Micky Mellon already focused on Tranmere’s next game after win over Exeter

Posted Tuesday, April 19, 2022 by PA

Tranmere boss Micky Mellon is already fully focused on the next game despite his side’s confidence-boosting 2-0 win against Exeter.

Rovers gave their play-off hopes a welcome lift thanks to goals from Josh Hawkes and Elliott Nevitt at Prenton Park.

It was a first win in six after sliding out of automatic promotion contention.

And it dented the Grecians’ title bid as they fell five points off table-toppers Forest Green.

“Every game’s a must win,” stressed Mellon. “We’ve just got to keep going and see where it gets us.

“We understand that there are going to be ups and downs as the season comes towards its climax.

“We know we have to keep our focus, keep our heads down and keep trying to knock the results out. That’s what we’ll be trying to do.

“It was a good all-round performance at an important time of the year.

“We scored a couple of goals and keeping a clean sheet is also very important.

“Over the weekend with the very tough opposition we’ve got we knew the minimum we needed to get was four points and that’s what we got.

“We wanted six, of course we did. But we’re all right, we got a draw away from home and backed that up with a great result today.

“We go to the next game now trying to get a result in that. We’ll just keep going.”

City looked way off the pace as they struggled to handle Rovers’ game plan.

Some of their players looked lethargic, especially heading to the final quarter of the game.

But Matt Taylor refused to use the club’s heavy travel schedule as an excuse.

He said: “Some of the players looked like they were on empty towards the end of the game, which they shouldn’t have been because Tranmere had the same prep.

“That’s the mental state and where the game pushes you to thinking you’ve got nothing left.

“It’s always easier to run a bit harder if you’re ahead as opposed to chasing it.

“It was maybe a game too far for some of our personnel.

“The game wore us down and as it went on we looked more tired. That’s because of the opposition and the pressure.

“It’s rare for us to be behind, it’s rare for us to be beaten but also to be outplayed and dominated in some areas and mentally that seeped into our game.

“We hit the crossbar but we went behind to a poor goal. We started to come off second best in the moments which mattered.

“We made too many poor decisions. I have no qualms with our scoreline.

“Both goals were avoidable. The second goal was so easily avoidable, it was a frustrating moment.”