Tranmere Rovers Football Club

Rovers will be aiming to reach the third-round stage of the competition, where a potential Premier League tie could await. 

 

And following the disappointing 5-2 defeat away at Grimsby Town in Sky Bet League Two on Tuesday night, Mellon’s attention is now firmly fixed on the Southport tie, and is looking for a positive response from his players.

 

Speaking to the media, Mellon said: “You look forward to the next game but there is a process involved in getting ready for the next game.

 

“We want to rattle through the work, get people recovered and get back on the training pitch, learn from certain things that we didn’t like and get going for the next game, or the next exam as we call it, and get back at it.”

 

Mellon has installed a set of “principles” that he and his players work towards and abide by, following Tranmere’s return to the EFL.

 

And Mellon admits that mistakes were made on Tuesday at Blundell Park and he was disappointed in the manner that defeat was confirmed in Lincolnshire, but he is confident that Rovers can rise to the occasion on Sunday, having worked hard during training. 

 

The Scot continued: “The way we work, we work to a set of principles, I’ve got to try and organise a group of players and the way that they play as a team so they all know what each other are doing, so we have a set of principles that we stick to, and we have to say on Tuesday night that we didn’t do enough or them well enough or have the right attitude towards doing them.

 

“We have designed these principles at the start of the season so maybe it sounds too complicated but that’s what we are looking for when we speak at the end of the game, because we all know how we want to defend, we all know how we want to attack, we all know how we want to counter attack and deal with turn overs and set-plays.

 

“So when it doesn’t get done, to me and the coaching staff and the other players, it’s clear, and it’s disappointing that we didn’t stick to them.”