Its not just Liverpool and Everton who have the upper hand when Saints visit Merseyside.
Tranmere may be considered the poor cousins of Merseyside giants Liverpool and Everton, but if Saints fans think our record at both Anfield and Goodison is bad, then they should refer back to our trips to Prenton Park where we have played six in all competitions and won only one.
Our first trip there was in 1938/39 in the old second divisin when with the Second World War looming Chamberlain went to Munich and got peace in our time whilst Saints went to Merseyside and got a 1-1 draw, little did both know it was almost as good as it would get for both, Tranmere went dowwn long before the end of the season and Saints didnt fare much better althought they did escape relegation.
It would be almost 20 years before our paths would cross again and Rovers sent us packing 2-0 in front of 12,814 and would finish the season wwell ahead of Saints in the league although at the time we looked a good bet for promotion but faded fast after Xmas.
The following season we must have taken it a bit more seriously as we stormed to the division three title winning at Prenton in the November 4-2 with goals from Mulgrew (2) Paine & Reeves, the Tranmere JCL's deserting their side with only 7,927 a big drop on the previous years attendance. For Saints though this would be as good as it would get up on Birkenhead and since we have never even managed a draw in the three visits.
In 1963 we travelled up there in the league cup, we were by now chasing promotion to the top flight, 8 802 turned up to see us put to flight 2-0.
Luckily for us it would be a long time before we had to go up there again and most readers will remember that fateful night in 2001 when we lead 3-0 at half time and the 1000 or so Saints in the 12,910 crowd looked forward to a home tie against Liverpool, for the first 13 minutes of that second half that still looked the only outcome but the Saints collapsed spectacularly, suddenly Saints panicked and ex Saint Paul Rideout perhaps still smarting for being turfed out of the Dell to be replaced by a little known teenager called Shearer hit three in 21 minutes.
For the record Kachloul, Tessem & Richards all scored with the latter almost forcing home a last minute equaliser, if Saints had won then perhaps history might have been a little different, peerhaps Glenn Hoddle might have stayed and perhaps Saints might have got to the Cup final, who knows ?
Last season was a disaster, Saints never quite looked at the races that day, but with five minutes to go looked fairly safe for a point, but then a dodgy penalty and the game was lost.
Saddest thing of the day was the middle aged Pompey fan who brought his two young daughters to gesture at the Saints fans, how proud he must have been of his parenting skills that day as this little family group respendent in their Pompey shirts almost caused a riot.
Played six, won one, drawn one lost four !