Tranmere reached the Masters Trophy Grand Final for the second year in a row but lost on penalties against Birmingham City.
Rovers, captained by Stuart Barlow, defeated Aston Villa and Manchester City on the way to the final at the LG Arena in Birmingham. Also in the side were the impressive midfield pair of Paul Cook and Kenny Irons, Ged Brannan, Georges Santos, Shaun Garnett, Eddie Bishop and John Achterberg.
Barlow opened the scoring midway through the first half of the Quarter Final against Villa with a low shot from inside the area, before Brannan headed in Irons' cross on the stroke of half time.
A foul by Irons on Tommy Johnson gave Villa the chance to bring themselves back into the game from the penalty spot and the striker sent Achterberg the wrong way to make the score 2-1. Villa pressured Rovers late on but they were unable to find a way past Achterberg as Tranmere progressed to the Semi-Finals.
Santos put Rovers 1-0 up four minutes into the first half of their semi-final with a powerfully struck long range effort and less than a minute later it was almost 2-0 when Bishop's lob crashed off the City bar. However, Bishop got in front of a City defender with two minutes left of the half to stroke home the second goal from a Cook cross.
Ian Brightwell pulled a goal back for City before half time but Rover restored their two goal lead before the whistle blew when Irons poked past the keeper from close range.
Barlow made it 4-1 a minute into the second half with a close range finish after good work from Cook while the combination of a double save from Achterberg and a block from Irons prevented City from scoring a second. Barlow got his second of the game with three minutes left and completed his hat-trick with ten seconds left to secure a 6-1 win and a place in the final for the second year in a row.
Birmingham City - awarded a bye straight to the final stages of the competition - were Rovers' opponents in the final, straight after their penalty shoot-out victory over Barnsley in the semis. Tranmere quickly took camp in Birmingham's half, with Irons and Brannan stroking the ball around before Brannan fired his side ahead from outside the area. Less than a minute later the lead was doubled when Santos and Brannan simultaneously cleared from inside the Rovers area and the ball bounced over Kevin Dearden and into the Birmingham net. It looked as though Brannan had the decisive touch though the goal was credited to Santos.
However, Birmingham pulled a goal back with an angled drive with four minutes of the half left, though the lead was almost back to two seconds later when Martin O'Connor had to clear from his goal line with an overhead kick.
The advantage was back up to two with less than two minutes of the first half, with Bishop being picked out by Brannan before coolly side footing past Dearden, but Birmingham reduced the deficit again when Paul Devlin beat Achterberg from close range and it was all square with just over two minutes left when Geoff Horsfield wrong footed the Rovers keeper.
Despite Rovers pressuring late in the game they were unable to beat Dearden for a fourth time and the game went to penalties with Dearden proving the home hero with saves from Eddie Bishop and Ged Brannan to give his side the victory.
Kenny Irons 1-0
Tommy Mooney 1-1
Eddie Bishop 1-1 SAVED
Geoff Horsfield 1-2
Paul Cook 2-2
Graham Hyde 2-3
Ged Brannan 2-3 SAVED
Jerry Gill 2-4
