Tranmere’s history laid down in the new ‘bible’

Sep 9 2009 by Nick Hilton, Liverpool Daily Post

CHAIRMAN Peter Johnson may have taken Tranmere fans by surprise this summer when he decided to hand control of the Prenton Park dressing-room to a former Anfield legend.

But it was not an original idea. New Rovers manager John Barnes is following a path trodden more than 35 years ago by Ron Yeats.

While Barnes enjoyed worldwide recognition as an international player who made 79 appearances for England, Yeats, as centre-half and captain of the Liverpool team that won two League Championship titles and the FA Cup between 1964 and ‘66, was a giant figure on Merseyside in more ways than one.

Bill Bothwell, a Scottish journalist and broadcaster who was chairman of Tranmere at the time, asked Yeats to become player manager in 1972.

Soon a number of famous names from Bill Shankly’s great Liverpool team of the Sixties found their way to Prenton Park, including Ian St John, Tommy Lawrence and Willie Stevenson.

Tranmere pulled some big crowds into Prenton Park during Yeats’ reign including 14,356 for a Boxing Day game against Bolton Wanderers in Division Three in 1972.

The following season Big Ron recruited the help of Shankly himself in a consulting role.

Shanks’ visits were invariably inspirational for the team and for a young coach called Johnny King, who hung on every word uttered by the great manager.

Memories of a fascinating era are brought to life in vivid detail in “Tranmere Rovers – The Complete Record” a definitive history of the club written by Gilbert Upton, Steve Wilson and Peter Bishop, published this week.

It is the combination of the authors’ talents that makes the book work so well. Upton, Wilson and Bishop have been responsible for all of the works of authority published about Tranmere Rovers over more than two decades. All three have the scope, in the 576 elegantly produced pages, to bring their expertise to bear.

Upton, the historian, has the nose to painstakingly dig out facts that lay hidden for more than a century. Wilson has command of an unmatched data base that holds the details of every Tranmere match since the club joined the Football League in 1921 – and about the people who played in them. Bishop, the author and former Rovers programme editor, has the instinctive feel for the human dramas and quirky stories that illuminate the past.

Bishop, who painstakingly collected newspaper cuttings, stories and anecdotes about Tranmere in scrapbooks through most of his life, relates Shankly’s visit to a reserve match with Yeats at Prenton Park in 1973.

“Shanks nudged Yeats and asked whom Tranmere’s rather static right-winger was. ‘Alan Duffy, boss,’ Yates replied. ‘He’s our PFA representative.’ Quick as lightning, Bill retorted: ‘Why in Christ’s name are you playing him when he’s on strike?’”

As Bishop points out, the Yeats era will be remembered by Rovers fans for one result above all others – Arsenal 0 Tranmere Rovers 1.

The game was a League Cup tie at Highbury in October 1973 and features in the “matches to remember” section of the book.

Arsenal’s team of the time included Bob Wilson, Alan Ball and Ray Kennedy.

They had been crowned First Division champions only 18 months before. Tranmere were in Division Three.

The account can stir the imagination of any Rovers fans old enough to remember a night that stunned the whole country. “While player manager Yeats was a colossus at the heart of Rovers’ defence, marshalling his partner Ronnie Moore and full-backs Ray Matthias and Sid Farrimond, the key element of the strategy developed by Yeats and his number two Johnny King was to shackle Alan Ball’s effectiveness in midfield. To that and Mark Palios, later to become chief executive of the FA, was employed to specifically mark the inspirational England midfield play-maker until he went off 10 minutes from time.

“The crucial breakthrough arrived as the big Highbury clock approached 8pm. Tommy Young released Hugh McAuley down the left, enabling him to skip past Pat Rice and deliver a teasing cross into the box.

“Eddie Lloyd controlled the loose ball and with his second touch thrashed a shot past a startled Bob Wilson.”

In spite of that result, Yeats did not enjoy success as a manager at Tranmere to match his achievements as a player at Liverpool. Working under financial constraints not unlike the conditions facing Barnes today, Yeats left Prenton Park as Rovers headed for relegation from the third division in 1975.

But Yeats left behind an assistant in King who went on to become the most successful and best loved manager in the club’s history.

The book goes on sale at the club shop at Prenton Park tomorrow September 10, from 1.30pm. The authors together with manager John Barnes and members of the current squad will be on hand to sign copies.

Tranmere Rovers – the complete record is published by Breedon Books at £19.99.

TRANMERE formally completed the signing of Grenada international Kithson Bain last night.

The 27-year old striker agreed a contract that will keep him at until June 2010.

Rovers won an appeal for a work permit for Bain earlier this summer after he impressed manager John Barnes while on international duty.