100 prenton park tranmere

(GROUND NUMBER 100)
PRENTON PARK, BIRKENHEAD
Date of First Visit: 7th SEPTEMBER 1991

TRANMERE ROVERS 3 
NEWCASTLE UNITED 2 (Liam O'Brien, Lee Clark)

(OLD) DIVISION TWO---
ATTENDANCE 11,465 (2,000 Toon fans)

"THE 100 GROUNDS CLUB!"

"HAVE YOO GOT ONE OF THEEZE--PLEEZE!"

In 1983 aa woz readin a 'futbaall mag' and aa saw an article aboot a Sheff Wed fan who'd won a 'fan of the month' award for hiz loyalty to hiz team
Aaltogether he'd visited 66 leegue groonds followin' 'The Owls'.
Up until that time aa didn't have a clue how many groonds a'd seen The Toon play on?

SO! (az yi de!) aa took mee socks and shoes off and started coontin' how many a'd been te and the grand total came to 64!
From that moment onwards mee obsession for visitin' new groonds had begun!

The forst groond aa counted woz Ninian Park, Cardiff which woz number 65 and then The Manor Groond, Oxfaad to equal wor friend from Sheffield on 'aall the sixes'!
Before lang aa had set mee sights on visitin' 100 groonds, but didn't 'fink' it woz possible, az (for example) there are anly 92 teams in the entire leegue---so aa couldn't see iz dein' it!
But!--aa couldn't have been more wrang az ower the next few seasons The Toon played several Scottish and non leegue friendlies, which ultimateleee helped iz reach this 'milestone' (or shud that read 'millstone'?)
After 8 years of coontin' from 1983, Tranmere Rovers, Prenton Park would see me finally reach 'mee goal'!

At last!---mee final assault on 'Everest' was ower!---a'd done it and completed 'the ton' at last!.
The coach had dropped wih off in the centre of Birkenheed via the Mersey Tunnel and az usual meesel and 'Dowaz' heeded for the nearest boozaa for 'yee naa what'!. (Yih should dee by nuw, if yiv read the previous 99 'hops'!.

Of course this was a big day for me, and the adrenalin was flowin' az ah downed the forst 'Arthur'! (Arthur Scargill = 'gargel'!)
A'd followed the Toon for a canny few years tih reach this point and the anly disappointment for me was the fact that mee 100th was Prenton Park, Birkenheed and not The San Siro in Milan!.
But beggars can't be choosers and it was Newcastle's fault anyway that ah should be a crap Second Division game tih complete mee 'century'' and not a glamourous European tie against Europes finest!.
(Ah can aalways dream---can't ah?---One day mebeez?---One day?)   
However! mee joy was short lived as the Toon lost 3-2 at what can anly be described az a massive disappointment

Orly on Macklin lobbed Pavel in wor goal to give them the lead

We levelled son after though when Peacock crossed the baall and Liam Obrien slotted home from close in!

Lee Clark put us in front when he sidefooted home at the 2nd attempt to send the 2,000 Toon fans behind that goal wild with delight and we went in 2-1 up at the break! (so far—so good!)

Wor joy woz short lived however when Thomas hit an unstoppable piledriver to give Pavel ‘ne chance’!

Tranmere then got a penalty which John Aldridge took, but Pavel saved it by divin to his left!

The sickener came with just 4 minutes left when Vickers vollied home to win the game for the home side!

A’d bought 2 programmes az souviners of mee 100th groond, but when aa went to get off the bus when we got back to The Toon they were missin’ from the roof rack where a'd put them!

Some B*STARD had ‘half inched’ them!

Fink (the mad-sad groundhopper!)

PS: Lang after aa did this report, aa finally DID get to 'The San Siro' where The Toon drew 2-2 in The Champions Leegue against Inter Milan on11th March 2003! (Groond number 220!)