Rovers Ramblings: Deadly Submarine from GUAR

Total Tranmere's Deadly Submarine writes a regular piece in the Tranmere Fanzine 'Give Us An R' and here is his most recent offering.......  

As part of Total Tranmere's service to it's readers, we have decided to publish the articles by Deadly Submarine that appear in the Tranmere Rovers Fanzine 'Give Us An R' starting with the article which appears in the latest edition which is currently on sale at all home and away Rovers matches priced £2.50.

The article is now a few weeks old as the exclusive will always given to GUAR before eventually being published on here once the Mag has been on sale for a number of games.

I may as well start my contribution to this edition of the Mag with seven words that no-one will have written about Tranmere Rovers for quite a long time I would suspect... “Tranmere Rovers are unbeaten in nine games!”

I’m putting the finishing touches to this article having last night witnessed a frustrating, but ultimately satisfying, 2-2 draw away at Wrexham which ensured that since losing to Altrincham away on the 29^th August, Rovers have put together a nine game unbeaten run which included an entirely unbeaten month of September.

Four wins and five draws is an impressive statistic on its own from the last nine games but when you take into consideration the fact that two of those wins came over teams who at the time of the games against us were in the top four of the League and placed above Rovers (Cheltenham away and Bromley at home) whilst one of the other wins was a never easy to predict local derby (at home to Chester) then it goes to prove just how capable Rovers appear to be in this new division.

It’s a welcome feeling to experience Rovers putting together this nine game unbeaten run at the time of writing and as mentioned, three of the wins have been big ones when viewed on paper.

A competitive League fixture (although sadly not the Football League) at home against Chester for the first time in over 24 years was never going to be an easy one on paper and neither for that matter would the two more recent games away at our fellow relegation sufferers from last year Cheltenham Town and at home to high-flying, six game unbeaten Bromley.

However, 2-0, 1-0 and 4-0 wins respectively are not to be sniffed at and despite other frustrating draws in games that many will feel we should have been winning on paper (including Southport and Welling), those three wins in particular against Chester, Cheltenham and Bromley are certainly a statement of intent from Rovers as the season moves on.

I missed the Cheltenham game due to a family wedding but was certainly never expecting the 1-0 win that we came away with against a team who at the time of writing are still above Rovers in the League table (one of only two teams that are along with Forest Green Rovers) and last week Cheltenham thumped Halifax 7-1 away from home!

Following that Cheltenham game it didn’t appear to get any easier on paper for Rovers as Bromley came to town on a six game winning streak and sitting in fourth place in the League as well as having top scorer Moses Emmanuel.   However as you will know Rovers won comfortably 4-0 and surely surprised even the most optimistic Rovers fans.

So with almost exactly one third of the season gone we currently sit in third place, five points behind one time runaway leaders Forest Green Rovers and two points behind second placed Cheltenham Town – something I think any Rovers fan would have taken at this stage after the misery of the past two and a half seasons!

Rovers also recently grabbed a deserved draw of course at most people’s pre-season promotion favourites Grimsby Town in our second of two televised games which both ended in a 1-1 scoreline (the other being at Welling).

That result, added to the fact that Rovers have also seen their biggest away win of the season so far (4-1) coming away at Gateshead, who currently sit just inside the top six in the division, goes to show that this division is pretty open and despite a blip with the back-to-back defeats against Boreham Wood and Altrincham, we are still well in contention with a third of the season gone.

Earlier on I described most recent game away at Wrexham, which ended in a 2-2 draw, as frustrating and the reason for that is that I felt Wrexham, certainly at the back were, shaky, lacking confidence and overall pretty poor, not least their goalkeeper.

Don’t get me wrong, a draw was a fair result on the night based on how the game went, but Rovers were well below the level seen in other recent games including the 3-1 home win over Aldershot, the aforementioned 4-0 win over Bromley and even the battling 1-1 draw at Grimsby Town.

I felt had Rovers played anything like those levels at Wrexham, we would have taken all three points although I would happily have taken a point before the Wrexham game.

We may be down in the lowest division that probably any living Rovers fan can remember, but after the previous two and a half seasons it’s nice to have a competitive side which you can turn up to watch week to week and think that we actually have a chance of winning on the day – whether at home or away.

In spite of us doing well at the moment, I’m starting to think I shouldn’t be going to any Tranmere games anymore though! As mentioned earlier, I have just recently missed the game away at Cheltenham Town which Rovers of course won 1-0 with a 93^rd minute winner from Andy Mangan.

Unusually for me at this relatively early stage of the season, I have already missed three games, two at home and one away. How have those missed games ended? Well if I told you they were Woking and Chester at home in addition to the aforementioned away game at Cheltenham, you’ll no doubt be able to work out that my record so far is “Missed: 3, Won: 3, Goals For: 4, Goals Against: 0.

With Rovers having won seven games so far this season and me missing three of them, I’m at just over 50% in terms of the number of Rovers wins that I’ve witnessed in person – the bad news for all of you is that I have no plans to miss any further games, certainly before Christmas!

The scale to which our beloved team have fallen in recent years has not just had an effect on first team matters. I recently attended the first qualifying round of the FA Youth Cup in which Rovers’ under 18 side visited Barnton FC which for those who don’t know (as I didn’t until the draw was made), is on the outskirts of Northwich in Cheshire.

Tranmere’s current lowly League position means that the first qualifying round is just one of three games our young side will have to play before even reaching the first round proper of the competition – two steps more than the first team will have to play to reach the first round proper of the FA Cup.

Fortunately, the youngsters eased through the first round with a 4-0 win against a hard working Barnton youth side and I write this piece having just got back from Prenton Park tonight where I witnessed a 3-2 Rovers win over Curzon Ashton’s Youth side in the second qualifying round! A tie away at Prescot Cables now awaits Rovers in the third and final qualifying round of the competition.

In addition to the two FA Youth Cup wins, our excellent youth side also sit joint top of their League with a game in hand on Shrewsbury Town whom they are level on points with. Their only defeat has come against Shrewsbury a few weeks ago but aside from that they’ve won all six of their other matches so the future certainly looks bright.

Indeed striker Tolani Omotola recently travelled with the first team squad to Cheltenham with James Norwood being suspended. Although he didn’t make the final 16-man squad for the game, it will have been a great experience for the lad and hopefully the first of many more to come in the future.

Browsing the Total Tranmere Message Forum in the past week or so, there have been a number of fans complaining about the hassle and abuse being caused by large numbers of unaccompanied children at the home games, particularly (but not exclusively) it seems in the Kop Stand.

Whilst Tranmere should be (and indeed are) doing everything it can to encourage a new and younger generation of fans in the days of far too easily accessible Premier League armchair football, this should not at the same time be at the detriment of the enjoyment of other fans at the games and this is perhaps something Tranmere will need to address at some point soon. After all the last thing the Club will want is for fans to be turned away by other fans.

With the way the Club has responded to the fanbase in the past twelve months though under its new stewardship, I don’t think the fans who are troubled by this will need to have too many concerns about this problem going unnoticed by the people at the top.

For all things Tranmere Rovers, visit my Unofficial Tranmere Rovers Website www.total-tranmere.co.uk. We have regular match previews and post-match items as well as breaking news and other features throughout the season.

We also have a relatively busy Message Forum for fans to air their views on a daily basis with other Rovers fans so why not check us out!

Until Next Time…..

'Give Us An R' is on sale at every Tranmere Rovers home and away game usually at the visitors turnstiles at away games and in two locations at homes games, by the Johnny King Statue and on the opposite corner of the ground where the Johnny King Stand meets the Kop.  The Mag is priced at £2.50 and is well worth a read!