Cod Almighty | Diary

The best and the worst of Tranmere

27 November 2018

For Town fans of Middle Aged Diary's age, Tranmere invariably evoke contrasting memories.

One of my favourite ever Town games was in 1994 at Prenton Park. The Town team that day was strong in players we treasure. I guess Paul Futcher played, for the Tranmere programme gushed about him. Mendonca was certainly playing. I can't remember if he set up Childs or it was the other way around for a quite splendiferous equalising goal. Groves would surely have been playing – he never got injured and woe betide any manager stupid enough to leave him out – and Gilbert and Rees.

It was, in short, a team full of talent, but what stood out that day was its obdurate grit. We'd been on a bad run and the pitch really did not suit a passing game. But for long enough we outplayed Tranmere and then in the second half, with a lead to defend, we defended it, surviving a sending-off and a late John Aldridge dive for the win.

My next visit, on 8 May 2004, was my least favourite ever Town game. If we hadn't been beginning to suffer the at the hands of John Fenty's catastrophic decision-making, the story of that day would have been entirely different. A squad pulled into an effective unit under the caretakership of the ever-admirable Graham Rodger would have beaten an uninterested Tranmere to secure our place in the third flight. If there was a god who was a Town fan, she would have made sure Darren Mansaram got the winning goal, rescuing both a club and a career.

Never mind the talent of the 1994 team: if that 2004 team had possessed a fraction of its determination then all would have been well. Instead, Fenty entrusted a relegation scrap to Nicky Law. Law assembled a team of has-been and never-were cast-offs, a team who in the event proved not that much more interested than the mid-table Tranmere side we needed to beat to survive. The club had been on the slide for a couple of years, but that defeat, even more than losing our League status at Burton, was the start of a long period of oblivion.

The 2018 team does not yet and may never have the talent we had our disposal in the 1990s. But a team that in successive games can score a late winner despite playing poorly, then twice come from behind to rescue a draw against a team in form? That is a team with a different kind of quality. The ghosts of Grimsby greats would be nodding in quiet approval. And so are we.

Enjoy the game tonight.