Dan Levy tells us about our similarities with tonights opponents.

Good evening, and welcome to Edgeley Park to County’s fans, and to the fans, officials and players of Tranmere Rovers. 

Tranmere and County have a lot in common. 

We are both Cheshire clubs.  Outside of our fan base, we are each frequently mislocated, in Lancashire or in those horrible agglomerations of the 1974 local government reorganisation, Merseyside and Greater Manchester, which live on only in our police forces.

Our not being from Liverpool or Manchester is important to each club.  It is easy for people all over the country who could support their local teams instead to opt for one of the big Premiership teams.  The Premiership is all over the media.  You can hardly turn on the TV or Radio without hearing more stuff about a premiership team or the other.  You cannot go in a sports shop without seeing rack upon rack of the shirts of the big clubs.  For us and for Tranmere, with very big, very well marketed premiership clubs on the doorstep, the dominance of the Premier League is particularly irksome.  And with that next-door problem, comes an extra resilience for those of us who have chosen the route of supporting our local clubs.  I think I am not alone in getting an extra pride in supporting my club through thick and thin, because we have all known what it is like to struggle. 

Both clubs are on something of an up at the moment, in the top half of the league table, without spending the sort of money on players that many of the other top 10 teams are able to do.  We come into tonight’s game on the back of victories over the bottom two teams, and tonight will be a real test on the pitch.  But neither club had the ability or the desire to buy their way to success. Both of us have to run the club prudently, balancing income and expenditure, conserving cash.  Whereas all Premiership teams, much of the Championship and too many clubs in our division are built on the shifting sands of huge amounts of debt.

There are of course lots of differences between our clubs.  County is proud to be one of the 4 League clubs owned by their fans.  But perhaps one of the most obvious differences between our clubs is written on the front of our shirts.  County has a set of fantastic sponsors, and it is great to see Just Search supporting our club as main sponsor.   Tranmere Rovers are sponsored by Wirral Council, and have been for a long time.  It is a sign of the support for the local football team by the local authority.  We can and should all be proud of local football clubs, rooted in their communities, a focus for local pride.   Many other authorities make a big play of their support for clubs, even to the extent in many cases of joining them to build a new stadium.  Wirral are to be commended, even if tonight at least I hope, they are backing a losing team.