As you may have seen, a week ago we launched our unofficial Tranmere Christmas card for 2018, but the inspiration was a card we vaguely remembered that was produced by Tranmere nearly three decades ago.
When we set about creating our card, it was very much with some early Tranmere cards in mind. We had a memory of a Christmas card Rovers produced back in the 1990s but couldn’t put our finger on when exactly.
Following yesterday’s match against Oldham, we were fortunate enough to be shown the exact card that we had very loosely based our design style on. It was instantly clear that the Tranmere Christmas card in question was from 1990.
The giveaway with the date is of course the Leyland DAF Trophy that sits at the centre of the image. Tranmere defeated Bristol Rovers 2-1 at Wembley in May 1991 thanks to goals from Jim Steel and Ian Muir.
It’s fitting that the trophy sits front and centre of the image, with central defender Mark Hughes and Steve Vickers either side. There are 14 players in total – can you name them all? We will put the answers at the bottom of this page – no cheating!
We were delighted to see this original 1990 Tranmere Christmas card. There are some parallels with our own card that we’ve produced this year, not least that a trophy takes centre stage!
The 2018 Rovers Rearguard Tranmere Christmas card features 23 of the current first team squad as well as manager Micky Mellon, and Rover the Dog! While we used a snowy Birkenhead Park as our location, the 1990 version was set at Prenton Park by the looks of it.
If you want to find out more of the story behind our own Tranmere Christmas card, visit this page: Rovers Rearguard Tranmere Christmas card 2018
Tranmere’s official 1991 Christmas card
Along with being handed the 1990 card in mint condition, we were also shown the 1991 version (Above). This was a photograph rather than an illustration, but was a festive scene nonetheless.
It looks like the players may have gone to the new Pyramids Shopping Centre in Birkenhead for the photo, but it’s hard to tell. Please use the comments below, our forum, Facebook, Twitter or email to let us know if you can recall the details.
At the centre of this photo is Eric Nixon sitting on a throne with the trophy from the 1991 Play-Off Final victory over Bolton Wanderers. The names on this card are much harder to identify, however, we think we’ve got most of them. The late Steve Cooper is at the forefront.
If you’d like to purchase our 2018 unofficial Tranmere Christmas card, head over to our online shop.
Who’s in the 1990 card?
Okay, we’re pretty sure that the players featuring in that 1990 card are as follows.
Back row left-to-right: Eddie Bishop, Tony Thomas, Chris Malkin, Jim Harvey, Eric Nixon, Mark McCarrick, John Morrissey, Ian Muir, Dave Higgins, Steve Mungall
Front row left-to-right: Jim Steel, Steve Vickers, Mark Hughes, Neil McNab
