Saturday 25th May 2019.
Newport County and Tranmere Rovers have met on twenty six occasions. Tranmere achieving the league double three times while County twice.

Most recent meetings between both clubs:
1979 / 1980:
Newport County 2-0 Tranmere Rovers.
Goals from John Aldridge and Steve Lowndes.

Tranmere Rovers 0-2 Newport County.
Two goals from Nigel Vaughan, one a penalty, earned County this victory, the first of ten successive league victories.
County were eventually promoted to Division Three while Rovers finished just below mid table.

1987 / 1988:
Tranmere Rovers 4-0 Newport County.
Newport County 0-3 Tranmere Rovers.
Tranmere finished the season mid table while County finished bottom in 24th position, nineteen points adrift of 23rd placed Carlisle, and were thus relegated from the Football League, not to return until twenty five years on in 2013.

2014 / 2015:
Tranmere Rovers 0-0 Newport County.
This early season draw saw County 17th and Rovers 15th after eight games each
This was Joe Day's fourth appearance for County on loan from Peterborough Utd.

Newport County 1-1 Tranmere Rovers.
Rover, desperate for points being near the drop zone, took the lead in first half injury time from Rory Donnelly. Play-off hopefuls County leveled late on through Mark Byrne.
Rovers were now twentieth after twenty nine games but were eventually relegated to the Conference come the seasons end while County failed to make the play-offs.

2018 / 2019:
Tranmere Rovers 0-1 Newport County.
This was a third successive league away win for County, seven days after Yeovil thrashed County 6-0 at Rodney Parade. The games only goal came from Fraser Franks in the first five minutes, his second for the club.

Newport County 0-0 Tranmere Rovers.
Eight players received yellow cards throughout the ninety minutes while two Rovers players were spared from red cards during the second half.
With seven games remaining, County were seven points (taking goal difference into account) outside of the play-offs while Rovers were as good as certs for the play-offs with five to play.


Some of the players (current / former ) who've played for both Newport County and Tranmere Rovers are:
1. Midfielder Steve Warriner - part of his career with County seen him play a part in County's promotion and Welsh Cup double in 1979 / 1980. Had a spell with Rovers during 1983.
2. Striker John Aldridge - joined County fron Northern Premier League side South Liverpool in May 1979 for a mere £3,500. His first full season with County seen him play a part in County's promotion and Welsh Cup double in 1979 / 1980. He was leading scorer for County that season with his first competitive goal coming against Aldershot Town at Somerton Park. His career with County seen him make 198 (198) appearances in league and cup, scoring 87 (87) goals between May 1979 and March 1984.
Aldridge joined Rovers from Spanish club Real Sociedad in 1991 for £250,000. He began his playing career with Rovers at the beginning of season 1991 / 1992 . He scored a club record forty goals that season. Between 1991 and 1998 he made 294 (294) appearances in league and cup for Rovers, scoring 174 (174) times. For a short time more than two years, he was player manager for Rovers. During his playing days with Rovers, Tranmere were First Division (tier two) losing play-off semi-finalists for three successive seasons between 1992 and 1995 and were League Cup losing semi-finalists against Aston Villa in 1993 / 1994. After retiring from the field of play in 1997 / 1998, he remained as manager of Rovers until March 2001. During his spell as manager only, Rovers were League Cup losing finalists against Leicester City in 1999 / 2000 and they were losing FA Cup quarter-finalists against Newcastle Utd the same season. The following season, Rovers were losing FA Cup quarter-finalists again, this time against Liverpool. Within days of that quarter final, Aldridge resigned as manager in March 2001. Rovers finished the season in 24th position and relegated to the Second Division (tier three).
3. Goalkeeper Rhys Taylor - had a loan spell with County in 2015 / 2016 making just one appearance while sub on many other occasions. He had a short loan spell with Rovers in 2018.
4. Defender Danny Holmes - started his professional career with Rovers in 2007. In two full seasons, he made just one appearance for Rovers. For part of those two seasons, he was on loan at Southport.
Holmes rejoined Rovers in the summer of 2011 and had four full seasons with them bar a short loan spell with Fleetwood Town. His final season with Rovers saw them relegated to the Conference in 2015.
He joined County from Rovers in the summer of 2015 where he remained for one full season before turning down a new contract in the summer of 2016.
5. Striker Aaron Collins - started his professional career with County at the start of 2014 / 2015. He left County in January 2016 for Wolves. Whilst with Wolves, he was loaned out five times. The second loan seen him have a short spell with Rovers in 2017. The fourth of those five loans seen him rejoin County in January 2018 until the end of the season.
6. Winger Jennison Myrie-Williams - had a complete season with County in 2016 / 2017, the season known to us County followers as ''the great escape'' before moving on to Torquay Utd. He had two loan spells with Rovers. One in 2007 / 2008 and the other in 2015.
7. Defender Sid Nelson - had a loan spell with County for the second half of season 2016 / 2017. He is currently on loan at Rovers until the end of this season.

