Tranmere boss Micky Mellon praised the fitness of his side in his post-match press conference, after Rovers were able to break down a resilient Colchester side with a stunning second-half display.
Goals in the second-half from Josh Hawkes and Peter Clarke were enough to earn Rovers a well-deserved victory on the evening and Mellon made no secret of the importance of a Friday night victory.
"We've spoken all week about how important it is traditionally for us on Friday nights to perform for our fantastic fanbase, so we knew we had that responsibility tonight and the players have been out there and really turned it on and put in a really top performance and got a really deserved, massive three points."
A key to the victory tonight was the superior fitness showed by the Rovers players, breaking down a tiring Colchester side in the second period. Mellon was sure to praise the commitment that his men showed.
"We just kept going because we know the qualities that we have within the group and one of them is fitness. We understand how fit the group is and that's a great credit to the fitness people here and the lads for putting the hard yards in."
The boss' half-time encouragement clearly helped to spur Rovers on, he revealed what he had said to his men and how he believed that a breakthrough was on the horizon.
"We said at halftime there's nothing really to be changed, the only thing that can change is if you negatively get frustrated because you don't believe you got the rewards for how you played.
"But we came out of the traps like lightning in the second half and the pressure we put on them was immense and I just believed at some stage we would get that fortune that's always needed to score goals or that quality that's needed and we were able to do that in the end."
The gaffer also heaped the praise on goalscorer Josh Hawkes and revealed that there's more to come from the 22-year-old.
"He's a fantastic addition to the squad, we're delighted to have him here. We were always determined that we were going to try and get some flair in wide areas and some class in wide areas, so when we were able to get him from Sunderland we were really pleased.
"He's getting fitter, he never came here as fit as everybody else because he was a wee bit on the back foot. But, as you can see he's a strong boy and he's getting fitter all the time and he'll be more and more important for us as the season goes on."
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