A late April holiday brought me to Prenton Park to see Tranmere Rovers v Grimsby Town. A ground I have always wanted to visit and I was not disappointed. Dropped off in Prenton Road, a long old brick wall greeted me with large old style floodlight pylons at each corner. Having collected a ticket bought from Grimsby because Tranmere wouldn’t sell me one, missed the cut off date, even though people were buying them at the ticket office before the game, I entered the ground to be greeted by a large contingent of Mariners fans.
The stadium is first class and reflects Tranmere having played their football much higher up the pyramid in the past. There is covered seated stands on all sides with the home end, behind one goal, particularly impressive and the main stand down one side also looks good. There is a small covered stand on the other side the back to which was the wall outside. I was in the away end, the Cow Shed, that for away fans was very good. The noise that greeted me was tremendous as over 1900 Grimsby fans had crossed the country to cheer on their team. Their rhythmic chant of ‘Clap’ Fish ‘Clap’ Fish ‘Clap’ Fish, and on and on was inventive and amusing. They were making most of the noise in the stadium with the Tranmere fans a bit subdued considering their predicament.
The game looked to offer a very competitive thriller, Tranmere needing points not to drop into the National League and Grimsby needing points to stay in the play off position they held. It would also depend on the performances of teams around them in the league. The weather had changed a little after a very warm week to end April with greying skies , little wind and a temperature of 13. The pitch was in great condition and the striped grass shone a bright green.
Tranmere were formed in 1884 assuming their current name a year later, they moved to Prenton Park in 1912 and joined the Football League in 1921. They have spent most of their time in the lower two divisions but have played in Division Two and had good runs in the League Cup. They have spent time in the National League returning to the EFL in 2018.
Grimsby have been in existence since 1878, moving into their long term home, Blundell Park, Cleethorpes in 1899 and reached their highest level in the 1930’s and 40’s playing in the highest English League. Most of their play has been in the lower two leagues of the Football league although they have spent times in the Conference/National League returning to the EFL only in 2022.
Tranmere Rovers FC 1 Grimsby Town FC 1
Saturday 2nd May 2026 15.00 kick off , English Football League Two
Prenton Park, Prenton Road West, Birkenhead, Merseyside, CH42 9PY
20th V 7th, Rovers v Mariners, Attendance 11141
Tranmere; All white kit except for a band of green down the sides of the shirts, goalkeeper in all green.
Grimsby; Red and blue vertical striped shirts with royal blue shorts that had red edging, goalkeeper in all yellow.
The game started with Grimsby attempting to dominate play but Tranmere did counter. It all seemed a little edgy, not surprisingly, and as it progressed Grimsby squandered the better chances. With half time approaching Grimsby finally scored when on 43 minutes some fast pressure play on the left led to a neat ball being slipped through to Justin Amaluzor near the left hand post and he hooked it, with some force, into the centre of the net.
The teams went off at half time with Grimsby on top and their fans chanting ‘You’re going down’ to their rivals.
Luckily for both teams results were going their way. However Tranmere couldn’t take any chances and came out in the second half with more fight. Even their fans had woken up and seventeen minutes into the half they thought they would see an equaliser when Grimsby’s outstanding defender Cameron McJannet gifted the ball to a Tranmere attacker who looked to only have the goalkeeper to beat when McJannet somehow ran back to just whip the ball of the Tranmere player. Rovers now had the momentum and kept pushing forward, gaining corners, from which they scored in the 64th minute. One from the right missed everyone except for the leaping Nathan Smith who soared above the pack at the far post to land a well placed header for the equaliser. With the home side now marginally on top their crowd became more vocal, but the away end chanted back as their team were still having chances, and Chesterfield had scored again at Swindon to guarantee Grimsby would be in the playoffs.
With both sides safe at 1.1 the game petered out in the last minutes and the final whistle was greeted with joy by the Grimsby fans and a pitch invasion by the home faithful who knew that relegation to the National League was averted. To get promotion from the National League gets harder and harder each season with some very well financed teams in that competition.
Another great end of the season match in the EF League Two,
No chips. with only pies and hot dogs available. I decided on a steak pie that turned out to be delicious, soft, not dry, pasty, was filled with some meat and a lot of thick gravy that oozed out onto my fingers. The paper napkins provided were very necessary. If I was compiling a pie league this would have been up there at the top.
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