Dynamic Jennings eager to cement regular place

Sep 8 2007 by Nick Hilton, Liverpool Daily Post

STEVE JENNINGS came back to work this summer with a plan to give his career with Tranmere Rovers a new lease of life. So far it’s working a treat.

The 22-year-old midfielder, a peripheral figure at Prenton Park last season, has been a permanent fixture at the heart of the first team since the new campaign began.

Manager Ronnie Moore says Jennings is keeping the experienced John Mullin and new signing Adnan Ahmed out of the side on the strength of his impressive form since the pre-season games began.

Jennings says: “I’m fairly happy with the way things have gone so far. We had a decent start in the league and I have been involved in all of the games up to now.

“The plan was to do well in pre-season, get into the side and try to stay there, game to game.

“So far it has gone the way I hoped it would.

“But it is going to be difficult to hold on to that place because there is such a lot of competition for the central midfield positions.

“Any slips and the gaffer has Adnan and John Mullin waiting to come in.

“Adnan is a good player and everyone knows what Mulls is capable of. There’s also Anthony Kay, who can play midfield as well as centre back.”

Jennings made less than a handful of first-team appearances during the 2006-07 campaign and spent much of the second half of the season on loan at Hereford, where he played close to a dozen games.

Determined to make a positive impression this summer, Jennings worked hard on his fitness in the weeks before Tranmere’s players returned for the start of pre-season training in early July.

He explained: “That is something a player has to do these days.

“If you don’t keep yourself sharp during the summer break you can struggle big time with the pre-season work.

“The game is changing in the physical demands it makes on players. These days players have to be athletes to cope with the tempo of Premiership games.

“So players in Leagues One and Two have to model themselves on those Premiership players, to be as fit and as strong as they are.”

Jennings’ high-energy performances have helped Tranmere make a bright start in the league.

They travel to Carlisle United this afternoon looking to improve on a record of two wins and a draw from the opening four games, enough to give them a toehold in the top six.

The early disappointments of an opening day defeat to Leeds United and a Carling Cup first-round exit at Stockport County were beginning to fade, until a Johnstone Paints Trophy exit to Morecambe in midweek provided a reminder of what can happen when the team take their collective foot off the gas.

Jennings said: “The performance levels have been fairly consistent through the league games we’ve played this season.

“If anything, I would say one of our better performances was against Leeds.

“The problem was that in that game, and in the Carling Cup defeat at Stockport, we did not take our chances when we were on top of the opposition in the first half.

“Then we paid the penalty when we did not carry things on so well in the second half.”

Jennings added: “This division is so tight that every team you play is going to have at least 20 to 30 minutes of the game when they are on top.

“The manager has emphasised that when we are on top it is vital we put our chances away.”

Tranmere, less than convincing travellers last season, will be looking to extend an unbeaten record from the first two away games when they step out at Brunton Park.

However, it took an injury time free-kick from winger Steve Davies to rescue Tranmere a point at Yeovil last Saturday and Jennings said: “That game was still a bit of a disappointment because we had to rely on the last-minute goal to get a point.

“It was another game when we deserved to be ahead rather than behind.

“Afterwards the gaffer put it across to us how we had to be ruthless about taking our chances.

“I had one myself, which came to me very quickly and I knocked it over the bar.

“We need to be putting away those kind of half chances against Carlisle.”