10 things...
Tranmere
1 Nobody knows where the place is exactly - who are ya, New Brighton?
2 The Mersey rail tunnel was opened at Birkenhead in 1886. Somebody thought they could dig another big hole down the road, to train Tranmere Rovers to play in.
3 They played at old Prenton Park from 1885 and got bigger and better. When they moved to new Prenton Park in 1911, the old grandstand went too. This obviously became the new main stand rather than the er, new old stand.
4 Tranmere were founder members of Third Division North and came to FL status 35 years after their founder set them up as juniors. He died soon after but happily as a true professional.
5 Forty years and a world war later, Rovers were in div4. Proving it was easier to ferry across the Mersey than float to the top in sixties Birkenhead.
6 In the seventies, they had reached div3 and were using a few ex-Liverpool past their sell bys to get results. In ten years they'd reached... div4 again.
7 Conference football beckoned when a food hamper millionaire bought the club for peanuts - it was no eighties picnic to boot.
8 Tranmere had three attempts to reach the new nineties Premiership via play-offs as they rode on a high Merseyside wave. But were wiped out each time by being on the wrong side of the great river tides.
9 Over three million pounds for Steve Simonsen, sold to Everton. A nice bit of local business even for toffee apparently.
10 No Championship in 2001 and demoted to League 1 instead. 2010 and er, still more League 1?
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