Tranmere Rovers FC boss Les Parry sees no positives in FA Cup defeat to Cheltenham Town

Nov 16 2011 by Our Correspondent, Birkenhead News

MANAGER Les Parry insists Tranmere can take no consolation from being left to concentrate on their League One campaign after making exits from two knockout competitions in the space of four days.

Rovers went out of the FA Cup at the first round stage, losing 1-0 to Cheltenham Town at Prenton Park in the same week as they were beaten in the third round of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy at Chesterfield.

A 22nd minute penalty conversion by striker Daryl Duffy ended Tranmere hopes of finding an FA Cup pot of gold for another year.

“We’ve had two consecutive defeats which happen to be in the cups and I could not kid anyone by saying I’m glad because we can now concentrate on the league,” Parry said.

“If someone could turn back the clock and offer us the chance to still be in both competitions, I would snap their hands off. We want to be playing games and winning games, not having weekends off.”

Parry admitted Tranmere’s defeat to the League Two promotion chasers was a self-inflicted wound.

“It had nothing to do with cup luck,” Parry said. “We just did not get started.

“We did not get into our stride in the first half and you think that after half time you can throw a switch and lift it up but it just does not work like that.

“In the second half we were a little bit better. There was a little bit more urgency. How much of that was down to Cheltenham dropping off I don’t know.

“We got a lot of balls into the box without getting on the end of them.”

Parry added: “I think it was a fair result. We did not keep possession well enough to put Cheltenham under pressure. The reason for that was we did not move the ball quickly enough.

“When the ball went up front we did not hold it up. A lot of our passes were intercepted.

“We played give-ball for a lot of the first half. Physically it is harder to chase the ball than to have the ball. So we did not do ourselves any favours.”