If Tannadice is Half as Nice: Farewell Micky Mellon
Two years ago, Micky Mellon was linked to the St Mirren vacancy after he helped return Tranmere Rovers back to the English Football League (who have subsequently managed to abdicate all responsibility for their handling of the 2019/20 season and, it would appear, fit and proper tests when it comes to the takeover of clubs subsequently placed into administration).
This rumour supposedly led to a bit of a domestic within the Mellon family as Micky’s mum, who just happened to reside in Paisley where she brought Micky into this world, was upset that her son had come all the way to St Mirren Park without popping in for a brew. Micky had to explain to Ma Mellon that he was in Mexico at the time. So that killed that rumour stone dead. Alas, there was no going Loco in Acapulco when Dundee United came calling.
The mad thing is that, when you break it down forensically, Mellon’s legacy at Tranmere comes across as fairly mixed. Apart from a handful of recruits, his transfer dealings were haphazard at best and his reluctance to give the kids a chance ought to have worked against him when youth development is ultimately the lifeblood of a club of Rovers’ stature. But management is not a game of Top Trumps, especially when key strengths in one area can overcome a multitude of sins in others.
In this regard, when it came to kicking every ball and engaging with the support, no one has come close to Mellon in the forty odd years I’ve followed Rovers. From his first game in charge, a key derby against Wrexham in the fifth tier, Mellon seemed to lift the players and the whole ground just by his presence alone. Rovers scrapped a two-nil win that day, showing the power of sheer will and determination alone, which came to define the Mellon era at Prenton Park.
That will was needed after Rovers amassed a whopping 95 points in Mellon’s first season yet missed out on the one automatic promotion place thanks to the Cowley Brothers’ revolution at Lincoln before losing the subsequent play-off final to a well organised Forest Green who clearly saved their best until last. This knocked the wind out of Rovers’ sails to the point that a shaky start to the 2017/18 season culminated in Rovers losing at home to a Wrexham side that played almost the entire match with 10 men. I thought that would have been it as Rovers were in a worse league position than when Mellon took over a year back.
But somehow, after a collective bloodletting Rovers dug deep and slowly and surely turned the season round. Another seemingly bad result as they were battered at home against Macclesfield also led to another key change, to which Mellon decided on two deep-lying midfielders to protect the well organised but painfully slow back line for the rest of the season. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked. And boy did it have to work. Rovers were losing something in the region of £2m a year. Another season outside the Football League would have led Rovers closer to oblivion. So the events of 12 May 2018 would become etched in Rovers folklore forever.
On paper, every key event worked against Rovers that day. Liam Ridehalgh’s dismissal after one minute, Bruno Andrade’s 52nd minute equaliser (in which the referee awarded so much injury time as Josh Ginnelly was struck by a bottle thrown by the Boreham Wood crowd) and having to use every substitute before the end of the first half. The eerie sight of not seeing your players have a kick around during the half time interval brought this home.
I reasoned that it was only a matter of time before Boreham Wood would score what would be the killer goal and found myself staring at my shoes as the second half began, expecting the inevitable. Mellon had other ideas, giving the half time team talk that ultimately saved Tranmere Rovers. The voices around me began to sing louder and louder and with encouragement and belief that the impossible was possible. Slowly and surely I lifted my head, peering at the stubbornness of the Rovers back line against wave after wave of Boreham Wood’s attack.
Then came the goal, which made me lose all sense of time as the ball trickled over the line. The Boreham Wood keeper didn’t cover himself in glory for James Norwood’s winner, but nobody behind that goal cared. The nerves jangled as Boreham Wood laid siege on Rovers’ goal but for all that territorial domination the bottle chucking bastards still could not fashion a gilt-edged opportunity.
The referee was also slightly forgiving in blowing for full-time when he did as the ball was still in play and in the Rovers’ half. They say two wrongs don’t make a right, but there was some justice seeing as he had no right to let the first half go on as long as it did. Yet there was something in Andrade’s equaliser that galvanised Rovers that day. And that was down in a hugely significant part to Mellon.
