MANAGER Les Parry is confident Tranmere will be keeping the focus on climbing the League One table over the remainder of the season, in spite of suffering a first defeat in six games at Peterborough.

Rovers head into tonight’s rearranged fixture at Brentford with a six-point cushion above the drop zone. But Parry does not believe his side will be dragged back into the relegation issue over the final months of the campaign.

“We are in a position where we are looking upwards from now to the end of the season,” Parry said.

“We were beaten last Saturday by a very good team who are particularly strong at home and we were unfortunate to lose the match.

“So we can take a lot of positives from that. When we play the teams around us, we can go into those games with more confidence.

“I think we have become a stronger team as a unit.

“The lads play for each other more, they stick with each other more.

“A lot of that is down to John Welsh’s captaincy.

“On match days there should be 11 captains on the field with different ways of helping the team out.

“But it’s off the field where captains have a massive job.

“They are the link between the players, the manager and the staff.

“If a player has a little problem the captain can get it sorted rather than having the manager sort it out all of the time. Welshy has done that for us.”