Tranmere Rovers manager Micky Mellon is ready for a key block of fixtures in Sky Bet League Two after preparations for Saturday’s trip to Port Vale were adapted due to the weather.
Rovers trained on a local Wirral beach after the pitches at their Campus training ground were frozen over following heavy snow fall in the North West, and Mellon was pleased that his players had to adapt themselves in a different environment.
Heading in to Saturday’s game in Staffordshire sitting 10th in the fourth-tier on the cusp of the Play-Offs, Mellon’s men face a Port Vale side who are without a manager after Neil Aspin’s departure on Wednesday.
Mellon said: “The beach is on our doorstep, so it was good form them to have a run around and experience a different environment and get to know the Wirral better, it was good for them to get themselves out.
“We want to get on with the games now and that is what it is about, it’s obviously difficult to get prepared football wise when we’re not on the grass but there’s other ways we can do that.
“The weather is what it is, the whole country is the same, we’ll do what we can to be best prepared for it.”
Mellon also revealed that striker Ishmael Miller has asked to have his wages reduced during his spell on the sidelines following his hamstring injury sustained against Swindon Town at Prenton Park recently.
Mellon explained: “He obviously got injured and came to me about a week ago and we had a conversation and he said to me ‘stop my wages,’ so Ishmael Miller wants Tranmere to keep moving forward and said ‘stop my wages until I get fit again,’ which is probably the first time I’ve heard that, he doesn’t have to do that. He knows where we are as a Club to move the playing squad forward so at this moment in time, Ishmael Miller isn’t getting paid by Tranmere.
“He’s had an operation yesterday on his hamstring, he’ll get himself fit again and come back in to the group and be one of us again but at this minute he’s not getting paid by Tranmere, which says a lot about him as a man, often footballers get the wrong publicity but he thought of Tranmere before anything else and that’s brilliant.”
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