As Chelsea celebrate their league title, it might be time to spare a thought for a team at the other end of the spectrum, Tranmere Rovers, who have been relegated to the Conference after 94-years in the Football League.
Cheltenham also return to the Conference after a relatively brief 16-year stay in the League, while perennial strugglers Hartlepool somehow managed to escape the drop despite being 10 points adrift at the bottom in January.
It is always a trifle sad when an established team like Tranmere drop out of the league after all these years. It is true that they have never hit the high spots and like many small clubs have spent most of their time half-forgotten in the lower two divisions.
But when the results are read out on a Saturday evening you always knew Tranmere would pop up somewhere. This will not be the case next season.
Many football fans are still unsure exactly where Tranmere is located. A suburb of Birkenhead in the Wirral Peninuslar, their supporters have always been proud of their roots, and do not appreciate being linked to the big teams across the River Mersey in the form of Liverpool and Everton.
One of their traditional supporters’ songs, to the tune of The Wild Rover goes:
Don’t be mistaken, and don’t be misled,
We’re not Scousers, we’re from Birkenhead,
You can shove your cathedrals and shove your pierhead,
We all follow Tranmere and that’s in Birkenhead
The club has been through thick and thin, mostly thin, with their worst period being the 1980s. With gates falling to under 2,000, their financial problems became desperate and in 1987 the club entered administration, but were bailed out by local businessman Peter Johnson. That same year they just escaped relegation to the Conference with a last-gasp win over Exeter City.
Tranmere always had problems attracting big crowds, competing with Liverpool and Everton just across the river. In an effort to get around this they introduced playing Friday nights, but this produced no significant improvement in attendances.
The only time they have claimed a league championship came back in 1936 when they won the Third Division North title. Unfortunately they were relegated the following season, winning only six matches.
The club’s finest moments occurred in the 1990s when for three seasons running in the Championship, under manager John King, they made the play-offs for the Premier League, only to be thwarted by Swindon (’93), Leicester (’94) and Reading (’95).
In addition to being a successful manager, King was always good for quotes, even if they didn’t entirely make sense. Upon his appointment he announced “I can’t promise anyone success, but I can promise a trip to the moon.”
On another occasion he remarked: “Tranmere can never compete with Liverpool and Everton. They’re like big liners like the Queen Mary, but I see Tranmere as a deadly submarine.”
Tranmere’s success in the 1990s is closely linked to former Liverpool star John Aldridge, who they signed from Real Sociedad in 1991.
Aldridge went on to score 170 goals for the club. His tally for the first six seasons read: 40, 26, 28, 26, 29, 20.
When Aldridge took over as player/manager in 1996 he received a warning of what to expect with a message from Kevin Keegan which read “Welcome to the Grey Hair Club.”
Aldridge took to the task with enthusiasm, taking his team to Wembley for the 2000 League Cup final, where they lost to Leicester 2-1. The same year they reached the sixth round of the FA Cup and repeated this feat in the following season.
Since those days it has all been rather downhill. Former England international John Barnes briefly managed the club in 2009 but after a miserable run of results was kicked out after just five months.
Tranmere still play at Prenton Park, their home ground since 1912. One section of the stadium, which was little more than a tin shack, used to be less-than-affectionately known as “The Cowshed”.
The stadium was to witness some top strikers playing for Tranmere in the early days, among them the legendary Dixie Dean who in 1924 scored 27 goals in 30 games for Rovers before he was snapped up by Everton.
Another prolific scorer was Robert “Bunny” Ball who featured in an extraordinary festive season fixture in the days when matches were played both on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
On Christmas Day 1935, Oldham Athletic cruised to a 4-1 victory over Tranmere. It seems the Oldham players might have over celebrated that evening, because on Boxing Day they looked decidedly wobbly and Tranmere thrashed them 13-4, with Ball scoring nine goals. This match still holds the record of most goals (17) scored in a game.
Tranmere also hold the record for a player who made the most consecutive appearances in the English league. Centre-half Harold Bell played in the first match of the 1946-7 season after the war, and turned out for every game until he was dropped in August 1955, a total of 401 consecutive league matches. All these games were in the Third Division North.
In addition, during this period he played in 26 FA Cup matches, 22 Liverpool Senior Cup and 10 Cheshire Bowl games, making 459 consecutive appearances in all. These days some professional footballers can’t last five games in a row.
Tranmere fans will be hoping their visit to the Conference will be a brief one. But it is not that easy to immediately bounce back as former league teams Halifax, Wrexham, Chester and Lincoln City will attest to.