Tranmere Rovers FC eye extra day off if manager Les Parry’s points target is hit

Dec 5 2011 by Nick Hilton, Liverpool Daily Post

TRANMERE’S players are setting themselves a points target to put their season back on an upward course in December – and earn an extra day off.

Rovers are looking for a change in fortunes when they make a belated start to this month’s fixtures with a home game against MK Dons this Saturday afternoon.

November brought little but gloom in terms of results, with Les Parry’s team taking just one out of 12 npower League One points at stake and making exits from the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy and the FA Cup.

But Tranmere are hopeful that a good return from four League One games in December can take them back into contention with the teams in the play-off places. Manager Parry said: “We are setting a target for December.

“At the beginning of each month we put the games on the board and let the lads set a target of points. Then I persuade them to agree to my target!

“If they hit the target they get a Monday off of their choice during the following month.

“It is a little bit of a carrot and a little bit of fun but the lads take it seriously.

“So far we have hit the target in two months and missed it in two. Hopefully, with the way the pattern is going, we should hit it in December.”

Sequences of good results in August and October followed by disappointing returns in September and November left Tranmere in mid-table, five points adrift of sixth placed Notts County and out of all three cup competitions as they approach the season’s halfway mark at the end of this month.

Parry said: “We had a board meeting last week when I said we had to look at the season so far as a whole.

“It is a little bit disappointing at the moment because we were higher in the table month ago. But if, in the summer, someone had offered us this position at this stage, we would have taken it.”

Tranmere are operating with one of the lowest budgets for players in the division and are trying to make ends meet on gates regularly dropping below the 5,000 mark.

It is more than a coincidence that the three teams at the top of the table – Charlton Athletic, Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield Town – are big spenders pulling in home gates that dwarf the numbers at Prenton Park.

Tranmere will be hoping the winter weather does not hit the two home fixtures in the Christmas holiday week, when attendances often enjoy a seasonal boost.

Rovers are scheduled to play host to Rochdale on Boxing Day and entertain Bury on Friday, December 30 (kick-off 7.45pm).

The League One fixture against Brentford at Prenton Park on Saturday, January 7 should go ahead now that the Londoners are out of the FA Cup.

Brentford made a surprise exit from the competition at the weekend, losing at home to Blue Square Bet League Premier Division front-runners Wrexham.