Tranmere bracing themselves for backlash from Sheffield Wednesday on Boxing Day

Dec 22 2010 by Nick Hilton, Birkenhead News

TRANMERE must brace themselves for an encounter with a fired up Sheffield Wednesday side on Boxing Day.

Owls manager Alan Irvine is demanding his promotion-chasing team bounce back at Prenton Park after taking a hammering at Exeter City last weekend.

Wednesday had the chance to go top of the League One table and finished on the end of a 5-1 defeat.

Irvine, the former assistant to David Moyes at Everton, blamed poor defending for the reverse and is determined to ensure there isn't a repeat against Rovers on Sunday.

"I'm looking at exactly went wrong and I be trying to do something about it," Irvine said.

"Every time there is a setback it's about how you bounce back. Every team has setbacks during the course of the season. The ones who respond best are the ones who end up being successful."

Wednesday had taken the second-best defensive record in the division into the game at Exeter - the only League One fixture to survive the freezing weather.

Tranmere's game a little further north at Swindon Town was called off after heavy snowfall on Saturday morning made the areas around the County Ground unsafe for spectators.

The Rovers party then endured a nightmare 13 hour journey back to Merseyside. Conditions on the M5 motorway were so serious that the team coach travelled just four miles in eight hours.