‘We’re giving ourselves a chance’ – Tranmere boss Micky Mellon

Posted Wednesday, March 11, 2020 by PA

Resurgent Tranmere claimed another crucial victory in their bid to avoid relegation from League One as they held on to beat Blackpool 2-1 at Bloomfield Road.

And Rovers manager Micky Mellon has now turned his attention to Saturday’s home clash with Lincoln as his side aim to extend their three-match winning streak.

Goals from Morgan Ferrier and James Vaughan gave the visitors a 2-0 half-time lead before Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall cut the deficit.

Blackpool had chances to draw level but Tranmere clinched the win that closes the gap on fourth-bottom Wimbledon to three points.

“We’re delighted to have got a result like this at such a difficult place to come to,” Mellon said.

“We fought really hard from the first minute to the last, so credit to all the players for that.

“We were asked some serious questions tonight, but probably the most important thing of all for me was the way we answered all those questions.

“Particularly towards the end, we needed to defend manfully. It was a really tough ask for us, but we got through it in the end.

“We just paraded pure hard work and lots of desire, and sometimes you need that from your players.

“We were boosted by a fantastic away following too.

“We have played a lot of games lately but I trust this group of players to keep performing on a consistent basis.

“We’re giving ourselves a chance, but we move on to another massive game on Saturday now. All the players know what jobs they’ve got to do.”

Tranmere’s triumph also spoiled Neil Critchley’s first home game in charge of Blackpool.

But Critchley insisted he could not fault the effort of his players as they came up short against Rovers.

“We had plenty of opportunities, but we’ve just not been clinical enough,” Critchley said.

“We had some good chances really early in the game. If one of those goes in it could have made the game so different.

“Tranmere made life difficult for us, but we were expecting it to be that way. It was during those difficult moments that we didn’t really do well enough.

“The players gave it everything, though. I can’t fault any of them for effort. We just couldn’t get that second goal that maybe our overall performance merited.

“The game was a bit frantic at times, but again that’s maybe what you should expect.

“We had good momentum in the second half, and if Connor Ronan’s shot had gone in then the outcome could have been so much different.

“I can’t fault the spirit of the players and the fans were amazing throughout as well, it’s just a shame we couldn’t get another at the end.”