The Youngsters 2007/08

Whilst the First Team challenged but came up just short of the play-off race, the Tranmere youth team has had a reasonably successful year.

Tranmere compete in the Puma Youth Alliance North West Conference, where eighteen teams, including Premier League side Wigan, play 27 league games per season. Managed by former Tranmere defender Shaun Garnett, Rovers managed to finish the season in a respectable eighth position, picking up 38 points from an available 81 thanks to ten wins, eight draws and nine defeats.

Through the league season, there were many highlights for the youths, including a magnificent run of four consecutive wins over November and December and a seven match unbeaten run stretching from February 9th to April 5th.

Some of the most spectacular wins included 4-1 victories over Bury, Accrington Stanley and Shrewsbury, although their goal difference suffered badly with 3-0 defeats at home to Port Vale and Wigan.

However, Tranmere's youngsters didn't feature much in the cup competitions, as they went out of the Puma Youth Alliance North Cup and Lancashire F.A. Youth Cup at the first round stage, whilst in the national F.A. Youth Cup, they were knocked out in the second round at Prenton Park by Huddersfield Town.

Away from the results, there have been many highlights for the young players this season as they try their hardest to break into the Tranmere first team.

Throughout the year, a number of players have regularly featured, and performed to a good standard, for the Tranmere reserve side, with youngster Terry Gornell ending the season as the reserves' leading scorer with seven league and cup goals.

Along with Gornell, Aaron Cresswell has successfully performed at reserve team level, captaining the side on a few occasions, and it has been these two players who have earned professional contracts for next season.

First team scholars Ashton Taylor, Luke Denson and Ryan Mitchell have also made the break into the first team, with the three defenders all looking comfortable at that level and Taylor being tipped as the next big thing by many fans.

Josh McAughley was the leading scorer for the youth team in the 2007/08 season, netting thirteen times in league and cup appearances, and the fast, strong striker has also featured in the reserves, although not as regularly as those mentioned above, and it was he who netted the winner in the reserves final game of the season at Accrington Stanley last month.

Young midfielder Ryan Fraughan is also beginning to make an impression for the youths and as he looks to carry that forward to the reserves, he will be hoping he can take his form with him.  Despite being a central-midfielder, the blonde haired youngster netted seven times for the reserves and youths this season, but perhaps it is his eye for that defence splitting pass that is his greatest asset.

Tranmere are famed for being able to produce excellent young footballers, with the likes of Ryan Taylor, Clint Hill, Jason Koumas and Alan Mahon coming through the Tranmere academy in the last ten or so years to play first team football and it looks as if this batch of youngsters could be no different.

After all his impressive youth and reserve team appearances, Terry Gornell has started travelling with the first team to away games, and has so far been named on the substitutes bench against Morecambe (Johnstone's Paints Trophy), Southend and Huddersfield (league), as he looks to follow in the footsteps of Craig Curran.

Central-midfielder Paul Henry, now 19, has already made the break into the first team this season too.  The former reserve and youth team captain continued to impress at the start of the season for the second string, and on November 17th, he made a long awaited debut for the first team, coming on as a substitute away at Doncaster Rovers.

A month later, things got better for Henry, nephew of former Rovers midfielder Nick Henry, as suspensions on injuries resulted in him starting for Tranmere away at Luton.  Rovers lost the game, but Henry put in a Man of the Match performance, impressing many of the Tranmere fans at the match.

This though was Henry's last appearance for the first XI, and since he has been sent out on loan to local Welsh Premier League side T.N.S. (The New Saints), where he made seven appearances and scored once towards the end of the season.

Another player who went out on loan to the Welsh league this season was Michael Johnston.  The same age as Henry, central-defender Johnston joined Bangor City in September and impressed so much with his performances that in January his loan spell with the club was extended until the end of the season.

Johnston eventually made over 40 appearances for the Farrar Road side during the 2007/08 season, helping them to the fifth in the table and a cup final, whilst he also won the Bangor City supporters player of the year and the Welsh player of the year, as voted for by newspaper readers.

Danny Holmes is a third youngster who spent time out on loan this season, as he played for local non-League club Southport.  Making over ten appearances for the club in a two-month loan spell, the right-back thoroughly impressed 'Port manager Peter Davenport and is expected to make the break through to first team football at Prenton Park next season.

This summer, contracts are up for all three of Johnston, Holmes and Henry, and although it is not yet known whether any have been offered a new contract, it is hard to see why any would be released.

There have of course though been some low points for the youngsters this season, none more so than the news that 17-year old winger was involved in a fatal car crash during March.

Tragically, two died in the accident, whilst a further two, including Moran, survived.  The youngster continues to be in hospital in a poor state of health a month after the accident, and we would like to wish the youngster all the best in his recovery from a terrible turn of events.

Progress though as been made for the youngsters this year, and with so much experience under their belts from reserve team football, the likes of Cresswell and Gornell, who will both be too old for youth team football next season, Taylor, Fraughan and McAughley can only improve.

It would be nice to think that Gornell and Cresswell, along with Johnston and Holmes, and to a certain extent Paul Henry, could all make that break through into the first team next season, especially with the likelihood that John Mullin and Mike Jones will both be leaving the club this summer.

However, Ronnie Moore's apparent reluctance to give youngsters a chance in the first team could prevent this from happening, although the talented Gornell could well be banging on the door too hard come September and October for the manager to ignore him.

It's been a successful year generally though for the youth team, with many youngsters earning their place in the academy and first team squads next season.  We all know how much a Tranmere fan loves to see one of their own on the pitch, but we'll just have to see whether any more youngsters come out of the productive Tranmere academy and show they have what it takes to play at first team level.  Thankfully though, a number of the Tranmere youngsters do have a bright future ahead of them.