Previous visits to Wembley:

Tranmere Rovers:

1989 / 1990:
Football League Trophy.
Tranmere Rovers 2-1 Bristol Rovers
Ian Muir put Tranmere ahead shortly before the tenth minute. Bristol Rovers leveled on 55mins through Devon White. Centre Forward William Steel regained Tranmere's lead on 71mins.
Attendance 48.402.

Third Division play-off final.
Notts County 2-0 Tranmere Rovers.
Seven days after winning the F L Trophy, Tranmere returned to Wembley in the hope of gaining promotion to the Second Division for only the second time in their history.
Goals, either side of the break, from Thomas Johnson and Craig Short ended that hope. Notts County were promoted to Division One two seasons later (1991 / 1992) where they remained for four seasons. They were recently relegated from the FL for the first time in the clubs history.
Attendance 29,252.

1990 / 1991:
Football League Trophy.
Birmingham City 3-2 Tranmere Rovers.
Back at Wembley twelve months after winning the Trophy were Tranmere hoping to retain it. Goals from Simon Sturridge and John Gayle put Brum in control at the break. Stephen Cooper and William Steel leveled for the holders before John Gayle got a second to win the Trophy for Brum.
Attendance 58,756.

Third Division play-off final.
Tranmere Rovers 1-0 Bolton Wanderers AET.
A fourth visit to Wembley in two seasons for Rovers. The games only goal came in the first period of extra time from Christopher Malkin. Rovers gained promotion to the Second Division for only the second time in their history but they were relegated the following season.
Attendance 30,217.

1999 / 2000:
League Cup Final.
Leicester City 2-1 Tranmere Rovers.
Two goals from Defender Matthew Elliott either side of David Kelly's for Tranmere won Premier Division Leicester City the League Cup for the third time. John Aldridge was manager of First Division (L1) Tranmere.
Attendance 74,313.

2016 / 2017:
National League play-off final.
Forest Green 3-1 Tranmere Rovers.
All the goals came in the first half. Kaiyne Woolery put Forest Green ahead on 11mins, Connor Jennings leveled for Tranmere on 22mins, Woolery got his second and Christian Doidge got a third. Forest Green were promoted to the Football League for the first time in their history.
Attendance 18,801.

2017 / 2018:
National League play-off final.
Tranmere Rovers 2-1 Boreham Wood.
Tranmere had Defender Liam Ridehalgh sent off in the first minute.
Andy Cook put Tranmere ahead on 6mins, Carvalho Andrade leveled deep into injury time of the first half. Striker James Norwood got the winner on 80mins. Rovers regained FL status after three successive seasons in the Conference National.
Attendance 16,306.

Newport County:

2011 / 2012:
FA Trophy final.
York City 2-0 Newport County.
This was County's first ever visit to Wembley while it was York's third and they were victorious on all three occasions.
Second half goals from Matthew Blair and Olanrewaju Oyebanjo gave York the Trophy after finishing runners-up three seasons prior in 2009.
Attendance 19,844.

2012 / 2013:
National League play-off final.
Newport County 2-0 Wrexham.
This was County's third successive season in the Conference National while it was Wrexham's fifth.
Two late second half goals from Christian Jolley and Aaron O'Connor regained Football League status for County after twenty five years absence.
This was Justin Edinburgh's first honour in management.
Attendance 16,346.

