City 4 Tranmere 0
Post Match Analysis by Kate Thompson
On paper, this should have been an easy game, but we all know that football isn’t played on paper! And those of us who have watched City for decades can list some real howlers in the past. For most of the first half it was a case of wave after wave of City attacks, strongly repelled by a determined Tranmere defence. Then, out of the blue, Ayew decided to try another tack and scored a screamer from outside the box. He may not score many goals but if they are all like this one, he will soon become a firm favourite.
When City won a penalty, which Mavididi scored, it was essentially game over and City had the rest of the second half to stamp their authority. There was some suggestion that Pereira was looking for the penalty, but he was definitely tripped in the box – and, of course, there was no VAR to overturn the decision.
Goals three and four were beauties in their different ways. Ndidi danced into the box and evaded a somewhat timorous challenge – Premier League defending it was not – to score easily. And Winks added the cherry to the top of the cake with another screamer from outside the box, rather similar to the one he scored against Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road last season, although from a different position.
Ward had nothing to do all evening, so it is difficult to assess his performance. Of the other newcomers, I really liked Skipp and look forward to seeing a fruitful partnership with Winks. I was pleased to see that Luke Thomas had a solid game, although in all truth he had little defending to do. Okoli also looked solid, but the same caveat applies to him. Of the two wingers, McAteer looked the livelier and it was nice to hear later that he has been selected for the Irish squad. Mavididi didn’t do much wrong but then neither did he get the fans out of their seats very often.
City (and Tranmere) used all five substitutes, and it was a surprise to see Coady come on – his injury has obviously cleared up sooner than expected, and he impressed with his composure and ability to make forward passes. It was nice to see two academy graduates, in Alves and Popov, make an appearance. So a solid performance and we meet Walsall in the next round. It seems strange that we seem to meet the same teams in the cup competitions, as we played Tranmere and Walsall; in the two cups last season. No doubt we will meet Millwall again in the FA Cup!
City: Ward; Ricardo, Faes (Coady 72), Okoli, Thomas; Winks, Skipp (Choudhury, 63); McAteer (Fatawu 83), Ndidi (Alves 72), Mavididi; Ayew (Popov. 73). Subs (not used): Iversen, Justin, Nelson, De Cordova-Reid.
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation