A 94-year era came to an end today when Tranmere Rovers where relegated from the Football League.

Plymouth Argyle ended all hope of taking the survival battle to the final game of the season with a 3-2 victory this afternoon.

The loss combined with Hartlepool's win over Exeter relegated Rovers from League Two.

Cheltenham will join Tranmere in the fifth tier next season after going down 1-0 to second-placed Shrewsbury, who celebrated promotion to League One thanks to Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro's strike.

Hartlepool's Jordan Hugill, a former Tranmere loanee - and brought to the north east by ex-Rovers boss Ronnie Moore - scored Pools' winner in a 2-1 success over the Grecians.

Previous manager Micky Adams left Tranmere "by mutual consent" last week after presiding over a run which had seen his side slump to rock bottom of the football league.

Joint caretaker managers Alan Rogers and Shaun Garnett were determined to preserve Rovers’ record of never having been relegated into non-league football since they joined the Football League in 1921.

Rogers urged his players to "run through a brick wall" in a bid to overcome a Plymouth side seeking victory to cling on to a place in the play-offs.

Backed by a fantastic noisy following behind the goal, Rovers started well and saw Donnelly force a save out of Plymouth keeper Luke McCormick from Kayode Odejayi's flick on.

However, on six minutes the home side won a penalty when Max Power was ruled to have fouled Dominic Blizzard, with Reuben Reid sending Owain Fon Williams the wrong way to put the Pilgrims 1-0 up.

Rovers started to dominate possession and a long spell inside the Plymouth half paid off on 34 minutes.

Michael Ihiekwe's cross was turned behind for a corner and after Odejayi stepped over a low Koumas corner, Power curled into the top left corner from 15 yards.

However, two minutes later Rovers were behind once more.

A corner was cleared outside the Rovers area but Donnelly lost possession to Tareiq Holmes-Dennis who fired into the bottom left corner from 25 yards.

Fon Williams pulled off a superb one-handed save to deny Alessandra on 67 minutes, the keeper reacting quickly to palm a close range header behind for a corner.

Rovers were agonisingly close to an equaliser on 75 minutes, with a Koumas cross from a clever free kick routine deflecting over McCormick only for Carl McHugh to head off the line at the back post.

Kayode Odejayi held off a defender and laid the ball off to Hume on 77 minutes but the ball didn't quite fall for the striker and McCormick was able to gather.

But Rovers' survival hopes were dealt a massive blow on 81 minutes.

With Tranmere throwing men forward, the hosts hit on the counter attack and Alessandra fired past Fon Williams from 15 yards.

Odejayi fired in to pull one back with a minute left, but it was not enough to save Rovers who  exited League Two after winning just nine of their 45 league games.

Fans are making their feelings known on Tranmere Rovers Suporters facebook page.

  • It's been a squad made up of loan players and has-beens for years now - no way to run a club. But now we've got a new chairman and a vacant manager slot, we can start from scratch and begin again. Hopefully the club can be built up to reach the old levels we used to play at again.
  • Every player should hang their head in shame and hand back their wages to the fans and then leave.
  • Said from the day Ronnie took over Hartlepool it would be him to send us down. Karma well and truly came back and bite us on the ****
  • Can't win a league or promotion with journeymen. They may have experience but they lack the commitment and dedication to the club that is needed. A sad, dark day but I'll think of the good old days of the 90s to keep me going.
  • Neither the players nor Adams earned themselves anything remotely resembling credit this year.
  • Been a fan for 40 yrs never thought I'd see the day this would happen!  Gutted...no matter what I'm still a fan. Been there for good times and bad.