Ash Taylor is itching to get back to action

Sep 8 2010 Liverpool Daily Post

ASH Taylor echoed the sentiments of as many as a dozen Tranmere teammates when he said last night: “I just want to get back from injury as soon as I can to help out.”

The 19-year-old centre back is among the longer term casualties at Prenton Park whose absence has been forcing manager Les Parry to patch up and improvise on team selection through the early weeks of the season.

At the start of the week Parry was able to write down an entire team of players who were not fit enough to take part in training because of injury problems. Most of them will not be in contention for the League One visit to Yeovil Town on Saturday.

Taylor’s comeback is still months rather than weeks away as he recovers from a knee injury sustained during the preseason programme. But he discarded his crutches last weekend and a knee brace is also coming off.

“It is the first serious injury I have had,” said Taylor, who established himself as a first-team regular last season. “It knocked me back a bit but you have to stay strong. The experienced players here tell me the mental side of dealing with an injury is important. They say you need to work hard to get back to fitness and stay happy about the place.”

Taylor says he finds the experience of watching Tranmere games an uncomfortable one. “I just want to get down there and kick every ball,” he said.

But results, at least, have taken a turn for the better since the turn of the month with Tranmere following a 2-2 draw at Dagenham and Redbridge by posting a first win of the League One campaign against Peterborough United at Prenton Park last Saturday.

“It was good to get the win last weekend because this is our home turf and we want to do well here,” Taylor said. “I think we will dig in and get some good results now.

“There have been so many injuries, one after another, and it’s been the most frustrating thing for the gaffer because he is struggling to pick teams.

“I just want to get back as quickly as possible and help out.

“These are early days. There are a lot of new faces around the club and we are gelling. Everyone is getting on well and I think if we stick together we will be okay.

“I think we have good enough players here so we don’t end up in the same position as last season, needing to win the last game to stay up.”

Taylor was one of seven senior pros missing for the Peterborough game but a young side featuring seven players aged 20 or under, three of them loan signings, produced a high energy performance to harry the visitors out of their stride.

Parry said: “That performance was an example of what we are after. Your number one job is always to stop the opposition playing and I think our lads did well last Saturday.

“Peterborough’s manager Gary Johnson recognised that, saying although they had a lot of possession, much of it was in front of us. We have been working on that since the beginning of the season and I think the number of young hungry players in the side helped us.”Š