Tranmere Rovers

For their first 100 years after forming in 1891, Rovers spent all of one season above the third tier, finishing last in the 1939 Second Division. In all that time, they were best known for developing and then selling top players, most notably Dixie Dean, who went on to be a legend at Everton.

Their glory years hit during the 1989-90 season, when they won the League Trophy—still their only major title. They lost the playoff final for promotion to the second tier that season, then went back and won promotion the next season after losing another League Trophy final. So that was four trips to Wembley in a year!

Home attendances, which had been under 2,000 just a few years before, swelled to over 8,000, and they stayed in the second tier for the next nine seasons. Three times they made the playoffs for a shot at the Premier League, and three times they lost in the semifinals. They capped off this fine run in 1999-2000, when they made the quarterfinals of the FA Cup and final of the League Cup, which they lost to Leicester City, 2-1, after having a man sent off.

You almost know what’s coming now, don’t you? The magic ended, relegation came, and with it the financial trouble, which brought more relegations. By 2015 they had dropped out of the Football League entirely, for the first time in 94 years.

They got back up in 2018, then made League One the following season. But when the pandemic hit in March 2020 and the season ended, the league switched to a points-per-game table, which meant Tranmere were back in League Two.

In the 2019-20 FA Cup, Rovers were involved in two of the more entertaining stories. First, they hosted, in the second round, Chichester City of the 8th-tier Isthmian League South East Division, 104 spots below Rovers in the pyramid. The game was broadcast nationally, and your author just had to go. Chichester, a team of all amateurs, held Rovers off for over an hour before tiring and giving up five quick goals. But in injury time, in front of hundreds of their fans (probably most of them, to be honest), Chichester scored off a corner, setting off wild celebrations and an ovation from many of the home fans. After the game, their players posed for pictures with the fans, who stood and sang well into the night. We’ve got a long blog post about that night.

In the next round, Rovers went to Watford and were down 3-0 after just half an hour. But they stormed back, got a 3-3 draw, then won the replay at home through a 104th-minute winner. Then they drew Manchester United at home and lost, 6-0, but hey, this is what the FA Cup is supposed to be about.

2024–25 SEASON: 20th in League Two, 1st Round FA Cup, 2nd Round League Cup

2025–26 SEASON: League Two (relegated in 2020)

Liverpool and Everton are the closest geographically, but they never play Rovers in a real game. Rovers supporters say the biggest rivals are Bolton Wanderers and Oldham Athletic, but none of them are in the same league. Come on, Cup draw!

Tranmere Rovers Women play in the North West Women’s Regional League at tier 5 of the pyramid. Home games are at the club’s training complex in nearby Wallasey.

We’ve been to a lot of games in a lot of places, and Tranmere Rovers gave us one of the weirdest experiences of the lot. While shooting the usual video of the teams coming out, something in the music sounded familiar. It took us a minute to place it, but yes … they were playing the theme from The Rockford Files!

If you’re under 50, you might not even know what that means. Back in the 1970s, American television was dominated by detective shows, with James Garner’s portrayal of Jim Rockford being one of the biggest. (Remember the voicemail messages?) The theme song was this electric bluesy thing with harmonica and guitar that seems totally out of place in English football.

How did this happen? Like so many things in football, there’s no clear answer. The best-sounding theory is that in the 1970s, in an attempt to draw more fans, Rovers started playing home games on Friday nights, putting them in competition with The Rockford Files on “the telly.” When attendance disappointed, their chairman quipped that apparently people would rather watch the show than their club, so to get a laugh at the next game, the PA guy put the record on. They must have won that game, because some 40 years later, it’s still the pregame anthem!

Prenton Park is bigger and nicer than you would probably expect from a club in League Two. It holds 16,587 people, and three of the four stands were built or redeveloped in the 1990s. Home rowdies are in the Kop behind one goal, and away fans are opposite in the Cowshed, which housed the home fans until about 20 years ago and got its name because its predecessor looked like something from a farm. There are plans afoot to replace Prenton Park in the next couple of years with a 15,000-seater elsewhere in Birkenhead.

TOURS: There’s a VIP Matchday Experience for up to 15 people, which includes a tour. Check the website for the latest.

GETTING THERE: There are a couple of ways to do this, assuming you’re starting in Liverpool. You can take Merseyrail from Liverpool Central to Hamilton Square in Birkenhead, then hop on bus 423 (Seacomb) to Highpark Road, a few minutes from the ground. But what you really should do is take a Mersey Ferry from Pier Head in Liverpool (down by the Beatles statue) to Woodside, which is just a few minutes’ walk from Hamilton Square Station. Grab bus 423 from there.

PUBS: Right where you’re catching the 423 bus, there’s a really cool pub called Gallagher’s Traditional that’s filled with Royal Air Force memorabilia. There’s also a decent option called the Mersey Clipper right next to the ground, another called Prenton Park right around the corner, and a supporter’s club under a tent at the ground with cheap food.

GRUB: The pubs mentioned above have basic fare. There’s an Italian place called Villa Venezia by the ground and pretty good Thai at Sawasdee near Hamilton Square. Really, all the food options are over in Liverpool.

AROUND TOWN: Put it this way: If you Google “see and do in Wirral”, you’ll probably come up with Birkenhead Park (the world’s first publicly funded civic park and an inspiration for Central Park), an island with a bird sanctuary, and a bunch of sites in Liverpool. That’s probably all you need to know about Wirral from a tourist perspective.

Chichester City at Tranmere Rovers in the FA Cup: What It’s All About

I go all over England, seeing the games, meeting the people, checking out the towns, looking for … something. Sure, I’m adding clubs to my list, researching places for my book, trying out my hospitality packages — running the business —...

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