Taylor is Voted Right-Back of the Decade

After a week of voting, the results are in for the best Tranmere right-back of the Decade and in a much closer vote than previous weeks, the outcome is still of little surprise as Ryan Taylor takes the place in the team....

After a week of your votes, it has been decided that Ryan Taylor is the best right-back of the decade in our Team of the Decade (2000’s) series despite only three years at the Club between 2002 and 2005.

As you can see from the poll results below, Taylor pipped Steve Yates to the position at right-back with only Ryan Shotton polling any other votes during the course of the week...

After coming through the youth system at Prenton Park, Taylor made his first team debut in October 2002 and scored the winner against Hartlepool in the League Cup in the 83^rd minute after the visitors had equalised Simon Haworth’s first half goal just four minutes earlier.

Taylor went on to make 32 appearances that first season, scoring three times including another goal at home to Hartlepool in the League as Rovers won 5-0 and a goal in the 4-0 away win at Northampton Town whilst he was also sent off in the 2-2 home draw against Notts County as Rovers ended the game with nine men with Graham Allen also sent off.

In the following season, Ryan was a virtual ever-present for Rovers, making 39 appearances and scoring six times including a brace in the 3-2 home win over Stockport County in January 2004 whilst the season after, 51 appearances registered a career best ten goals for Rovers as the Whites made the League One play-offs.

Sadly they missed out on penalties against Hartlepool at Prenton Park with Taylor himself missing his second crucial penalty of that season in the shoot out – his first being the miss that saw Rovers knocked out in the later stages of the Football League Trophy away at Oldham.

Ironically, the defeat to Hartlepool on penalties in the play-offs proved to be Taylor’s last game for the Club meaning he both started and ended his Rovers career against Pools before moving on to Wigan.

Sadly his career at Wigan was blighted by two leg breaks in a short space of time but Taylor still impressed enough to move on to Newcastle United where he remains a squad member but not a first team regular today.

So far then the Team of the Decade for the 2000’s looks like this......

Who will join Achterberg, Roberts and Taylor next on the Team of the Decade (2000’s)?  In the next week we will be voting for the best centre-back and at the end of the week the winner will be revealed before the centre-back vote re-commences minus the winner from next week, in order to determine the second centre-back in the team.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the launch of our centre-back poll (Part 1).