2017 / 2018:
Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Newport County.
FA Cup 4th Round replay.
First half goal from Dan Butler (og) and Erik Lamela were enough to see Spurs through to R5.
Attendance 38,974.

Managers:
Newport County - Mike Flynn.
Tranmere Rovers - Micky Mellon.

Head to head:
Mike Flynn 1
Micky Mellon 0
Draws 1

Wembley appearances as professional players and as managers:
Mike Flynn 2. (1) Took part in the first seventy three minutes or thereabouts of County's National League play-off victory against Wrexham in May 2013 and (2) was manager for the FA Cup 4th Round replay against Spurs in 2018.
Micky Mellon 2. (1) manager of Tranmere for the 2016 / 2017 National League play-off final defeat v Forest Green Rovers and (2) manager of Tranmere for the 2017 / 2018 National League play-off final victory against Boreham Wood.

John Aldridge and Tommy Tynan.
Remember our two most prolific goal scorers from the promotion and Welsh Cup double season of 1979 / 1980.

Tommy Tynan:
During season 2016 / 2017, apart from the L2 game, County faced Plymouth Argyle at Rodney Parade in what was an FA Cup R2 replay. The winner of that replay would face Liverpool at Anfield. (1) Tynan was born in Liverpool (2) made over 180 (180) appearances for County and (3) had two separate spells with Plymouth Argyle in which he made over 260 (260) appearances. Was he up for County for that replay, for Plymouth or was he neutral.

John Aldridge:
Aldridge (1) was born in Liverpool (2) made 198 (198) appearances for County (3) made 294 (294) appearances for Tranmere and (4) was Manager of Tranmere for just short of five years.
For the L2 play-off final v Tranmere at Wembley Saturday 25th May, will he be (a) up for County (b) up for Tranmere (c) will he be further up for Tranmere as they are close to his birthplace of Liverpool or (d) will he be neutral.

Groundhopper:
Groundhopper Adam Thurston attended three matches at Rodney Parade during the 2016 / 2017 season. Those matches were against Carlisle Utd, Doncaster Rovers and the big one, Notts County.
Early last week, i messaged Adam on twitter inviting him to the L2 play-off final and if need be, i'd pay for one or two tickets. He has since purchased tickets for himself and colleague/s though he hasn't informed me as to which set of supporters he'll be amongst. His match video will eventually be posted on Youtube.

Enjoy the game everyone.
Up the Port.

Bl**dy Hell that's good info.

Great bit of information that would have taken me days to write all that

dai1960 wrote:Great bit of information that would have taken me days to write all that

Very commendable. For most on this board it would take days to read it.

Good Afternoon

Excellent stuff mate!

That will show the opposition we mean business! Let them beat that!

In the old days when I had a set of keys it was a case of “here we are playing Anybody F C, sit quietly, cheer when we score and don’t let Elmo eat all the hob nobs! “

Phil in Northampton

phil_in_npton wrote:Good Afternoon

Excellent stuff mate!

That will show the opposition we mean business! Let them beat that!

In the old days when I had a set of keys it was a case of “here we are playing Anybody F C, sit quietly, cheer when we score and don’t let Elmo eat all the hob nobs! “

Phil in Northampton

Lol. Don't forget the broom

Good read that was. Should be in the matchday programme by rights.

F@CKING BORING !!!!!!!!!!!!
Let's just get on and win it

I won’t be at Wembley, but I will be in Bristol, so I’m gonna have to search for a decent pub to watch the game.

I can't sleep.

Just setting off to Chesterfield to get the coach to London
Safe trip guys and girls
Let's have a great day
Come on County

Cheltenham to Paddington train 07-32.....
COME ON' U MIGHTY PORT.........

Surrounded by Tranmere fans as I approach Crewe. Predict 3-2 to County.

Come on Newport. Good luck today.

A not very interesting fact :-
If Newport are promoted, they would be only the second team in Football League history to be promoted without scoring more goals than they conceded during the regular league season (GD - 0) after Huddersfield Town in 2016-17, who were promoted from the Championship with a minus two goal difference.
UTC