworth commented, “Cristian is a talented little player and this was not the ideal night to make his debut because it was a game for battling rather than for artists. But he showed what he can do with a beautiful bit of skill and his goal was one to enjoy. We wanted to win the game obviously but considering we went behind and Tranmere packed the defence, a point is decent enough.
The conditions played a big part and I thought that both teams did remarkably well considering how difficult it was.”