The Tranmere goalkeeper prepares to take on Leicester in the League Cup, 23 years after facing them in the competition’s final
The 2000 League Cup final between Tranmere and Leicester was the 16th game of Joe Murphy’s first-team career. The goalkeeper was 18 and standing nervously inside the old Wembley tunnel when he was approached by his opposite number, Tim Flowers. “He said I must have balls the size of an elephant,” Murphy remembers.
Cup final memories have been flooding back to Murphy since Martin O’Neill, Leicester’s manager for their 2-1 win against John Aldridge’s Tranmere, drew the two clubs together in the second round of the Carabao Cup.
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