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| First County Visit: | Friday 31st August 1979 |
| Competition: | Football League Division 4 – (Tier 4) |
| Result: | Tranmere Rovers 0 – 1 Stockport County |
| Attendance: | 2,771 |
| Away Trip: | 15 |
| Away Day: | 17 |
| County Line-up | 1 David Lawson; 2 Steve Sherlock; 3 John Rutter; 4 Paul Edwards; 5 Mike Czuczman; 6 Les Chapman; 7 Oshor Williams; 8 Andy Thorpe; 9 Phil Henson; 10 Eddie Prudham; 11 Stuart Lee |
| Scorer: | Andy Thorpe |
| Manager: | Mike Summerbee |
| County Visits: | 18 |
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A FEELING OF NOTHINGNESS..
I can’t say that I’ve ever really warmed to Prenton Park. After all I’ve given it plenty of chances with 18 visits.
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It’s changed out of all recognition over the years, with far better facilities now than of yore. Never had much of a problem with access, (no more than an hour door to door); parking’s fine; a decent view. What’s there not to like? Not much I suspect but it’s one of those places that provokes little reaction from me. Not bad, not good, just a nothingness really.
And yet Rovers are much like County – smallish Clubs in the shadow of two Premier League monoliths. Both of us have experienced the highs of Tier 2 football; Wembley appearances and in more recent years spectacular falls from grace, which sees both Clubs now plying their trade outside of the Football League … and we’re both from Cheshire.
Living in the shadow of big Clubs both County and Tranmere bought into the concept of Friday night football. We should be soul mates in football terms. Yes, undoubtedly rivalry on the pitch, which has been known to spill onto the terraces with battle re-joined in the surrounding streets. But as much as I try and draw a commonality of interest, I just can’t find one.
There were a fair few fellow County travellers who summoned up the energy to describe this as a rivalry. The epithet “Plastic Scousers” always got an airing and there was a complete antipathy towards Granada TV presenter, Elton Welsby.
Renowned as a Tranmere fan, Hatters supporters always took umbrage at his football coverage on local TV, where a story about the grass growing at Prenton Park seemingly always took precedence over rare triumphs at Edgeley Park.
But I never really bought into any of this. To me Tranmere was just another game, made that bit better by the proximity of a shortish trip down the M56, turn right and point the car to Birkenhead.
Describing that feeling of nothingness I turned to the record books to try and uncover why. Prenton Park was far from a happy hunting ground. Eighteen trips and only three wins! And to that can be added a meagre 5 points when the spoils were shared. Travelling to games can give rise to a number of emotions, largely based around hope and expectation. Forty odd years of following County has, for the greater part of the time, been a labour based on hope. Expectation has been in short supply. My mate Jeff invariably asks, as we are setting out for far flung places, “What about today?” The reply is generally “We travel more in hope than expectation”.
Maybe the dismal record at Tranmere did give rise to more (gloomy) expectation, or maybe an acceptance that the journey was more than likely a fruitless escapade. After all, based on three points from a win, a return of fourteen points from the fifty four on offer was hardly likely to stir the soul to the potential of a victory.
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Prenton Park – as it was in 1978. Much changed since then
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Yet strangely, that first trip was a win. A Friday night encounter, late in the summer, with thoughts transferring from a cricket season in its dying embers to the newly nascent football programme ahead. Two evenings previously Crystal Palace had visited Edgeley for a League Cup tie. Turning out for his debut for County was a player still fondly remembered to this day.
Oshor Williams had been at Southampton, but failed to break through there, and had made the move North. That night he showed us just why he was to become a legend. Playing on the right wing he came up against Kenny Sansom, by then an England player. For somebody who was to become his country’s second most capped full back this was clearly a challenge. It turned out to be a challenge that Sansom would never forget. Williams gave him a chasing the likes of which he had probably never had before, nor would experience afterwards. In County fan’s eyes a true star was born that night as the Division 1 club, (which just a month later was to top the table), being held to a 1-1 draw.
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Oshor, (left), went on to make well over 200 appearances, (and was on target 31 times), before a move to Port Vale, which was more than likely forced on the Club by one of the regular bouts of financial impecunity in the mid 80’s,
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The trip to Prenton Park gave us another chance to see the new star. The League season was but three games old, and County had mustered the grand total of a single point against Rochdale – a game sandwiched between defeats at the hands of Walsall and Wigan. A first victory was needed, and it came courtesy of a rare object in my years following the Hatters.
Andy Thorpe, (below), holds the Club appearance record. In a career lasting from 1977 to 1992 Thorpe made 548 starts for the Hatters, playing full back or centre of the defence. To use a well worn cliché he was a “true club servant”. Almost fittingly, having played for the Club of his hometown, (apart from a brief sojourn at Tranmere), and for most of those years being a stalwart in a team struggling in the nether regions of Division 4 his very last appearance was coming on as a substitute in the Hatters very first Wembley appearance against Stoke in the Autoglass Trophy final – a worthy end to the career of another County legend.
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The rare object that evening on the first trip to Prenton Park was an Andy Thorpe goal – one of only five he notched in all of those games.
