Tranmere Rovers manager Nigel Adkins has spoken of the importance of his players committing to the cause, ahead of a big game against Forest Green Rovers this weekend.
Tranmere host the Gloucestershire side at Prenton Park on Saturday afternoon (3pm kick-off) in an important tie for both teams.
The visitors sit in 22nd place in League Two, one place above Adkins’ side.
ON STABILITY OF BECOMING PERMANENT MANAGER:
“It provides stability, it gives clarity, everyone knows there’s somebody in charge, me, from a manager’s point of view, and obviously from my point of view I want total commitment from everybody.
“The cause is Tranmere Rovers Football Club. Be committed to it. I’m committing myself to it, and everybody else needs to be committing to it, and we keep moving forward in the right direction.”
ON POSITIVES FROM STEVENAGE:
“We’ve gone away from home against a team who are in the play-offs in League One, always going to be a challenging game with the direct, physical nature of the game, but we competed really well. That’s what I was pleased about. We scored three goals away from home, obviously Luke Norris returned and 70 minutes from the long-term injury he had, got on the scoresheet as well, you could see the impact he had for the team.
“It’s a shame we lost Paul Lewis to injury but Chris Merrie made an impact coming off the bench. So we’ve got a group of players who are all totally committed to the cause, a couple of good goals, Robbie Apter who’s on loan from Blackpool scored a super through ball.
“Kieron Morris making an impact coming off the bench as well, scoring his goal.
“Fine margins – we’re crossing the ball in the 100th+ minute, we could have scored, the keeper’s got it and they’ve gone down the other end. But for me, I saw a total committed performance and some really good football from a group of players who want to do well. I want total commitment from everybody and that’s what I’m seeing.”
ON FOREST GREEN:
“Dave’s gone in, new manager, obviously done well through the academy at Southampton, they’ve got a philosophy of how they want to go and play and sometimes it’s challenging, but when it comes off, it’s very good. From my point of view, we’ll look at that, and just focus as much as we can on understanding Forest Green Rovers, and focus on what we can do at Prenton Park to give ourselves an opportunity to win the game of football.”
ON TEAM NEWS:
“We’ve got a couple of long-term injuries now and Joe Starbuck is going to be out for several weeks and unfortunately Paul Lewis picked up a hamstring injury at Stevenage and it looks like he’s going to be out for several weeks as well. They’re the two long-term injuries.
“We’ve got one or two little niggles which I’m not going to divulge at this moment in time but as far as I’m concerned, I’d like to think everyone’s putting themselves forward in contention for the weekend.”
Image: TRFC
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