The first week of Tranmere's season has taken FanZone blogger Paul Harper to both extremes...
It's a funny old game for Rovers...
FanZone correspondent Paul Harper has endured the ups and downs in the space of the opening week of Tranmere's season and is struggling to get to grips with an exotic transfer target...
They say a week is a long time in football and for Tranmere Rovers that certainly rings true.
It all began with such optimism looking ahead to the new season. Most of that hope disappeared with a disappointing 2-0 defeat at the hands of Yeovil. Three days later and we hammer Grimsby 4-0 and all is right in the world again. Funny old game, eh?
In fairness, the loss at Yeovil wasn't to be totally unexpected. We hoped, as all football fans do at the start of the season, that everything would come right. But in truth, it had been a strange (to say the least) pre-season with lots of changes, an eBay auction for the club and no centre backs in until the day before the game.
The two that faced the Glovers were 18-year-olds making their league debuts so it was always going to be tough. Straight out of nappies and into the fire as that well known phrase goes (well, a slight twist on it), they did well but as a team we fell short.
The great thing with football is that there's always another game around the corner. And thankfully we had Grimsby at home in the Carling Cup as an opportunity to get the John Barnes era a first victory. A decent performance and a 4-0 win. Four goals! I can't remember the last time we scored four goals, we must be world-beaters now surely?
That triumph over Grimsby ensured a place in the second round of the Carling Cup for the first time in five seasons. From being renowned as a cup team (and giantkillers at that) in the early part of the millennium, we've hardly won a cup tie in five years, so it was good to do that on Tuesday.
Finishing
So the eagerly-awaited draw, fingers crossed for Manchester City at home. Nope, but not the end of the world. Probably my second fixture of choice - home to Bolton!
It's common knowledge that the two clubs aren't exactly best friends. It's a rivalry that dates back to 1991 when we beat them in play off-final at Wembley after finishing a few points behind them in the league campaign. Bad losers.
The rivalry peaked in the late nineties and early noughties, we kept beating them but it was unfair because Dave Challinor used towels to dry the ball before launching his throw-ins. The world according to 'Fat Sam' Allardyce anyway. It's a great draw and hopefully it will capture the Wirral public's imagination to get a few more people inside Prenton Park.
In transfer news, we're close to signing striker Kithson Bain. For some reason, I've been under the impression for the last few days that his name was Jetson Bain! I've been trying to remember the intro to the cartoon 'The Jetsons'. Thankfully YouTube put me out of my misery, but all in vain.
The lad is from Grenada, and partners Blackburn's Jason Roberts in the national side. He impressed John Barnes in the Caribbean Cup last year while Digger was in charge of Jamaica, so it'll be interesting to see how he does should his move materialise.
Gillingham and MK Dons visit Prenton Park this coming week, it'd be nice to get off the mark in the league with a couple of home victories please Barnesey. More 4-0 wins and fewer 2-0 defeats and we'll all be happy.
