Micky Mellon, Tranmere Rovers' boss, spoke to the press following his side being held 1-1 at home by an in-form Walsall.

Although the game lacking any real individual quality, Tranmere arguably shaded the first half in terms of chances and possesion.

Despite this, Mick Flynn's Walsall made the breakthrough, with former Rovers man Danny Johnson's lob giving the visitors the lead with less than 20 minutes remaining until Josh Hawkes struck the games leveller with ten minutes left on the clock.

  • A credible Tranmere performance

Micky Mellon was otherwise pleased with his players efforts: "I thought the first half were very good, played some good football but from that, maybe a bit of quality from a cross but I think leading up to that was very good.

"We were pretty much in control for most of the game but particularly first half.

"Second half, it was free-kick after free-kick and from then, the game never really got any flow which definitely suited Walsall better than us, a lot of time wasting and knocking the flow of the game which the referee has got to get a grip of.”

Mellon was disappointed with his side going behind, which he felt they didn’t deserve. 

"I think them scoring was totally against the balance of anything that was in the game, I just thought this can't be happening,” he said.

”This football can drive you mad at times but at the end of that we kept going and got what we deserved, an equaliser but we just weren't able to find many moments but we tried, maybe it was getting at the end of a cross but I thought we played really well - I thought the two midfield players were excellent."

  • New signing Brad Walker

On the signing of Brad Walker and how much he's settled, Micky added:

"He's (Walker) come in for competition for places for the midfield places."

  • Praise of the youth

When asked about the youth, he praised the performance of Jake Burton, who entered the fray upon injury to Joel Mumbongo. He was pleased with the 21-year-old's performance.

"That's a little sign of what were trying to do, were trying to get the young players into the team to hit a level of performance, it makes it easier for me to keep him in there because when they perform, you Mellsay to them right, carry on!"

  • New faces

With the departure of Ross Doohan to Forest Green Rovers, Polish keeper Mateus Hewelt was given a chance to shine. The usual rotation keeper, who's been used in the cup games, started for Rovers and according to Mellon, looked "comfortable" and he is "looking at the bigger picture."

Mellon was then asked about recruitment and the goalkeeping situation. 

We still want to bring more in, so that's good recruitment from the football club and its good coaching from the football guys because I don't know any clubs who could have someone from underneath to come through but that's what we try and do.

”Of course then they've got to be ready and come in and he [Hewelt] came in today and I thought it was a calm and seamless performance from him which, all credit to him, I expected."

  • Clear aims

Mellon made his aims for the direction of Tranmere clear with new faces through the door and the league table standings as the play-off race intensifies.

"We're very together,very conscious that Tranmere want to win games, I'm a Tranmere bloke too otherwise I wouldn't still be here so we're always understanding, sometimes thing are a little unfair but thats just football management and you've got to just keep on going.”

Tranmere are next in action next Saturday, as the Super White Army travel to the Eco-Power Stadium to take on Doncaster Rovers - with the game being underway at 15:00 GMT in North Yorkshire.

VAVEL Logo
About the author