TRANMERE are acquiring a reputation for the invention and variety of their set play routines.
Opponents know Rovers are liable to come up with something different and unexpected from free kicks and corners these days.
The routines are a favourite hobby for manager Les Parry, who likes to work out ideas on his laptop computer at home.
The players have worked on so many that midfielder Paul McLaren, who takes most of the free kicks and corners, jokes about keeping a piece of paper carrying a list of the running order, in his sock.
But the practice is paying dividends.
Set plays made a significant contribution towards helping Tranmere take 11 points from the last six League One games.
The experienced McLaren said: “The fans can see there are so many different corners we do now. We have a list up in the dressing-room before we go out and we have to remember them in order. So I have a piece of paper tucked down my sock to I can remind myself!
“We do a lot of work on them and I think they can be a big factor in the games to come. Les is always coming up with new ideas to keep us on our toes.”
The spell of Siberian weather keeping Tranmere off the training ground is forcing Parry to concentrate on theory rather than practice with his latest set-play ideas.
Parry said: “We like to take some time on the training ground to practice the set plays and we have not been able to do that.
“All we can do is gather the players in the canteen, look at the DVDs and some powerpoint presentations on what we want to do.
“We can analyse the set plays from the last couple of games and see where we can improve on them. Hopefully the players will pick up on that.”
Striker Craig Curran added: “We’ve not be able to practice the set plays but we are going over them on DVD.
“We know what we are doing with them and we get goals from them. We have worked on them enough times to know where we should be on what we are going to do. It’s just a case of refreshing our minds.
“I don’t think lack of practice will make it any more difficult for us to do them.”
TRANMERE fans are being urged to put forward suggestions for the best goal scored by their team in 2009.
The club want help from supporters in nominating a Rovers goal scored in the last 12 months to put forward for the “Mitre Goal of the Year” competition.
The goal has to have been scored in any Football League competition during 2009. In Tranmere’s case that means League One, the Carling Cup and the Johnstones Paints Trophy.
Rovers fans should e-mail their nominations to webmaster@tranmererovers.co.uk with goal of the year as the subject, by Monday January 18.
The nominated goal will then be entered into the Mitre Goal of the Year category at the Football League awards.
Previous winners of the award include Sylvain Ebanks-Blake (Wolves), Jermaine Beckford (Leeds United), Joe Ledley (Cardiff City) and Stefan Oaks (Notts County).
