Micky Mellon is confident Tranmere Rovers can secure what would represent a ‘massive three points’ when hosting Mansfield Town in Sky Bet League Two on Friday evening.
Four of Rovers’ last five league outings have been away from home, though a welcome return to Prenton Park is on the horizon.
The Tranmere boss is eager for the Whites to bounce back from a challenging one-month period and has full belief that the players are capable of issuing an emphatic response.
Sizing up the next task in hand, Mellon said: “We have to keep the players aligned with what we have to do to be a good team. It is not about us creating any big dramas, it’s about us concentrating on what makes us good players and a good team.
“We are really disappointed with the results and the goals we’ve given away recently, but we have got to move on now. I understand that people are disappointed, and we are too, but we can only look to the next game and try to get a result.
“We had about four or five performances where we stuck to the same team and same formation. You’ve got a decision to make as a manager, and I will always try to make the right decision, to shake things up to get a spark from somewhere.
“I would have to put my hands up and say that it didn’t work [against Northampton], but we did it with the right intentions. For the second half, we went back to what we’d been doing before but had given ourselves too much to do by then.
“Shapes and formations do have a part to play, but people still have jobs to do. You can blame shapes, but there is a moment where a job has to be done. The principles of how we want to play will not change and we have been speaking to the players about just getting good at that again.”
Mansfield head into Friday’s contest on an impressive run of form, though Mellon has stressed all focus must remain within ahead of this exciting fixture.
“There are a lot of teams on good form at the minute, as is always the way at this stage of the season. We just have to concentrate on our own stuff and getting that right. I’m absolutely convinced that, if we do that, we will cause them many problems,” stated the Scot.
“We are only looking at the next game with optimism. We are looking at what it can bring, and there is the opportunity to go out there and gain a massive three points to put us third. It is the opportunity to play in a Friday night at Tranmere, so there are only positives for us from what we can achieve out of this game.”