Rovers to face huge ten games – Adams
MICKY ADAMS is bracing himself for a tense run-in after watching his Tranmere side slip to defeat at Northampton.
Ryan Cresswell scored the only goal of the game at Sixfields to give the Cobblers their ninth win in 12 games and move them to within three points of the top seven.
Cresswell might have scored a hat-trick, heading two other efforts wide from set-pieces either side of the one he buried in the 62nd minute.
Rovers struggled to create anything of note from an attacking point of view and succumbed to a defeat which keeps them in the division’s relegation places.
Their best chance came through Jordan Hugill’s effort, which was palmed onto the crossbar by home goalkeeper Matt Duke,
Meanwhile, they also had an appeal for a penalty turned down in the first half after Jennison MyrieWilliams thought he had been brought down inside the Cobblers area.
And Adams admits the final stretch will be a tense one, with Rovers sitting one place and two points from safety with ten games left.
“Again, we haven’t tested the opposing goalkeeper enough and it’s hard to work out why that is when you’ve got so many attacking players on the pitch,” he said.
“The players have got to have faith in their own abilities to hurt teams and we didn’t put enough quality into the box.
“We’ve got ten games left to save ourselves now, to save some careers and some livelihoods. It’s going to be a huge ten games.
“I just want to win a game. We’re no worse off before the game, which is a good thing, and we have to pick ourselves up from this.”
His Northampton counterpart Chris Wilder was delighted to see his team win after a difficult defeat at Plymouth last weekend.
Wilder admitted the performance might not have been as exciting as those in previous wins but that at this crunch stage of the season, all that matters are the scorelines.
“I’m not one of those managers who say performances are more important than results, especially at this stage of the season. It was just a case of getting the job done,” he said
“Tranmere are fighting for their lives and Micky Adams’ teams always want to win games so we had to work very hard to get that result.
“It was a pretty open game, we were the better team in the first half but they were always a threat on the counter-attack with their pace.
“We had to work hard and compete without committing too many players forward and getting caught on the break.
“Our performances are based on work ethic, commitment and pressing the opposition, but it was hard to open them up.”