Aldridge the Second to Make Rovers Hall of Fame
By Deadly Submarine
May 25 2010
As we announced yesterday on Total Tranmere, as part of Rovers' 125 year anniversary celebrations, the Club asked fans to vote for their five favourite Rovers legends who would be the inaugural members of the Tranmere Rovers Hall of Fame and all this week they are announcing the results of those votes on a day by day basis. The second member to take his place is striker John Aldridge.....
This week marks the results of the Fans vote for the first five inaugural members of the Tranmere Rovers Hall of fame which has been set up as part of the 125th anniversary celebrations at the Club with a new member announced every day this week.
The first person to enter the Hall of Fame yesterday was legendary striker Ian Muir and following him today is another goalscorer supreme in the shape of John Aldridge....
After a playing career that began at semi-professional side South Liverpool back in 1978 and progressed via then professional side Newport County, Oxford Utd, boyhood club Liverpool and then Real Sociedad in Spain, Aldridge was a shock and yet a bargain signing from the Spanish Club.
The Manager of Tranmere at the time Johnny King, was aware that Aldridge was unhappy in Spain after two seasons at Sociedad and bid £250,000 to bring the striker back to his native Merseyside. Probably the greatest bargain any Tranmere manager has ever managed to pull off, Aldridge went on to more than pay back the quarter of a million pounds that Tranmere had forked out for his services.
By the time he retired from playing to concentrate on management at the end of the 1997-98 season, he had averaged just over a goal every other game for Rovers in seven seasons also scoring nine hat-tricks.
Aldridge's arrival at Prenton Park came immediately following Tranmere's successful promotion to Division 2 (now the Championship) and in his first match for Rovers, he scored twice as they won 2-0 away at Brighton. That game was a sign of things to come as Aldridge ended that first season having scored a massive forty goals in all competitions.
Tranmere held their own in English Football's Second League for a number of years and reached the play-off semi-finals (but never the final) for three years running in 1993 to 1995. They also reached the semi-final of the League Cup in 1994 but lost out over two legs on penalties to Aston Villa who went on to beat Man Utd in the final.
It is partially thanks to the goals of John Aldridge that this was possible for a relatively small club such as Tranmere Rovers. On April 12th 1996, John King was sacked as manager of the club and John Aldridge was asked he would like to take up the position with immediate effect which he accepted.
He went on to lead Rovers to their first ever major final in the League Cup in 2000 and the boys in white had a number of other famous cup runs in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Sadly, though despite all the cup success that Tranmere were enjoying and the memories that went with it, their league form tailed off dramatically over a couple of seasons.
With Tranmere staring relegation in the face, and just six games of the 2000-01 season remaining, John Aldridge resigned following a 4-0 home league defeat to Barnsley and his professional relationship with the club that had spanned almost exactly a decade was at an end.
Tranmere were still ultimately relegated and still find themselves in the same division today but there can be no doubt that John Aldridge will be part of Tranmere's history forever and fondly remembered as a player and to some extent as a manager.
Aldo's Tranmere Career (July 1992 - May 1998):
Played = 272 (and 22 as Sub)
Scored = 174
Yellow Cards = 22
Red Cards = 1
Aldo's Rep of Ireland Career:
Caps = 69
Goals = 19
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Looking good so far!
