Tranmere Rovers manager Les Parry hails 1-0 victory over Chesterfield as “the perfect result”

Aug 8 2011 by Nick Hilton, Liverpool Daily Post

MANAGER Les Parry described Tranmere’s 1-0 victory over Chesterfield as the “perfect result” and wants the home success to be the first of many in League One this season.

“We need to get back to having strong form at Prenton Park,” said Parry, who saw Rovers lose more games than they won in front of their own supporters during the last campaign.

“Our number one aim this season is to win as many games as possible at home and return to the kind of form we showed here in the past,” he added.

“This was the perfect result to start with and it was good to keep a clean sheet. The performance was what I expected from the first game of the season. It was always going to be scrappy in the first-half because both teams were up on the ceiling with the hype before the game.

“But after that we controlled the match.”

Tranmere broke a sequence of opening game defeats stretching back four years thanks to a 74th-minute strike by Robbie Weir.

Parry said: “We are encouraging our midfielders to get into the box and it was one such run that brought Robbie the goal.”

Rovers deployed a 4-4-1-1 formation with Andy Robinson operating just behind central striker Mustafa Tiryaki and just in front of the midfield four.

“Andy fits that role perfectly,” Parry said. “He is a luxury – there is no getting away from it – but he is worth his weight in gold because he makes us tick. He does encourage as well. The other lads look up to him.”

Parry said he was “very encouraged” by the performance of Tiryaki on his Football League debut. The 24-year-old Londoner, who has a Turkish background, was playing non-League football with Havant & Waterlooville prior to signing a one-year contract with Tranmere on Friday.

He was given an instant debut because Parry was reluctant to risk last season’s leading marksman Enoch Showunmi, who has been suffering some discomfort in the leg he fractured last April.

Parry said: “Mustafa really is an old-fashioned centre forward who holds the ball up well and has a good touch laying the ball off with his head. He was out on his feet when we took him off a quarter of an hour from the end. He has not had any pre-season work but we can get him fitter.”

Parry said another of last week’s signings, winger Martin Devaney, also needs fitness work. “He has been trialling at different Championship clubs this summer but that is not the same as following a pre-season programme,” Parry said.

“He was really tired when we took him off but there was a lot of quality in the crosses he put in. Our fans have had a little glimpse of what he can do. It puts us in a good position when we have the likes of Joss Labadie and Lucas Akins to come on from the bench and players as good as Ash Taylor, Danny Holmes and Max Power who were not involved at all. We have a little bit of strength.”

Parry reported no injuries among his players although coach John McMahon needed attention to a head wound.

“When we scored, John jumped up and split the top of his head on the roof of the dug-out,” Parry explained.

“He looks like a baldy money box. He must have been standing on a chair at the time because he could not reach the top of our dug-out without one.”

Parry says he will have a check on Showunmi’s condition ahead of selecting a side for the Carling Cup first round tie at Doncaster Rovers tomorrow.