And when the final whistle blew, it was Mellon who sprinted straight towards us though he wasn’t as quick as Ollie Norburn, who had enough gas in the tank to rugby tackle him in the penalty area. That raw emotion saw Mellon breach protocol in not shaking Boreham Wood manager Luke Garrard’s hand at full time, but seeing as his club’s fans struck one of Rovers players with a bottle then it was the least he deserved. Besides, Rovers skipper on the day Steve McNulty was happy to wish Garrard well in his future endeavours.
There was something in that moment in which we were all as one. Fans, players, management and the board all rooting for each other. This was more than a game, more than a win, more than a promotion. This was the nearest thing to a miracle. On paper, this should not have compared to Chris Malkin’s winner in a play-off final two levels above this one. But given what was at stake, and the sheer relief and ecstasy that followed, no one could ever forget that day. I also got a bit of a kick seeing Rovers at the top of the sports news cycle for the rest of the day, even to the point of welcoming the otherwise insufferable Robbie Savage championing what Rovers achieved that day.
Added to which, this day set in train the overwhelming unity that helped propel Rovers not only towards consolidating our place in League Two but even to make it to the play-offs, where Mellon outsmarted the ungracious Mark Cooper, the very man who had outsmarted him two years previously, before ringing the necessary tactical changes to scrape a win against Newport. This led to another rumour concerning the Swansea City vacancy, but apart from Andy Robinson’s endorsement of Mellon, this rumour also petered out.
But the impact of back to back promotions, combined with the loss of Norwood’s potency up front and McNulty’s steadying influence at the back meant that Mellon’s last season at Rovers would prove a testing one. When Mellon took over Rovers’ fixture list included Gateshead and Eastleigh. To go from this to facing the likes of Sunderland and Portsmouth was an almighty leap, so it came as no surprise that Rovers were found out at this level.
Yet even accounting for last season’s struggles, there was no sense that Mellon lost the dressing room and when all seemed lost Rovers fashioned an unexpected and welcome victory at Shrewsbury, followed by wins at Accrington and Blackpool. All of a sudden, there was belief that Rovers could avoid what looked like certain relegation.
Twelve months previously, Rovers managed to win every one of their games in March which propelled them from mid-table to the verge of automatic promotion. It seems crazy to think that Mellon could repeat this feat, but such was the belief that the Super White Army had in him that meant that this was possible. Alas, the lockdown put a halt to Rovers’ newly found momentum before the EFL intervened by not intervening. As Mellon expressed rather accurately, Rovers were relegated by a calculator.
It later emerged that Mellon had been furloughed so it is amongst this uncertainty that a job offer like the one at Dundee United would prove tempting. The Arabs also know when their season will start, which is still unclear south of the border, though this may yet be contingent on what happens with the appeal launched by Hearts (who have recruited Mellon’s predecessor in Robbie Neilson) and Partick Thistle against their own relegations. What a twist that would prove to be if they won this case.
As for whether Mellon will succeed at Tannadice, there is one key plus and another key minus. For one thing, the players will not lack commitment. If this season proves to be a relegation scrap then I believe they will show more fight under Mellon than they did under Mixu Paatelainen. But the key minus will be the lack of fans at least for the foreseeable future. Mellon buzzed off the energy of the SWA during his time at Prenton Park but will not be able to instruct his players to ‘do it for them out there’ whenever they find themselves up against it. Given the precariousness of football management, it would be a shame if Mellon were to end up falling on his sword before the crowds returned.
In that case, he may well find himself back at Prenton Park sooner than expected as my one concern is that whoever comes in will have a big job just to steady the ship where Rovers are concerned. The memory of what happened in 2013/14 and 2014/15 will never fade for those reminded of the fact that you’re not too big to go down once the downward spiral takes hold. There is no such spiral to consider this time round, but Rovers do find themselves at a crossroads just now. Losing Mellon at this time could yet prove pivotal for Rovers.
That said, no one can argue with the fact that Micky has earned his chance to prove what he can do elsewhere, and thank the God up above that it’s not against Rovers. All the best gaffer. And thank you for saving the club so dear to my heart.
