Les Parry has vowed to shake up his Tranmere team after an ‘unacceptable’ defeat to Bristol Rovers on Tuesday

Mar 10 2011 Liverpool Daily Post

MANAGER Les Parry is ready to shake up the Tranmere side to face League One leaders Brighton on Saturday, after branding a midweek horror show as “unacceptable”.

The 1-0 defeat to Bristol Rovers on Tuesday left Tranmere without a win in six games and reduced their cushion above the relegation places to just four points.

It’s a worrying scenario for Parry who admits he could not account for all 10 of his outfield players performing below par against the struggling, managerless Pirates.

Parry said: “We will be making changes for Brighton because we can’t accept that performance on Tuesday. By keeping the same team we would be accepting it.

“Hopefully we can put it behind us and be sharp and ready for Brighton.

“Had we got a squad big enough and deep enough I would consider making eight or nine changes. Unfortunately we can’t do that. What we can do is limited but it is going to be difficult to pick players on the strength of their performances against Bristol Rovers. We just have to hope it was a blip.”

Parry admits Tranmere have developed a split personality during a run of six games without a victory. They delivered positive performances in draws at Charlton and Exeter City last week and in narrow defeats at Brentford and Peterborough. But home supporters saw their team Labour against fellow strugglers Yeovil and Bristol Rovers in 1-0 defeats at Prenton Park.

He said: “It is a shame we take only a small following to away games because those fans will be able to vouch for the performances away from home. The majority of fans don’t see those games and the only performances they have seen recently were against Yeovil and Bristol Rovers. They will be thinking it must be like that every week and it’s not. We said before the game on Tuesday that it’s up to you as a team to lift the fans, not the fans to lift you.

“I can’t blame the fans for their reaction.

“It was justified. They pay good moneyŠ to see us. We were disappointed for them.”

Parry, his coaching staff and players held a dressing room inquest into the Bristol performance immediately after the final whistle. “Some things were said by the staff and the players, which will stay in there,” Parry said. “But everyone is scratching their heads because we have not seen a performance like that.

“Yes, we lost to Yeovil in our previous home game, but Yeovil did not bring the game to us and turn us over as Bristol Rovers did. We had 10 players who were off form, 10 players who could not get close to their opponents.”

Parry added: “The coaching staff will be looking at themselves and seeing what we could have done differently and I hope the players do exactly the same.

“We’ll be looking to the players who were on the bench on Tuesday to be wanting to get into the team. They will be thinking ‘I can do better than that’ and quite rightly so.”

Rovers are likely to take a cautious approach about pushing teenage prospect Dale Jennings back into the side at Brighton.

Jennings has been sidelined with a groin injury for the past month and although the 18-year-old is responding to treatment, Parry can see dangers in rushing him back into action too soon.

Parry said: “Dale is still in rehabilitation and training. His condition is a little bit easier and we will assess how he is doing. But if we gamble on playing him on Saturday they could be at the expense of losing him for the rest of the season.”

Tranmere can’t call on long-term casualties Marlon Broomes, Alan Mahon or Ryan Fraughan but they are hopeful of extending the loan of attacking midfielder Lateef Elford-Alliyu from West Bromwich Albion.

Parry admits: “We are looking over our shoulders. We have got to try and keep the distance between ourselves and the bottom four.

“No one is expecting us to get anything out of the Brighton game and after that we have Colchester at home and Sheffield Wednesday away.

“We need to be looking at taking wins out of those three games. If we don’t we could find ourselves only a couple of points outside the bottom four.”