Tranmere’s Joe Murphy: ‘Eight of the team weren’t born when I made my debut’ | Tranmere
The 2000 League Cup last between Tranmere and Leicester was the sixteenth recreation of Joe Murphy’s first-team profession. The goalkeeper was 18 and standing nervously contained in the outdated Wembley tunnel when he was approached by his reverse quantity, Tim Flowers. “He stated I will need to have balls the scale of an elephant,” Murphy remembers. Cup last reminiscences have been flooding again to Murphy since Martin O’Neill, Leicester’s supervisor for his or her 2-1 win in opposition to John Aldridge’s Tranmere, drew the 2 golf equipment collectively within the second spherical of the Carabao Cup. Greater than 23 years and 650 membership appearances later Murphy, now 42, will once more be in purpose for Tranmere within the reunion on Tuesday, having been designated the League Two facet’s cup goalkeeper by the supervisor, Ian Dawes. The previous Republic of Eire worldwide’s final outing got here within the first‑spherical penalty shootout victory at Barnsley, who have been additionally Tranmere’s fourth-round opponents en path to Wembley in 1999-2000. “It’s all a bit surreal,” says Murphy, who’s each participant and goalkeeping coach at Prenton Park today. “I’ve been full circle club-wise with coming again three years in the…