(Picture: Action Images via Reuters)
By Matt Bishop
Tranmere boss Micky Mellon is hoping his side can start finding the back of the net on the road as they prepare for tomorrow's long trip to Eastleigh.
The National League title favourites have suffered an indifferent start to the campaign, after last season's play-off heartbreak, with frustrating 0-0 draws at Torquay and Guiesley accompanied by defeat to Sutton and a 3-1 win over Woking.
Despite the frustrating start, Mellon is happy with how his team is playing, but it is the lack of goals that is worrying the Rovers boss – his side have scored just three times this season, with them all coming in the solitary victory over Woking.
Speaking ahead of Tranmere's encounter with the Spitfires, Mellon told the club's website: “We go into every game trying to win it, and Eastleigh will be no different in that respect.
“At the minute, we're doing a lot of things right but we're not getting on the end of those crosses, not scoring goals and we didn't win the game on Tuesday [against Guiseley].
“I have every confidence in all of us, and I say all of us because we're all in this together, that we will start scoring goals.
“We have to get good balls into the box and then get players in there to have that desperation to get on the end of them. And that's not just the front men, but midfielders getting into the box, or defenders at set pieces. You have to be more desperate to get there than the defender and go and get us a goal.”
Despite the lack of goals, Tranmere's miserly defence is standing strong – and if the backline performs as well as it did last season, when Mellon's men conceded just 39 goals in 46 games, the results will surely start to come.
The Rovers boss is confident that will be the case, and said: “I'm fair to us as a group and there's a lot of things we are doing very well. So we go down to Eastleigh and if we're good at the things we're speaking about then we will be fine.
“We have an idea of how we want to play against Eastleigh and the personnel we'll need to do that to give us the best chance, so hopefully we'll get those decisions right and go and get a result.
“There are a few bumps and bruises that you'd expect after playing a game of football but nothing which will rule anybody out of Saturday's match.”
