ZOUMANA BAKAYOGO and Michael Kay are lined up to make swift returns to Tranmere’s starting line-up as they take on the League One joint leaders Sheffield United at Prenton Park tomorrow.

One-match suspensions ruling out Adam McGurk and David Raven open up the vacancies in a Rovers side eager to put an unhappy 3-2 defeat at Notts County in midweek behind them.

The pair were sent off in injury time at Meadow Lane, where Tranmere were beaten by a disputed last-gasp penalty, awarded when McGurk was adjudged to handle the ball on the line.

Video footage suggests Tranmere’s players were probably right in claiming the ball struck McGurk’s knee rather than his hand. But the evidence is not conclusive, so the club will not be lodging an appeal.

Manager Les Parry said: “We had a look at the incident and we would have to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that the ball hit Adam’s knee. The assessor said the DVD is inconclusive and I must agree with him. There is only one camera angle and it isn’t cut and dried. We would have been gambling with losing Adam for another game if we had appealed it.”

Parry added: “We are without Adam and David but the good thing about the squad at the moment is that we have Zoumana Bakayogo and Michael Kay to come in for the players we have lost. We have some strength in depth.”

Bakayogo started the season at left back and returns in the wide left midfield role he played on several occasions last term. He will be operating in front of left back David Buchanan, who scored the winner on his Tranmere debut at Leyton Orient last Saturday. Parry’s priority is to ensure Rovers don’t suffer a hangover from a defeat that followed wins over Chesterfield and Orient in the opening two games of the League One campaign.

“Notts County was a bit of a kick in the teeth,” Parry admitted.

“It seemed like every referee, assessor and bass in the country was on to me about it on Wednesday but it is gone now. We have to pick ourselves up.