Greenacre: Fans can help play-offs bid

Apr 3 2008 by Chris Beesley, Liverpool Daily Post

TRANMERE striker Chris Greenacre has backed the club’s supporters to cheer their side into the play-offs over the next month.

Rovers climbed back up into the final play-off place with a 2-1 win over Swindon on Friday and have five more games of the regular season remaining to hang on.

As things stand, either Leeds or Brighton could leapfrog Ronnie Moore’s side if either of them were to win their game in hand but Greenace, who with 13 goals to date is poised to become Tranmere’s top scorer for the season for the third successive campaign since he joined the club in 2005, believes the vocal backing his team receives from the stands will be crucial for their chances.

He said: “The fans can make a huge difference at this stage of the season. We need them to get behind us.

“They did that against Swindon. We kept plugging away, kept working hard and in the end got our reward.

“Even down at Bournemouth the fans were terrific. Walsall isn’t too far away so I imagine we’ll pack out that end. I’ve played at Walsall a few times and when the away support has been good it gives you a massive boost.”

Saturday’s trip to the Bescot Stadium will be crucial for Tranmere as defeat would give the Saddlers the opportunity to overhaul them in the table if they were also able to go on and win their game in hand but 30-year-old Greenacre reckons that Rovers’s destiny remains in their own hands.

He said: “I don’t think it matters how we win our games as long as we win them.

“I imagine if we win all of them we’ll be guaranteed a place in the play-offs as all the other teams have got to play each other.

“We’ve got to play the teams around us so it will be an exciting few weeks.”

Tranmere’s next opponents Walsall aren’t going to give up without a fight though and their manager Richard Money expects them to “give it everything” this weekend as they attempt to revive their flagging play-off hopes.

The Saddlers have slipped five points behind sixth-placed Tranmere after failing to post a victory in their last six games.

The sequence included costly away defeats to promotion-chasing rivals Nottingham Forest, Leeds United and Southend.

But former Liverpool defender Money remains upbeat.

He said: “We are still in the race because there are 18 points to play for.

“If we win the last six games I think we would have enough points to be in the top-six.

“While we have got points to play for we will give it everything. We have got to keep believing.”