Rovers boss Micky Mellon met with the local press this week to look ahead to Monday afternoon’s fixture against Doncaster Rovers.
Mellon discussed a range of topics, including injury news, training schedules and the busy Christmas period.
“We always train well. We’re being tough on ourselves, and we need to carry on with this into Monday. We were disappointed with the performance at Grimsby, we need to recognise that for the supporters who travelled. We have worked hard this week and we should expect to be back to ourselves on Boxing Day and to deliver a Tranmere performance.”
“By now, with the group of players we have, we’ve designed a model which we believe can get us wins. We need to get back to the basics and do them right. We didn’t set the tempo properly at Grimsby, that should be a given. This week was about making the lads recognise the tempo that we need to play at, so we can score goals, keep clean sheets, and get points on the board.”
Talking about performances, Mellon highlighted the performances which haven’t been good enough, however those which can prove how well the Rovers can play including that at Northampton Town and Swindon Town.
“Saturday’s performance wasn’t good enough, but the performance at Northampton was, and that at Swindon. Clinical finishing could have won us those games. We want to try and win every game, but we’ve had a lot of away games. We’ve got an opportunity now at home, but we must go back to the performances like shown at Swindon, Bolton Wanderers and Northampton.”
“We’ve missed some big opportunities in games which could have won us games. Right now, there’s no massive panics - we need to keep this group moving, and part of that is consistency of performances to get results.”
“Goals win games. We need to create the chances, which we have been doing, but we’ve got to put these away. On Boxing Day, we’ll have a good crowd, a good atmosphere, against a good side, and we’ve got a chance to put last weekend behind us and put it right this Monday.”
The Tranmere faithful always get behind the players on the pitch, something which is never taken for granted but is always appreciated by Mellon, his staff and his players.
“The crowd are always terrific, but we’ve now got to match that, which we didn’t do last Saturday. I keep going back to that, I don’t want people to think that we’ve been let off the hook from the weekend. We’ve got standards and they weren’t met. We must be the Tranmere team I know that we can be, and that is from the first whistle on Monday.”
The Whites have 3 games in 6 days in the Christmas and New Year period, starting with Monday against Doncaster, before an away fixture at Barrow on the 29th and an away game at Crewe on New Year’s Day.
“It is all about managing ourselves in this packed week of fixtures. We don’t have a huge squad of experienced League Two players that can move on quickly if they pick up any knocks. We’ll work smartly over the next few days so we can be as fresh as we need to be for the games coming up.”
“We are concentrating on performance and consistency now. Standards have been set and we can’t slip below them. If we hit those standards in the next few games, and we can be ruthless, then we will pick up points and put pressure on those teams above us.”
Injuries have not been kind to Micky Mellon’s side so far this season, however suspensions have not helped the side either.
“Regarding injuries, we’re still waiting on a few. This includes Joel (Mumbongo). He had 45 minutes the other day, but he’s not quite there yet, however moving in the right direction. Jordan Turnbull is back after suspension and (Dynel) Simeu is back after the next game. Elliot Nevitt hasn’t trained today but apart from that, the ones who have been injured are still injured.”
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