Another six-pointer for Rovers
Saturday 13th February, 2010
By Richard Ault

Another league fixture, and arguably another of the clichéd “six-pointers”. It’s a lengthy trip south once again for Tranmere Saturday as they look to build on their midweek win at Gillingham by dragging Southend into trouble at the foot of the table.

If Les Parry can guide his side to another three points, not only would he record back-to-back league wins for the first time this season, he would also lift Tranmere out of the bottom four for the first time since John Barnes’ reign of terror was in a full flow.

Their hosts are not in the best of form. With just one win in their last eight matches and with no home win since mid December, pressure is on boss Steve Tilson to guide the Shrimpers away from trouble.

Tilson spoke to the Southend United website after seeing firsthand how Tranmere have been playing of late. Tilson said: "I went to Gillingham on Tuesday night to watch Tranmere play and it will surprise me if they are in the bottom four at the end of the season,"

"Their work rate was tremendous and they thoroughly deserved to beat Gillingham on the night."

Counterpart Les Parry knows that the race to avoid the drop into League Two is hotting up. He told tranmererovers.co.uk: "Everybody around us is picking up points and because of that we're still in the bottom four, although our form in the last three months in relation to the rest of the division has been pretty good.

"Everyone is picking up points and because of that it has concertinaed the bottom half of the division.

"I think if we were three points better off, I think we'd be in 12th or 13th place."

TEAM NEWS

Tranmere will be without youngster Ash Taylor who injured his hamstring at Gillingham. Ash has been in fine form this season after breaking into the first team but will now be sidelined for upto three weeks.

Bas Savage is still out although may be in contention for the Leyton Orient game next weekend.