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Ian Goodison believes he could and should have been playing for Tranmere this season, helping with the fight to keep the club in the Football League, at the age of 42.

The Jamaican international centre back ended a 10 year spell with Rovers at the end of last season, when his contract was not renewed.

Goodison was 41 when he played the last of his 410 games for Tranmere in a 2-1 home defeat to Bradford City, which consigned the Wirral club to relegation from League One.

He was the oldest professional playing in the Football League at the time and a hugely popular figure with supporters.

He has no doubts he remains fit and able enough to have carried on for another season and reckons he would have been offered a deal for the current season had Ronnie Moore remained as manager.

Goodison said: “I could have played this season, especially in this league (League Two). No disrespect to the players we have got here now, but I think I could have done a better job.

“If Ronnie Moore had still been manager at the end of last season, I would have had high hopes of being okay for another year. I think I could have carried on playing until I was 43 or 44.”

Goodison figured in only 20 games during his final season at Prenton Park and missed more matches through injury than was usual.

The man from Montego Bay, who sustained his long-running career with a unique fitness regime, insists the injuries were not a sign that age was catching up with him.

He said: “Last season I was getting hurt because I wasn’t playing as much. That was the problem. I was hardly ever injured until last season.”

Moore, who managed Goodison during two spells at Prenton Park (2006 to 2009 and 2012 to 2014) was suspended from duty by Tranmere in February 2014 and sacked two months later, for a minor breach in the FA’s rules on betting.

Goodison says he did not have the same rapport with assistant manager John McMahon, who took caretaker charge of team for the remainder of last season.

Goodison recalled: “I went to a meeting with Mick Horton (director of football operations at the time) and John McMahon in which they basically said: thank you for your services.

“It was embarrassing for everybody in the room. I think I deserved better after 10 years and 400-plus games.

“I was upset. A lot of the senior players thought I would be kept on. They were surprised and unhappy about what happened.

“The club could have said: we would like you to help us rebuild. You can play in certain games, some you won’t but you will be among the lads to help.

“I thought I was going to get another season on the strength of my performances. Instead I was pushed through the door. They did not sign one player as good as me.”

Goodison has not played football since leaving Tranmere.

A testimonial game, originally planned for the end of last season, was put on hold after Goodison found himself among more than a dozen footballers and former footballers who were arrested and bailed as part of a police investigation into spot fixing allegations made by a national newspaper towards the end of 2013.

The National Crime agency dropped the investigation after the judge in an unrelated trial cast doubt on evidence provided the newspaper’s reporter, Mazher Mahmood.

The judge’s statement at the Tulisa Contostavlos trial, that there were “strong grounds” for believing Mahmood had told lies, prompted the NCA to issue a statement which said it was “releasing from bail 13 subjects arrested in relation to a football match spot fixing investigation so that further enquiries can be undertaken.”

Tranmere’s new owners Mark and Nicola Palios, who took charge at Prenton Park after Goodison had left, reinstated the testimonial for the end of this season.

Goodison’s game will take place at Prenton Park on Monday May 4, two days after Tranmere’s final League Two fixture at home to Bury.