Miracles do happen! Ronnie Moore savours Tranmere Rovers’ promotion

By Aidan Jones
Ronnie Moore admits ten-man Tranmere Rovers pulled off a footballing miracle to win promotion back to the Football League at Wembley last weekend.
Rovers edged the Promotion Final against Boreham Wood despite being a man down after 53 seconds when Liam Ridehalgh was sent off.
But Tranmere took the lead five minutes later through Andy Cook’s bullet header although Bruno Andrade equalised in added time.
Despite having also used all their substitutes by half-time, Norwood headed in a winner ten minutes from time to seal promotion.
“40 seconds in and they are a man down, and you think ‘oh no, it’s going to be difficult’ and then the goal right before half time, it just looked like it was going to need a miracle, but miracles do happen!” Moore, a former Tranmere player and manager, told The NLP.
“It would not have been Tranmere if they had won easily, there is no bigger heartache than losing a big game. There has been a lot of ups and downs but Wembley has been reasonably kind to us.”
Norwood’s late winner ended a three-year absence from the 92 after Tranmere lost in last year’s final to Forest Green Rovers.
“It has got to be a motivation boost for the players the fact that they did not win last season, it is the worst place to lose a game of football,” added Moore.
“Sometimes when you go there twice in a short space of time it can be an incentive for you.”
And Tranmere were still suffering from that defeat early in the season when they languished in the bottom half, which ultimately cost them the title.
Moore said: “Despite the poor start I never thought that they would not go up.  It is the Tranmere way, they will pick up the points in the end and come with a rattle. There is enough experience in the team, the coaches there know how to win games, and win titles. You could never have written them off.
“It is just a pity that it was not done earlier on because they could have walked the league.”