Ian Muir Opens Dream Team Strike Partnership
By Deadly Submarine
March 19 2005
Ian Muir has become the latest player to be voted into the Total Tranmere Rovers Dream Team after polling 56% of the 39 votes. Muir beat off some initially tough competition from David Kelly with the lead changing hands several times, but eventually Muir pulled clear to earn his place in the team.
Total Tranmere Rovers Dream Team : Striker 1 – Ian Muir
How He Won:
| Question: Total Tranmere Rovers Dream Team - Striker (1) | ||||||||||
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33%Muir’s Tranmere Career (July 1985 – June 1995):
Played = 351 (and 42 as Sub)
Scored = 180
Muir played for Rovers for a decade between 1985 and 1995 and he is still to this day the holder of the all-time goal scoring record at the club with 180 goals in his Tranmere career. His spell at the club coincided with the best spell in Tranmere’s history which included two promotions, four visits to Wembley in two seasons and a run to the League Cup semi-final.
Signed by Johnny King in 1985 on a free transfer from Brighton, Rovers became Muir’s sixth professional club at the age of just 22 having previously played for QPR, Birmingham, Burnley and Brighton added to a short loan spell at Swindon before he moved to Prenton Park.
Muir’s goals became a huge part of Tranmere’s success in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s but shortly after Muir’s arrival the story for Rovers was whole lot different. Muir was in the team for the now infamous game against Exeter City that Tranmere needed to win to ensure they remained in the Football League. Indeed was Muir’s cross into the Exeter penalty area that was headed in by Gary Williams for a 1-0 win that kept Rovers in the league.
After that season Tranmere never really looked back and Muir and his goals were a key part of the Rovers sides that gained two promotions over the next four years that lifted them from Division Four to Division Two (that became Division One upon the introduction of the Premier League. They also appeared in two successive Leyland Daf Cup Finals in 1990 and 1991, winning the first and losing the second.
Muir’s career at Tranmere eventually became affected by injury and possibly more so the arrival of John Aldridge at the club. It is thought that Manager Johnny King felt he couldn’t play both Muir and Aldridge in the same team but Muir’s injury problems made the managers selection easier towards the end of Ian’s career at Tranmere.
Tranmere went on to reach the Premiership play-offs for three consecutive years between 1993 and 1995 but failed to reach the final on all three occasions. The end of Tranmere’s play-off hopes in 1995 coincided with the end of Muir’s stay at Prenton Park when he returned to former club Birmingham City for £125,000. It was thought Muir was going to accept a new contract to keep him at Prenton Park but in the end this was not to be the case.
One good thing for Ian Muir with regard to his strike partner John Aldridge is that Aldo retired from playing football some four years later still six goals short of Muir’s all time Tranmere goals tally of 180 meaning he still holds the record to this day.
He will remain in the hearts of older Rovers fans for many years and with all Rovers fans for as long as he holds that special goal scoring record.
Will Muir be joined up front by John Aldridge as the battle commences for the final place in the Total Tranmere Rovers Dream Team? The final vote has begun so don’t forget to cast your vote!