Tranmere and Grimsby the Rovers Fans’ Favourites

A recent survey of Message Board users sees Rovers and the Mariners the promotion favourites amongst Tranmere fans....  

Ahead of the start of the National League campaign on 8^th August, we asked a sample of Message Forum users here on Total Tranmere to submit their predictions for the League for the season ahead and it seems that the majority of Rovers fans think Tranmere and Grimsby will be promoted out of the Vanarama National League by May 2016.

In terms of the winners of the National League title, there were only three teams mentioned in the running by those surveyed with the results as follows:

The prediction of the second promotion place via the lottery that is the play-offs strangely saw exactly the same result with Tranmere followers clearly seeing Tranmere, Grimsby and Forest Green as the only ones with any chance of being promoted whether it be automatically or through the play-offs....

When it came to predicting relegation from the National League, unlike at the top end of the division, almost half the teams in the League were tipped by someone with the results for the four relegation places as follows...

So amongst members of the Superwhite Army, newly promoted Guiseley are the clear favourites to be relegated back to National League North after what would be just one season in the non-League’s top flight whilst Rovers’ local rivals Southport are also a hot favourite to make the drop.

The other two teams voted into the top four for relegation are newly promoted Borehamwood and Welling who avoided relegation from the then Vanarama Conference by just goal difference at the end of 2014/15.

Amongst those who predicted for us was message forum user Seniormoment who said ...

“My heart tells me we will, rather must, go up first time, but my head tells me differently. Football’s a cruel game and you don’t always get what you deserve. Losing play off finalists I think, but we’ll do it the year after at a canter. Grimsby and Cheltenham I fear most along with money bags Eastleigh , whom everyone in that League seems to hate.”

Warren Ruhe added....

“...heart says play-offs, head says top 10”

Tom Raybould gave us his full predictions for the division but do you agree or disagree?...

1. Grimsby Town

2. Tranmere Rovers

3. Forest Green

4. Cheltenham Town

5. Macclesfield Town

6. Gateshead

7. Eastleigh

8. Halifax Town

9. Wrexham

10. Aldershot Town

11. Braintree Town

12. Dover Athletic

13. Torquay United

14. Lincoln City

15. Chester

16. Altrincham

17. Southport

18. Barrow

19. Welling United

20. Kidderminster Harriers

21, Woking

22. Bromley

23. Guiseley

24. Borehamwood

My personal thoughts to all of the above would be not to rule out Wrexham this season whilst Eastleigh’s money may also stand them in good stead for the season ahead after last season’s play-off disappointment.

At the bottom, Torquay have financial issues to overcome which recently saw the closure of their entire youth academy system but they have appointed a good Manager in Paul Cox and should not be immediately doomed to fail.

In addition the smaller promoted teams already mentioned such as Borehamwood, Guiseley and Bromley will be expected to struggle but Barrow may have enough backing financially to hold their own in their first season since promotion.

Thanks to Shaumbra, Hoots Mon, Tom Raybould, Johno’s Hackers, Alan Martin, Warren Ruhe, Mini_Andy,Seniormoment and anyone else who has contributed to the predictions featured here.

Let’s hope the League Winners prediction sees at least 43% of the fans surveyed proved correct come May 2016!