THE part of Les Parry that will forever be a Tranmere fan is going to jump into overdrive on Saturday afternoon. For a few minutes Rovers long serving physio can put aside his current responsibilities as caretaker manager of the team and gaze down memory lane at the heroes from his past. Dozens of players who served the club over the past half century will be taking their bow in a parade to mark Tranmere’s 125th anniversary. “It is going to be a fantastic afternoon,” says Parry. His love affair with Rovers began in the 1960s and 70s, when he would “bunk in” to Prenton Park to watch games played in front of big, noisy, Friday night crowds. “I can remember standing on the open terrace of the Kop end, then going behind the goal at the Cowshed end for the second-half because you could walk around the ground in those days,” Parry recalled. This time Parry will have the best view in the house, from the manager’s dugout. The two coaches who are helping him on the temporary assignment – Shaun Garnett and Wayne Allison – will be part of the parade, thanks to their memorable contributions as players. Parry’s contacts book, built up over close to 20 years of looking after their health and fitness of players at Prenton Park, has been invaluable to the process of inviting the heroes of yesteryear to come back to take another bow. “A lot of the players I worked with are still involved in the game today, as coaches and managers and some are still playing, so they won’t be able to come,” said Parry. “But my memories as a fan go back a lot further than that. I can remember singing songs about our goalkeeper Jimmy Cumbes saving penalties – and Jim has been chief executive at Lancashire Cricket Club for more than 10 years. “I can remember Dave Philpotts at centre-half and Ronnie Moore at centre-forward in the team Johnny King took to promotion from Division Four in 1976. “I can remember Nigel Adkins being in goal for us in the 1980s and Steve Mungall arriving and staying for all those years. And Ray Mathias seemed to be here for all that time.” Garnett, one of the first players to emerge from Tranmere’s reformed youth development system in the late 1980s, has been youth in reserve coach at Prenton Park for the last five years. He stepped up to first-team coaching duties when Parry took temporary charge of first-team affairs following the dismissal of John Barnes on October 9. Allison, who scored 32 goals in 119 games between 1999 and 2002, broke off his academic studies to help out Parry three weeks ago. Allison, a well travelled striker known throughout the football world as “The Chief” says: “I’m looking forward to seeing so many ex-players back at Prenton Park. I loved every minute of my time here and made a lot of friends. Their was a great rapport with the fans.” Alison went on: “It was a good spell for the club when I arrived. It all culminated in the Worthington Cup final and in the same 1999/2000 season we got to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. “We had a side that gelled well and we scored a lot of goals from David Challinor’s long throws. It was a different brand of football to what the fans were used to but it was effective.”
TICKETS: Rovers are marking the anniversary by reducing admission prices. Adults pay £12.50 and juniors just £1.25 in the Main Stand, Paddocks, Johnny King and Kop stands – provided they purchase advance tickets before 1pm on match day.
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