Parry wants cure for travel sickness

Nov 12 2009 by Nick Hilton, Liverpool Echo

Parry wants cure for travel sickness

LES PARRY would like to make a radical change to the way Tranmere approach games on the road – if he is allowed to extend his tenure as caretaker manager into a longer-term role.

The long serving physiotherapist has been watching Rovers’ away matches from the touchline for the best part of two decades.

So he understands better than most how the positive approach of the team has often failed to deliver results.

Look at Tranmere’s away results over the majority of the last dozen seasons and they have fallen short of what is required of a team chasing promotion or a play-off spot.

They were a problem Ronnie Moore could not solve in three seasons of relative success as manager, prior to his departure from Prenton Park last summer.

This season away results are worse than ever; five defeats in six League One trips under John Barnes with 15 goals conceded along the way, followed by another defeat, by a single goal at Hartlepool, under Parry’s control.

Parry said: “The away form is not brilliant and has not been good for the past two or three seasons. It is something we have to address.

“I believe we have to get into the players that we are starting every game with a point and the number one priority is to defend that point.

“If, at the final whistle, that is all we take away from the game, then so be it. But there will always be chances to score in the game, no matter how much you are under the cosh.

“So if we defend that point and pick up the odd goal and victory, I believe it will improve things.”

Parry acknowledges he is advocating a departure from Rovers tradition.

He said: “Over 20 years most Tranmere teams have had a go in away games and you can see the reasons for that. Why should the team play differently home and away?

“But unfortunately all teams don’t think that way. They approach the game differently home and away and that forces your own approach to the game to be different.

“Certainly teams come to Prenton Park these days with the philosophy of protecting the point they start with.”

Parry added: “We can do with being a bit meaner on the road than we have been.”