Five matches into his third spell as Tranmere Rovers manager Ronnie Moore has turned a depressingly stale season into one which breeds real hope for the next campaign. Wins against Leyton Orient, Preston and Rochdale added to hard-fought draws against Notts County and second placed side Sheffield United have created an extremely positive atmosphere in and around Prenton Park.
For most of his reign Les Parry's Tranmere were all about fighting for a draw, it appeared the players were given instructions pre-match telling them to try not to concede for ninety minutes while trying to score a goal if possible, vitally the most important thing to the former physiotherapist was the clean sheet. This mentality worked during the run in of the 2009/10 season which saw Parry gain thousands of admirers by keeping Rovers in League One against the odds but after this amazing survival we as a club needed to push on, we didn't.
The following season saw Tranmere rarely flirt with relegation as we finished a respectable 18th place, a whole nine points clear of the relegation zone. After Tranmere's performances the previous season staying away from the relegation zone in such a comfortable style was considered an impressive finish by many but in the minds of the fans something was missing. Parry insisted that he played a 4-3-3 formation, to Tranmere fans this was quite clearly not the case. Instead what we played was a defensive 4-5-1 in which we left one man isolated in the opposition half (normally Enoch Showunmi) with one player hovering around the half-way line (often the perceived wonder kid Dale Jennings) whilst the other eight outfield players focused on defending and trying to win the ball from the opposition. All too frequently the players won the ball from the opposition before hoofing it towards Showunmi, the result was often our lone striker being drastically outnumbered as the oppositions central defensive pairing either won the ball in the air or simply took it off Showunmi when he realised he had no support within his general vicinity. Occasionally we did have support for the big former Nigerian international but only ever when one of our players decided to gamble and join in the attack. What was missing last season was a tactic which allowed the players to pass around and play attractive football.
If last season was bad most of this season has been worse. All too often we have seen the central defenders smash the ball forward in the hope that the striker (this season normally Tiryaki or Showunmi) win the header, when our striker did win it the ball often fell to an opposition defender or midfielder who had tracked back, when they didn't win it the entire Tranmere team dropped back thus allowing the opposition to launch a counter attack. At the start of the season we grabbed goals on the break, from set pieces and generally against the run of play. We started the season with a brilliant defensive record and at one stage had the most clean sheets in the league. However when in around January the defence began to crumble we looked to have no answer offensively, any ideas we had at the start of the season dried up and by the end of January most of Tranmere's fans had turned on the former cult hero Parry. After a defeat against Bournemouth on Saturday January the 21st most wanted him gone. It took another six matches (and no wins in that time) before Parry was given the proverbial boot by chairman Peter Johnson. By the time he left Tranmere had won only one of the last twenty matches.
Immediately after the defeat to Chesterfield on March the 3rd rumours that Peter Johnson had finally done what the vast majority of Tranmere fans had wanted him to do and sacked Les Parry began doing the rounds. By Sunday the 4th of March the confirmation had come through, Parry had finally departed Tranmere. His sacking actually came as a bit of a surprise to me, by then I had decided Peter Johnson wasn't bothered if we stayed in League One or got relegated to League Two.
What happened next took many by surprise. Just one day after the departure of Parry it was announced that former manager Ronnie Moore was to return on a deal until the end of the season. Given the fashion in which he left many thought he would never return with Johnson in charge, it appeared one or both had swallowed their pride. With the club now just one point above the relegation zone his job expectation was simple: keep Tranmere Rovers in League One.
Ronnie's first few press conferences brought hope to the Tranmere supporters. He seemed to say all of the things the fans wanted to hear - he will always play with two wingers and two strikers, he will get the team to pass the ball around and see how many crosses and shots the team can have, the team will not sit back but will go out to win every match. It sounded brilliant, to some people too brilliant. The more cynical out there believed that Moore was reading a pre-written script from Peter Johnson aimed at bringing fans back to the club on the promise of attacking football when in reality we simply wouldn't get what we were promised. How wrong those people were.
Since Ronnie took over we have seen a revitalised Tranmere looking to win every match and attack at any opportunity. Gone are the days when upon losing the ball the entire team would drop back and allow the opposition to have a go, now we press at any given opportunity. The opening game of Ronnie's third spell in charge was a home game against one of the leagues in-form sides, Notts County. The game started disastrously for Rovers as Damion Stewart gave The Magpies a fifth minute lead. Under Parry the fans may well have got on the team and his back but with this new lease of hope installed by Moore's appointment the fans were 100% behind trying to push the team on to get a result. When we scored a deserved 93rd minute equaliser through John Welsh a mixture of extreme relief and utter jubilation erupted in the stands. Let the revival begin.
Ronnie's second match in charge was again at home, this time against struggling Leyton Orient. The game went completely to plan as first half goals from Andy Robinson and Enoch Showunmi gave us a well deserved 2-0 victory. Aside from hitting the crossbar early on Orient rarely threatened. Our run of one win in twenty-one games was over!
The third match since Ronnie's return was against Preston, yet again this match was at home. After ending our horrible twenty-one game run in the previous match another streak was on the minds of the Rovers faithful - we had not come from behind to win a match since a 2-1 triumph over Leeds on December 6, 2008. The Tranmere manager that day was Ronnie Moore and coincidentally the man who scored the goal for Leeds was a certain Enoch Showunmi, the man who was to lead the line against Preston. When Preston took the lead on twelve minutes through Graham Cummins we feared the worse, I turned to my friends and once again informed them of our run of games in which we have failed to win from a losing position, it had become a bit of a running joke - we simply could not turn a game around. Move forward seventy-eight minutes and we had won the game 2-1, goals from Showunmi and Robinson (for the second game in succession) meant the streak was over at last! We had actually won two league matches in a row for the first time in almost five months and had come back from behind to win a game for the first time in over thirty-nine months. If this was all achieved in Ronnie's first week back in the helm what could the future hold?
Well in the immediate future was our first away game since Moore had come back, against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane. The Blades were in great form and sat second in the league, this was always going to be an incredibly tough game. Ched Evans gave Sheffield the lead on the day but once again the fans saw the positives - they had scored in the first half, a lot of time still remained and we had come back from behind to win just four days earlier. Our faith was seen to be well-placed when in the 54th minute Lucas Akins equalised through a header. The game ended 1-1 and a brilliant point at one of the toughest grounds to visit in the league had been secured.
Ronnie's fifth match since he regained control was away at Rochdale, just three days after the Sheffield United game. It was understandable that us Tranmere fans came into this game full of confidence. Two wins and two draws from Ronnie's first four games back in charge had us safely above the relegation zone. A win in this one would be a massive step towards securing our League One status for next season. A game in which we dominated for large periods ended in us leaving with a 2-0 victory. Rochdale are a side massively out of form and in massive trouble near the bottom of the table so it was a great relief to see us actually get three points from a game on paper we should have won. Under the guidance of Les this was the kind of match that we would draw due to playing too defensively, under Ronnie this was clearly not the case. The "shoot when you can" mentality brought in by Ronnie Moore had clearly reaped its rewards as both Wallace and Cassidy's goals were great strikers from around the edge of the penalty box.
We now sit 15th and are a massive seven points ahead of the relegation zone. We are certainly not safe yet but if we can keep this incredible form up it'll only be a matter of time before we begin our plans for next season. Some fans have called on Johnson to offer Moore a long term contract before another club does, I would certainly agree with those calls. In my mind there is no doubt that Ronnie Moore is the man to take this team into the 2012/13 season.
After witnessing dull and drab football for most of Parry's reign we as Tranmere fans now have a right to be blindly optimistic in the wake of our recent success. Ronnie's Unbeatable!
