MICKY ROVER THE MOON

Mellon’s eager for upset

MICKY MELLON reckons it is party time at Tranmere tonight.

The Rovers boss wants to celebrate the resurrection of a League Two club that was in danger of going out of business by knocking Tottenham out of the FA Cup.

“Friday night is party night in Birkenhead and now it has a football game in the middle of it to add to the spice,” said Mellon, ahead of the third-round clash.

“We have absolutely nothing to lose. I think it’s the first time since we played Liverpool that the ground will be full. It will be fantastic to be involved.

“We are excited and I don’t want to contain that excitement. We are playing Tottenham and if you can’t be excited about that, why are we doing what we are doing?”

There have been tough times at Tranmere, with the very real prospect of the club slipping off the football map altogether, so Mellon is relishing both the £1m windfall and the spotlight the visit of a Premier League giant will bring. “It’s about the club showing the whole football world Tranmere is still here,” he said.

“We disappeared off the Football League radar for a while and when you have three years out of the league, you can lose generations of fans. You can stop being a big football club.”

Mellon is not exaggerating when he says Rovers could have fallen into oblivion and he chuckles when he thinks about last season’s National League play-off final against Boreham Wood, when Tranmere had Liam Ridehalgh sent off in the first minute but still went on to win 2-1.

“After 48 seconds of a play-off final when you go down to 10 men, that’s pressure,” he said.

“Your football life flashes before your eyes. It was a do-or-die game.

Title-chasing Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino is not putting too much emphasis on a big cup run.

He said: “If my ambition in Spurs is only win the Carabao Cup or FA Cup, with all the respect for that, my ambition does not match the ambition of a club like Tottenham.

“Sometimes people take it wrong, my words. ‘Oh the manager doesn’t want to win the FA Cup or disrespects the competition the Carabao Cup or FA Cup.’ No, no, no, no, no.

“It is the opposite. I respect a lot. But my ambition is to win the Champions League one day or the Premier League with Tottenham.”