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And a cracker it was. Moving onto a loose ball some 35 yards from goal he rifled it into the roof of the net leaving Tranmere keeper Johnson flailing in despair. The goal settled the game giving heart for the second leg of the League Cup game a few days later. A delusion sadly, a veil needs to be drawn over the return match. County struggled to score nil, whilst Palace rattled in seven!!
I watched that game at Prenton Park from the Main Stand. To this day that remains virtually unchanged. The same can’t be said of the rest of the stadium. The traditional covered standing areas along one side, and behind one of the goals are gone, as is the decent sized open terracing behind the other goal. In terms of spectator facilities undoubtedly an improvement but at a loss of the kind of atmosphere redolent of old stadia.
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The Kop End – it was into this goal that Andy Thorpe rifled home a 35 yarder!
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The Main Stand viewed from the Kop, with the Cowshed in the distance
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The Cowshed
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Borough Road Stand – covered standing
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Our paths haven’t crossed for a number of years now. Six years plus have passed since the then named Johnstones Paint Trophy brought us together, back in October 2010. A grim no score draw saw things settled by a penalty shoot out. Introduced in the early 1980’s in the League Cup, initially, County have faced the “sudden death” challenge on six occasions. The record is abysmal with but one triumph, (mentioned in Away Day 5 featuring Gresty Road). I’ve witnessed them all.
Five defeats certainly, some being pretty close, but the worst was undoubtedly against Crewe in an Autoglass Group game in 1984, when it took the Alex only three efforts to settle matters, as the County “marksmen”, (sic), got no nearer the target then the top of the Scoreboard End at EP. At Prenton Park that evening it went 4-3 in favour of the home side. I’d gone to the game with Rob that evening. We left, little knowing that the this was the season that would end our stint in the League and that a whole new collection of grounds lay on the horizon. And without question many of those grounds offered far more than Prenton Park ever did
November 2016
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VISITS
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| Day | Date | Competition | Tier / Round | Opponents | Res | F | A | Crowd | Away Day |
| Fri | 31/08/79 | Football League Division 4 | Tier 4 | Tranmere Rovers | W | 1 | 0 | 2,771 | 17 |
| Fri | 26/12/80 | Football League Division 4 | Tier 4 | Tranmere Rovers | L | 0 | 1 | 2,381 | 36 |
| Sat | 18/09/82 | Football League Division 4 | Tier 4 | Tranmere Rovers | D | 1 | 1 | 1,449 | 63 |
| Fri | 29/11/85 | Canon League Division 4 | Tier 4 | Tranmere Rovers | W | 3 | 2 | 1,605 | 124 |
| Fri | 01/01/88 | Barclays League Division 4 | Tier 4 | Tranmere Rovers | L | 0 | 4 | 3,670 | 156 |
| Mon | 05/09/88 | Littlewoods Challenge Cup | Round 1 – 2nd Leg | Tranmere Rovers | D | 1 | 1 | 3,335 | 159 |
| Mon | 05/12/88 | Sherpa Van Trophy | Group Round | Tranmere Rovers | L | 1 | 2 | 1,494 | 166 |
| Fri | 28/04/89 | Barclays League Division 4 | Tier 4 | Tranmere Rovers | L | 0 | 1 | 6,270 | 172 |
| Mon | 13/04/98 | Nationwide Football League – Division 1 | Tier 2 | Tranmere Rovers | L | 0 | 3 | 8,070 | 384 |
| Sat | 31/10/98 | Nationwide Football League – Division 1 | Tier 2 | Tranmere Rovers | D | 1 | 1 | 6,597 | 393 |
| Sat | 15/01/00 (Highlights) | Nationwide Football League – Division 1 | Tier 2 | Tranmere Rovers | D | 0 | 0 | 7,565 | 419 |
| Fri | 01/09/00 | Nationwide Football League – Division 1 | Tier 2 | Tranmere Rovers | L | 1 | 2 | 7,229 | 427 |
| Sat | 28/09/02 | Nationwide Football League – Division 2 | Tier 3 | Tranmere Rovers | L | 0 | 1 | 7,513 | 469 |
| Tues | 27/01/04 | Nationwide Football League – Division 2 | Tier 3 | Tranmere Rovers | L | 2 | 3 | 7,137 | 500 |
| Fri | 08/04/05 (Highlights) | Coca-Cola Football League – League 1 | Tier 3 | Tranmere Rovers | L | 0 | 1 | 8,757 | 528 |
| Tues | 27/01/09 | Coca-Cola Football League – League 1 | Tier 3 | Tranmere Rovers | L | 1 | 2 | 5,259 | 624 |
| Mon | 12/10/09 | Coca-Cola Football League – League 1 | Tier 3 | Tranmere Rovers | W | 1 | 0 | 5,645 | 641 |
| Tues | 26/10/10 (Highlights) | Johnstones Paints Trophy | Northern Round 2 | Tranmere Rovers | D | 0 | 0 | 2,223 | 662 |
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ON MY JOURNEY WITH COUNTY AROUND 180 GROUNDS
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Previously – BOOTHAM CRESCENT Next stop – THE OLD SHOWGROUND.
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