From ATTTM podcast:
So here we are then.
After 45 games, there are just 90 minutes left to play. And those 90 minutes will decide the fate of Tranmere Rovers Football Club.
It is not a position many of us envisaged being in at the start of the campaign.
Having had such a positive end to 2024/25, it felt like things were upwardly mobile.
Andy Crosby had just gone through an interim tenure in which he won six of his 13 games in charge, losing just twice, and thus earning the position permanently.
Over the summer, he was then able to bring in experienced players to the club, many of whom we were excited to see at Prenton Park.
The likes of Patrick Brough, Richie Smallwood and Nathan Smith arrived with promotions on their CV, while it appeared Joe Ironside was the missing piece in the jigsaw.
Of course, things have not worked out as we would hope.
The run since beating Harrogate 2-0 on New Year's Day has been unacceptable, shocking and reprehensible.
21 games played, two wins, two draws and 17 defeats. Seventeen!
Many of them were predictable. Each of them has proved damaging in sinking Tranmere closer and closer to League Two's trap door.
Shorn of the players such as Luke McGee, Lee O'Connor and Connor Jennings, all of them struggling with long-term injuries, the remaining characters within the dressing room have failed to stand up and be counted.
The result is that on far too many occasions, Rovers have rolled over for an opposition; MK Dons, Notts County, Harrogate to name but three.
Even a change in manager has failed to bring the usual bounce.
Pete Wild's honeymoon period, as it turns out, was restricted to a 0-0 draw at Fleetwood. That does seem like the recipe for an unhappy marriage.
And that leaves us where we are; 90 minutes from a potential and unthinkable return to the National League.
It is eleven years since that defeat at Plymouth, the one that eventually confirmed the drop to the fifth tier.
But back then, there was a sense of positivity and freshness around the club, despite being relegated.
Under the new ownership of Mark and Nicola Palios, there was an enthusiasm and ambition around the club that left fans with an air of confidence that their EFL exile would not be a long one.
Rovers were a big fish down there. As such, they were able to cherry-pick from some of the better players in Non League.
Gary Brabin assembled a squad full of characters, many of whom would be at the forefront of not just the promotion push in 2017/18, but also the League Two play-off final success in the following campaign.
James Norwood, Jay Harris, Steve McNulty and Scott Davies are just some of the cult heroes who wrote their name into club history.
Should Tranmere drop again, they would not hold the same aura. Teams would not be rocking up to Prenton Park and taking photos on the pitch - not least because several of them have been here before.
The ability to assemble the same quality of squad is therefore doubtful, and that is before factoring in the finances of it all.
In the present day, the Palios' are looking to sell. They have had enough. A takeover, or outside investment, has been on the cards for nigh on three years.
Tranmere have therefore been 'circling the plughole' in the fourth tier. A crumbling club edging closer and closer to the trapdoor.
Regardless of what happens against Grimsby, Rovers will have failed to improve their league position season-upon-season since covid, sinking lower and lower each campaign.
That in itself is a horrific return, and it is testament to the fans that they keep turning up, week after week, despite sky-high ticket prices and aspirations lower than a worm's belly button.
And that's why this time feels so different to 2015.
Fans are growing tired and weary of watching low-ambition, low-quality football at a ground in much need of some TLC and with a team who have lost six successive home matches for the first time in their history.
Make that figure seven, and it could be fatal.
Who knows what going down might mean to the potential takeover. It surely would not be good news.
Just look at the standard of the National League now, compared to when Rovers were there between 2015-18.
The quality at the bottom has probably decreased, but at the same time, the fight to get out through promotion is tougher than ever.
Instead of three or four standout promotion candidates, there are five or six. And only two of them can be successful.
Some of those teams are backed by very wealthy owners. Two of them amassed 100+ points this season.
Any new owner could look at that situation and question whether the time, effort and investment is worth it. Unless, of course, all they are truly interested in is the large plot of land Prenton Park sits upon.
Even if they did still come in, it might take a good few years to realise the 'dream' of EFL football. Very few bounce back quickly.
So, I guess this is a long-winded way of trying to explain just how big Saturday is.
It might be that Tranmere lose and still stay up. Ultimately, I suppose, that would be very Tranmere. To succeed in failure.
Either way, it's nothing to celebrate. 40 points from 45 games currently counts as one of the lowest points totals in their history.
From the joy and relief of Boreham Wood in 2018, we now have the sheer fear of what a return might mean.
Back then, the club's future was on the line. The academy had already gone, and with it several jobs. More redundancies were on the way if things had gone wrong.
Winning kept the wolves from the door in many senses.
We have, of course, been here before.
In 1987 there was Exeter. 2010 brought us Stockport. 2014 had Bradford.
The latter fixture in that trio is the only one that resulted in relegation. Staying up was also wildly out of Tranmere's hands going into the final day, and, as it turned out, even a victory would not have saved them.
But those three squads had two things in common; courage and desire, built through a strong leader at the top or characters within the dressing room.
That meant there was not the same level of apathy towards the club as there is now.
Supporters could sense a connection with those teams. They were all under-invested, but a lack of quality was made up for by a collective fighting spirit.
Who will be the Gary Williams, Ian Goodison or Max Power - players who truly, truly cared - of 2026? Who will stand up to be counted?
Someone within the current team has it within their power to change the course of Tranmere's destiny; to stop them from treading water and perhaps make them upwardly mobile again.
A victory, or just staying up, could be the start of something, like it was in 1987.
Forget what has gone before. Go and make yourself a hero.
And for one afternoon, let's forget everything that has gone on this season and unite as one. Prenton Park as a force for good is a fortress to be feared.
