Win or bust suits us just fine – Jennings

Apr 30 2009 by Nick Hilton, Liverpool Daily Post

STEVE JENNINGS welcomes the win-or-bust task now facing Tranmere in their play-off decider at Scunthorpe United this weekend.

Only a victory as Glanford Park on Saturday will be enough to lift Rovers into sixth place in the final League One table after the Iron moved two points ahead of them with a 3-0 home win over Cheltenham on Tuesday.

That suits midfielder Jennings, who admits he would have harboured misgivings had Tranmere gone into the game requiring nothing more than a draw to keep their promotion dream alive.

Jennings said: “The only way to cope with a game like this is to go out looking to win it. I can think of nothing worse than going into a game when a draw will be enough because it is in the back of your mind to hold onto what you’ve got. That will be asking for trouble.

“Now it is down to us. We’ve got to put in a big performance. We’ll go there on Saturday with all guns blazing and I’m happy to be going for a win.”

Jennings, a midfield powerhouse driving Tranmere’s promotion push, was voted player of the season by his team-mates this week. He is convinced Rovers can rise to the challenge and join Millwall, MK Dons, and Leeds in the play-offs.

“We’ve bobbed and weaved all season,” he said. “We’ve been sixth, seventh, eighth, seventh, eighth, all season so we can go into this last game now and it’s 90 minutes to get us into the play-offs.

“If we can’t get up for that and win, we can only blame ourselves.”

Scunthorpe manager Nigel Adkins inists his team will be going all out for victory on Saturday, even though a draw would secure them a top-six finish.

Adkins said: “Tranmere now have to come here and beat us on Saturday. We too will be going for the win. We cannot afford to try and sit back to play for a draw.

“But we do know that if at the end of the 90 minutes the scores are level, that will be enough to put us into the play-offs.

“It’s going to be an exciting game on Saturday, one to look forward to – and we can now go into it with plenty of confidence.”

Tranmere are asking supporters with tickets for the game at Glanford Park to hold onto their ticket stubs. They may be used in the allocation of tickets for play-off games, should Rovers qualify.

Either Scunthorpe or Tranmere will have to play the first leg of the play-off semi-final at home to the team finishing third on Friday, May 8, with the return on Thursday, May 14. The League One play-off final has been set for Sunday, May 24 at Wembley (kick-off 1pm).

The Tranmere Rovers Former Players Foundation play their first charity match against Rovers fans team FC Rearguard at Cammell Laird FC in Rock Ferry on Sunday May 10 (kick-off 12pm).

Former Rovers heroes such as Eric Nixon, Eddie Bishop, Sean Garnett, Kenny Irons and Alan Morgan will be in action. Proceeds from the game will go to local charities St John’s Hospice and Claire House.