MANAGER Les Parry believes Dale Jennings’ accolade as League One Apprentice of the Year this week represents two awards in one for Tranmere.

Parry congratulated Jennings on winning the first honour of his career at the Football League Awards in London and then paid tribute to the coaching staff who guided the 18-year-old prospect’s progress from youth team to first team over the last two years.

National recognition for Jennings followed a series of impressive performances for Rovers that brought a posse of scouts from Premier League and Championship clubs to Prenton Park earlier this season.

Tranmere even turned down a bid from a Premier League club for Jennings on the final day of the January transfer window, with both chairman Peter Johnson and manager Parry insisting the player’s career development would be better served by remaining at Prenton Park.

Parry believes Jennings could not have taken such great strides forward both on and off the field, without the attentive work of Head of Youth Shaun Garnett and his staff.

Parry said: “The award is a great achievement for Dale and it goes to show the hard work he has put in over the last two years. He deserves to be congratulated on it.

“I think it also reflects on what a fantastic job our youth department do. The award is about development. It is about taking in someone - in Dale’s case about two years ago - and working on the raw material.

“It’s not just about working on the boy’s football ability, it is on the social skills side and education side as well.”