DALE JENNINGS is due to make a return visit to Prenton Park next week – just a few days after Tranmere play host to League One promotion chasers MK Dons.

The corresponding fixture at the end of October last season turned out to be a landmark afternoon in the teenager’s short career.

Jennings scored twice in a 4-2 Tranmere win and delivered a scintillating performance of wing play in front of dozens of watching talent scouts from top clubs.

The Dons’ line-up included former Liverpool defender Dietmar Hamann, who was so impressed with the youngster that he tipped off his German compatriots at Bayern Munich.

Jennings duly joined Bayern last summer in a deal worth a down payment of £600,000 to Tranmere that has the potential to rise to £2 million, depending on Jennings registering to play in the Bundesliga and making an agreed number of first-team appearances.

For the moment Jennings is learning his trade in Bayern’s reserve team, who play in the fourth tier of the German league.

He is currently sidelined by injury – hence the trip back to Merseyside to visit family and friends and drop in on Tranmere.

Manager Les Parry said: “Dale is back over here next week. He has an ankle injury at the moment so he is going to pop in and see us.

“The MK Dons game last season was Dale’s showcase. When the manager of the opposition takes the full-back off after about 20 minutes to untwist his blood, you know your winger is having a decent start to his game!”

Jennings produced several spectacular performances for Tranmere last season, earning him recognition as apprentice of the year in the Football League awards.

Ironically, Karl Robinson, MK Dons’ Merseyside-born manager, had worked with Jennings while the youngster was in the academy ranks at Liverpool.

Robinson guided the Dons to a fifth place finish in the play-offs, where they lost the semi-final to Peterborough.

This time the Dons aim to go one better. They will be heading to Prenton Park on the back of six straight wins – four in League One and two in the FA Cup – in which they scored 23 goals.

Tranmere can expect to have their hands full in trying to end a run of six league and cup games without a win against such free-scoring opposition.

“MK Dons’ record is pretty impressive at the moment,” Parry said. “Karl got manager of the month in August and then he had a sticky patch in September and October. Since then MK Dons have been absolutely flying. I think in every game through November they scored at least three goals. Teams have scored three goals against them and still been beaten.

“We’ve got to try and stop them scoring on Saturday, that is number-one.”

A 3-1 win at Barnet in the FA Cup second round brought the Dons goalscoring total for the season to 60. “That’s a phenomenal statistic will not only in December,” Robinson said. “We’ve had six straight wins and we aim to make sure we keep that up.

“The FA Cup is secondary, realistically for us. But if we keep winning games and adds value to this club.”

Robinson played most of his football at non-league level around Merseyside, North Wales and the North West then moved into coaching at an early age in the Liverpool FC Academy.

His break into senior football came with an invitation to work as assistant to Paul Ince at MK Dons. When Ince departed Stadium MK in 2010, Robinson was promoted to the number one job, becoming, at 29, the youngest manager in all four divisions.