Tranmere have confirmed the news that goalkeeper coach Eric Nixon has left the club following Saturday’s match at Crewe.
Nixon tweeted on Saturday morning saying that the game would be his final in his role at the club, and it was confirmed on Sunday with a tweet from the Tranmere Rovers official Twitter account wishing him well. Despite Nixon’s long ties with the club, there has been no coverage of his departure on the official website.
The circumstances around his departure are murky at best, with no reason being given publicly and seemingly no new job lined-up elsewhere. Nixon, who worked under boss Micky Mellon at Fleetwood – where he also coached Scott Davies – had re-joined the club ahead of the 2017/18 season.
Tranmere’s squad signed a shirt for Nixon and presented it with him before the game with Crewe.
A club legend
Nixon’s history with Tranmere goes back well beyond his current spell as goalkeeper coach. As a player, he joined Tranmere from Manchester City in 1988 and spent a glorious ten years at the club as Rovers moved from the old Fourth Division to the cusp of the Premier League.
Among the highlights of his time as a player at Prenton Park was the 1991 play-off win over Bolton Wanderers at Wembley, a result which put Tranmere in to what is now known as the Championship.
He moved in to coaching at Prenton Park and even after retiring he was asked to return to the squad as an emergency back-up keeper, making sporadic first team appearances up to the age of 40.
His oldest professional appearance as a player came for Sheffield Wednesday in a similar scenario as the Owls were kit by injury crisis. At the time, Nico shared goalkeeper coaching rules at both Wednesday and Tranmere.
As well as working for Mellon at Fleetwood, Nixon also spent time as goalkeeper coach at Chesterfield under manager Paul Cook, another ex-Tranmere team mate, as well as coaching at Macclesfield Town in 2014.
In July 2017, he returned to the fold at Prenton Park following Iain Turner’s departure. It was fitting that he was involved in Tranmere’s promotion back to the Football League in May.
Tranmere fans everywhere no doubt wish Eric well for the future.
