McLaren: There will be no repeat of ‘battering’

Feb 23 2008 by Nick Hilton, Liverpool Daily Post

PAUL MCLAREN plans to do his best to ensure Tranmere don’t roll over in front of the Bristol Rovers battering ram for the second time in six weeks at the Memorial Ground this afternoon.

The elegant midfielder admits Tranmere’s tame performance in the 2-0 home defeat to Bristol in January was their poorest of the season.

Manager Ronnie Moore reckoned his defenders were “bullied” by the powerful Bristol front men that night, while McLaren admitted: “They battered us.”

But if the defeat was the worst moment of an up-and-down League One campaign at Prenton Park, it may have been a case of the darkest hour coming just before the dawn.

Tranmere are unbeaten since that miserable night and a record of five wins and two draws from the last seven games has lifted them back into the play-off zone.

Promotion is right back on the agenda at Prenton Park and five clean sheets and an improving goals-for tally suggest the second automatic ticket to the Championship is not beyond the reach of Ronnie Moore’s team.

At the very least Tranmere are in the mood to show they won’t walk the Pirates’ plank so meekly this time around.

McLaren said: “The Bristol Rovers game was the worst performance of the season and probably the worst since I joined Tranmere the summer before last.

“Normally in any match, you may have two or three players who perform below par and the rest drag them through. But on that occasion all 11 of us had a bad night. It was torrid.

“I have played in games before when nothing goes right for anyone – and that was one of them. Bristol Rovers played well that night and we have got to respect them. They have been on a good run, particularly at home.

“But we have put that game behind his and moved on since then. The lads are doing well, really well.”

McLaren reckons that the Bristol game apart, Tranmere’s performances through December and early January were more encouraging than results suggest, so the current run is less than a surprise in the dressing room.

McLaren said: “I don’t think we were too far away with quite a few of our performances before the good run began.

“We were not having a lot of luck and we lost a couple of games in which we had players sent off. Our luck turned at Millwall, where we had to dig in and defend and snatched the winner near the end.

“As the unbeaten run goes on, it brings a lot of confidence out in the lads. You think you can turn anyone over.”

McLaren was among millions who watched on television last Saturday lunchtime as Bristol Rovers put Championship club Southampton out of the FA Cup in a fifth round upset.

The state of the pitch at the Memorial Ground caught the eye of Tranmere’s pass-master as much as Bristol’s typically assertive performance.

He said: “You could tell the pitch isn’t too clever and players from other clubs have said the same thing about it. It is shared with a rugby team so it is never going to be ideal.

“We will try to get the ball down and pass it. But if we have to scrap and compete, we’ll make sure we do that too.”

McLaren is enjoying a productive second season at Prenton Park. He quickly established a partnership with Steve Jennings at the heart of the Tranmere midfield and has missed just one league fixture, when he was suspended for the visit to his former club Luton Town in December.

He offered generous praise for the way Jennings, a fringe player last season, seized the opportunity to establish himself in midfield and welcomes the pressure coming from fit-again John Mullin and Adnan Ahmed.

McLaren said: “Fortunately I’ve managed to stay clear injuries so far this season. There have been one or two niggles but you just get on with them. Once you cross the white line and the adrenaline starts to flow, you don’t feel them so much.

“No-one really wants to drop out of his team at the moment, irrespective of whether we are winning because people are breathing down your neck for a place. I think the fact that a few people have come back from injury increases the competition. That is certainly helping the manager.”