Tranmere assistant manager Neil Danns believes his players got what they deserved after Rovers made it four League wins on the bounce with a thrilling 4-2 victory over Notts County at Prenton Park.
The home side took the lead after just five minutes through Kieron Morris, only to be pegged back 20 minutes later when Aaron Nemane steered the ball home from a Jodi Jones cross.
Four minutes later the Magpies were ahead when the division’s top scorer Macauley Langstaff slid home his 19th league goal of the season, but Tranmere then hit back on the stroke of half-time to make it 2-2 through Connor Jennings.
Rovers were in front once more 10 minutes after the break when Harvey Saunders followed up Rob Apter’s shot which had squeezed under County ‘Keeper Aidan Stone.
Jennings could have extended the lead four minutes later but his penalty was well saved by Stone, but the Tranmere forward made the game safe in stoppage time when he successfully converted another spot-kick.
The only blemish on Tranmere’s day was manager Nigel Adkins being shown a red card for venting his frustration at the referee with 10 minutes left.
Danns said: “I’m so proud of the lads, it was absolutely unbelievable out there today.
“The lads have been fantastic over this Christmas period and we knew this was going to be a tough one and to end this run against one of the best sides in the division was very pleasing.
“We’ve seen over this festive period the best and sometimes the worst of us, but we are a team that’s constantly improving and everyone is working so hard for each other and they got what they deserved out there.
“We’re disappointed to let in the goals we did today, but today was all about celebrating the victory and that sort of performance typified how hard the lads have been working.
“We just want to keep this momentum going that we’ve got now and we’ll enjoy tonight and tomorrow, then it’s back to work and we go again.”
Notts County manager Luke Williams rued his side’s “horrible” start to the match and admits they struggled to contain Tranmere midfielder Apter.
He said: “It wasn’t the start to the game I was hoping for today, let alone the new year, it was very disappointing.
“It was a horrible way to begin, being undone like that so early on, but we battled back and going into the break we looked comfortable but we fell into traits that we’ve seen too often.
“We stopped playing with the same intensity and concentration and the opposition didn’t, they stayed focused and I thought Rob Apter was incredible, he destroyed us and caused us endless problems and we couldn’t cope with that.
“We had a number of opportunities but just lost a grip on the game because we didn’t have the same focus and concentration.
“Then we became a bit emotional and out of control and we’re just not the same threat when we’re like that.
“I think it would have been different if we’d gone in at half-time ahead, but Tranmere were so well organised and so together and they won the battle of wills in the end.”
Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona: Guijarro brace sets visitors up for Clasico glory
Patri Guijarro's first-half brace set Barcelona on their way to a thumping 4-0 win over rivals Real Madrid in Liga F on Saturday.
Claudia Pina and Alexia Putellas were also on target as Barcelona continued their perfect start to the season, extending their lead at the top of the table.
The visitors dominated from the off, as Guijarro broke the deadlock inside the fourth minute, tapping in from Putellas' flick-on from a corner.
Cata Coll was forced into a big save to deny Alba Redondo an equaliser shortly after, but Madrid's hope was soon dented as Guijarro picked out the bottom corner with a superb long-range strike for her second.
Pina strengthened their lead six minutes before the break, clinically slotting past Misa with her low strike.
Putellas added some more gloss to the scoreline with four minutes remaining of normal time, beating the Madrid keeper with a lovely dink to bring up her 199th goal for the club.
Barcelona have won all 10 of their games, and now sit eight points clear of Madrid, who suffered their first league defeat of the campaign.
Data Debrief: Total dominance
Madrid will have felt fairly confident coming into this game after a strong start to their season, but they once again failed to find a way past their Clasico rival.
Los Blancos have lost every single game they have played against Barcelona in all competitions, with this their 15th such meeting.
Barcelona smothered their attack early on, restricting their hosts to just one shot in the first half, while they had 10.
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
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