Tranmere Rovers’ host an in-form Sutton United at Prenton Park in the Super White Army’s first home game of the New Year.
Tranmere are coming into this match on the back of a frustrating 1-0 defeat to Crewe Alexandra and are looking to get back to winning ways following a string of wins at the end of 2022 against Doncaster Rovers and Barrow.
On the other hand, Sutton are in red hot form, winning four of their last five and three wins in a row - none more satisfying than a 2-1 win over local rivals AFC Wimbledon. The U’s sit 12th in the table, just two points outside the play-offs.
Turnbull wants to see a reaction
Speaking to the press today, Jordan Turnbull described the frustration of the Crewe game but states the performance was good.
”I think we played really well for large parts of the game, particularly first half. I think a goal changes the whole dynamic of the game, but it wasn’t meant to be, we need to pick ourselves up and go again Saturday.”
With the League Two table being tightly compact, Rovers’ slip up still only means that they are five points from the play-offs, with their opponents only just above them.
”It’s super tight, there’s a lot of teams fighting for those spots at the minute,” he said.
“I think there was a point were we were closer to fourth place than the team three places below us. For a chance for us to go closer we need to put little runs together, it’s no good winning here, drawing there and losing there. Them two wins were really good, now we’ve got two home games so we’ve got to capitalise on that and pick up some points.”
Home comforts
Tranmere have a great chance to pick up some points with home advantage, with three of their next four outings being held at Prenton Park.
They have picked up 17 points from a possible 33 available at home, so one thing to improve on is to make their home turf a real fortress.
“We like playing at home, we’ll be going out on Saturday to win the game, we had a tough game away against them earlier in the season so we know what to expect. We’ve been working on it today and to lock ourselves up.“
Turnball has played with many different defensive partners throughout the season, but injuries, suspensions and loan recalls means that Micky Mellon has to chop and change between players.
His most recent partner is Tom Davies, however Turnball insists it isn’t hard to adapt.
”I played with Tom for the first time at the home game against Doncaster, he had a long suspension and it was even longer with games getting cancelled and the FA Cup weekend but it’s time to rest and go again. We’ve got a busy period coming up and I’ve enjoyed playing with Tom, I think he’s done really well.
“Defensively, we’ve done really well as a team but it’s just about getting forward and scoring a few goals.”
