Rovers fans reflect on 'nightmare' season

A successful coach being sacked. A football legend turning out to be a failure. A slide from promotion contenders to relegation fodder. A physio being appointed as manager to rescue the situation. How Tranmere Rovers fans would love it if American owners or mid-table obscurity were the height of their problems this season.

Everton and Liverpool may well feel that this season could be their own ‘annus horribilis’, but Merseyside should spare a thought for their third team, and how a series of mistakes could result in them dropping into English football’s fourth division.

May 2009: A settled and efficient Tranmere side miss out on the final play-off place, on the final day of the season. Certainly, few could have predicted what would happen next.

Many fans, including 68-year-old John McKenzie, point back to the first week of June as when their club turned from promotion contenders to basement boys of the league. A statement, detailing the immediate release of Ronnie Moore from his contract, read: "Attendances have dropped by over 19 per cent during the last three years and the club felt that now is the right time to move forward in a new direction.”

That new direction took them under the stewardship of ex-Liverpool players John Barnes and Jason McAteer. As Mr McKenzie explains, the motives behind the move were clear.

He said: “The chairman let Ronnie go, he’s a great manager. The idea to bring in Barnes and McAteer was to get free-flowing, entertaining football. Barnes may have played great, but his management record wasn’t wholly impressive, even for us [Tranmere].”

So unimpressive, in fact, that Barnes lasted only 11 games before being replaced by the first-team physio Les Parry, who was given the job permanently in December after an impressive caretaker stint in charge. Despite that, a home defeat to Leeds and a bore draw against Leyton Orient last week leave Tranmere closest to the bottom four and relegation.

Season-ticket holder Alex Williams said: “His record may not be the greatest, but he’s done as good a job as can be expected. If we stay up though, and we have a chance of doing that, we must get a proper manager in. The quick fix is only that.”

The average gate is down by 700 to 5,100 this season (in a 16,000 capacity stadium) and should Tranmere fall through the trap door, Rotherham United, led by Ronnie Moore, are in contention to take their place in League One.

The irony would certainly not be lost on Mr McKenzie, who said: “If we escape this season still in this division I’ll be happy. The gates and income should never take priority over the team, unfortunately a lesson we’ve had to learn at the price of any success this season.”