Tranmere 'til I die

It's not been an easy season for Tranmere Rovers supporters, such as myself, both on and off the pitch.

                                                                    
                                                         Playing in the shadows    

The on pitch stuff speaks for itself. With one game to go the team are placed 21st in League One. Only a victory against Bradford City will do on Saturday. Even then at least one of the teams in the two places above us will need to loose. I don't like like relying on other teams loosing, destiny should be of your own making but we've had 45 previous games to get suffcient points to stay in the league. We've simply not been good enough. 

After a very promising start to last season the team fell away badly in the past third of 2012-13 season and this has continued into 2013-14 as well. Young,promising players such as Max Power and Cole Stockton have hardly featured. It's only the goals of bearded veteran Ryan Lowe that have given hope of survival.
                                                                      


I've been invited to a pub to keep track of the game by a friend who is no doubt concerned about me sitting at home with Radio Merseyside providing a background to Sky's Soccer Saturday.

The on field shambles is nothing compared to that away from the pitch. The club as been up for sale for some time and was once even offered on ebay much to the owner's surprise it must be said. The hope of a sale seemed realistic this year with the club giving positive vibes. The take over talks broke down with the potential purchaser annoucing had he been successful former Chelsea, Barcelona and Spain defender Albert Ferrer would have been installed as manager. By then we needed a new man at the helm.. 

When this fantasy footballer club owner news broke I was still realing from the news that team manager Ronnie Moore had been suspended by the club over alligations of breaching FA betting rules. He was later found guilty by an FA panel and dismissed by the club.

Unfortunately this wasn't the first betting scandle to rock Tranmere this season. December saw news stories breaking about far eastern betting syndicates and spot fixing in the lower leagues. Two of the clubs players were implicated and later arrested. One of these was club legend Ian Goodison, with over 400 appearances for the club. Although his celebration of this was marred by a sending off in next home game after this milestone. At the time of writing Goodison remain on police bail.

None of the above will sway me from The Rovers. I can only hope the newly install chief executive can stop this off field rot and give the club the chance to improve on the pitch.

Saturday and League One survival seems a long way off.

Scotch Egg

I was meant to go hiking last weekend but the foul weather put me off. I don't mind a spot of rain, which is handy as I live in the Isle of Man, but there's no point setting off in a deluge. The upside of this was that I had a couple of scotch eggs I bought for my lunch to consume during the day.

I'm not sure where the scotch egg came from but is there a better bloke food? A hard boiled egg covered in sausage meat, dipped into bread crumbs and deep fried. It's easy to eat and only leaves a few crumbs.

 I used to think that they were a cheap supermarket food which to be honest it mainly is but there are some good ones to be found. Pictured above is one from the local farmer's market. Quine's Poultry hand make a few and with their own eggs and Gloster Old Spot pigs provide the sausage meat. A tasty snack. There's even the possibility to have a warm version. The yolk of the egg slightly runny. I first discovered that they could be served like that at a gastro pub in Fulham; The Durrell Arms. It's just a pity a local options for this isn't available.

A word of warning though, a colleague once made some after a few drinks. It was only when they were served up to her family that is was discovered that she hadn't shelled the eggs.