Micky Mellon praises Tranmere defence as play-off charge stays on track

Micky Mellon attributed Tranmere’s victory over rock-bottom Notts County to his much-improved defence after prevailing 1-0 at Prenton Park.

Connor Jennings grabbed the only goal of the game in the 69th minute, leaving troubled County with nothing to show for their efforts.

The win was Tranmere’s third in four matches with only one goal conceded across that run of results, much to the satisfaction of Mellon.

He said: “Every credit to the players for fighting and getting us another clean sheet. Quite rightly we’ve said that we’ve got to start getting them.

“On a difficult pitch, we’ve tried to get it down and play as much as we could, but it’s a massive three points and at this stage of the season, so we’re just delighted that we came out at the end and got the victory.

“From minute one we played with a good intensity that gave us a great opportunity to pick up a really valuable three points.

“We wanted to make sure at the very minimum that we remained in this division because we were unknown and didn’t know how we were going to perform so credit to the players.

“Now we can have a right good go at trying to get into that little cup competition they call the play-offs and make an impact hopefully.”

Jennings came close in the first half when Ryan Schofield tipped a sumptuous volley over the bar.

Tranmere were finding their opponents a tough nut to crack but just before half-time Schofield prevented Ben Barclay from scoring an own goal with another full-stretch save.

Rovers were struggling to make the breakthrough, but with just over 20 minutes remaining, Ben Pringle drove at the Magpies defence before playing in Jennings to convert his fifth league goal of the season and secure the points for the hosts.

County boss Neal Ardley said: “I thought it was one of those scrappy games that we might have been able to nick 1-0.

“First half we didn’t pass well enough, we kept trying to go forward to quickly and turned the ball over. That invited pressure on ourselves.

“I thought we defended our defensive third well with bodies around the box, we defended set pieces well. Ryan’s (Schofield) made a couple of great saves.

“It’s so disappointing because I couldn’t see them opening us up in the second half. And then, I don’t think you could recreate that goal if you tried.

“It’s a clearance, we’ve got it under control, Jim (O’Brien) overstretches and heads it into the path of their guy.

“With just that one moment we got wrong we got punished.

“We’re a good team, we’ve got 12 games to get as many points as we can on the board and we can do it.”