Bitter disappointment the overriding Boxing Day feeling after Tranmere defeat
Graham Turner bemoaned his side’s lack of confidence and ‘criminal’ defending to allow Tranmere to walk away from Greenhous Meadow with a 1-0 Boxing Day victory.
Despite dominating possession, Andy Robinson struck for Rovers on the stroke of half-time to condemn Turner’s men to a third consecutive home defeat.
“What we did which was criminal was to concede the goal just before half-time,” said Turner.
“Clearly Tranmere had a game plan – they were quite happy to come here and defend in depth. You can’t concede the goal in the manner in which we’ve done and that put confidence on edge on the back of two previous defeats here.
“I thought we had a lot of the ball for the first 40 minutes and I thought we got the ball into good areas without producing a final pass or cross to cause them problems.”
On the back of defeat, Turner has admitted his side weren’t good enough, but he insists that his side will stick together to try and build up confidence and work hard to go again.
“This game has been bitterly disappointing, but we’ve got to get ready for the next one now.
“All we can do is prepare and try to keep the players confidence as high as possible. It’s not easy when we’ve been beaten at home by a side below us in the league. There’s always going to be that knocking off players and of confidence, so I’ve got to avoid that and as a group in there we’ve got to stick together.
“I could see that lack of confidence emanated in the second half. It’s a time now for us to stay together and work much harder because there’s no good me coming out with the recriminations against players and all the rest of it.”
Town now take on the might of Preston North End at Greenhous Meadow on Sunday with Turner pleased to take on one of League One’s giants in a bid to get his team’s form back on track.
“We’ll digest it all now and take stock tomorrow morning when we come in for a warm down and a chat and we’ll then look at preparing for Preston. It’s a time for battling down the hatches in there and staying together to focus on improving our performance for Sunday.
“There lies the challenge. I’ve been here before, I’ve seen it before and I’m sure a few of the players have. Playing a side as good as Preston, a club as big as Preston, may just take the pressure off the players.”
Snap up your tickets here for Sunday’s crucial clash with Preston (29th Dec, 3pm k/o)