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Les
ready to go all the way
Tuesday 17th
November, 2009
By Richard Ault
Caretaker Manager Les Parry has revealed he will have the Rovers
players practising penalties ahead of tonight's FA Cup first
round replay at Leyton Orient as he prepares his side for a long
night in London.
Orient
host Rovers twice in four days, with Tranmere having to make the
long trip south again on Saturday when league action resumes.
However, with Parry's side continuing to struggle at the wrong
end of the League One table, tonight's match could provide a
welcome diversion from the relegation headache.
If the
performance at Norwich City on Saturday was anything to go by,
then Rovers are potentially on the up. It was only a
'cheep' shot by the Canaries that put Tranmere on the road to
defeat at the weekend after John Welsh was harshly adjudged to
have handled in the box. The subsequent penalty was scored
and the home side confirmed the points with another goal late
on.
It
doesn't tell the full story though, and in what was perhaps
Rovers' best performance of the season, there were plenty of
positives to take from it. A hatful of chances were missed
with the match still goalless, Shuker squandering a couple and
McLaren seeing what looked like a certain goal palmed away by
the Norwich keeper. So the question is, can Rovers repeat
this performance again, and perhaps more tellingly, start to
take their chances in front of goal?
Aldershot
await
Both
sides will probably see tonight as a fantastic opportunity to
start a cup run, of sorts. A home tie with League Two side
Aldershot awaits for the winners in Round Two, and although this
will be an extremely tough match, it would be home advantage
against lower division opposition separating them from the Third
Round and the glamour that goes with it.
Talking
about both tonight's game, and Saturday's, Les Parry said:
“We
should have gone through the first time but we start again on
level terms. It’s going to be a slightly different game because
I would not expect us to dominate the play as we did at Prenton
Park.”
“Both games are financially important to us for different
reasons.
“But we are just going to concentrate on the cup tie for now.
Games in the cup tend to be a little different because of the
one-on-one situation.”
Team news
Rovers
should welcome back Alan Mahon and Gareth Edds after they missed
the trip to Norwich on Saturday, although John Welsh misses out
due to suspension. Also returning to the squad are Shaleum
Logan and Charlie Barnett, both of whom were suspended on
Saturday.
Savage
is out.
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