Youngsters the Key for Improving Rovers

By Deadly Submarine
December 5 2005

Manager Brian Little stated a few weeks ago that youth may be the answer to Rovers recent misgivings and that seems to have been the case in the last week or so as Rovers have taken an early step towards better form. Total Tranmere takes a look at the current options Brian Little has available.

 

Last Saturday can be seen as an important moment in Tranmere’s so far faltering season following the 2-0 away win over Doncaster but the importance takes on more than just one reason.

 

Whilst the 2-0 win at Doncaster was important for the fact that it signalled an improvement in form for Rovers, Manager Brian Little is rightly refusing to go out and party at this stage.  Ending a nine match winless run will be a massive boost to both Players and Fans of the Club but one win does certainly not constitute an immediate change of fortune or a need to get carried away.

 

Whether the 2-0 away win at the Earth Stadium proves to be a turning point will only become clear in time but there is another reason why last Saturday was an important landmark in Rovers season.

 

A few weeks ago Brian Little told the press that he had realised that the answer to Rovers problems on the pitch, particularly in midfield might well lie in the Club’s highly thought after youth set-up.  This was something that many fans had been thinking for a good while but all the same it was refreshing for everyone to hear Brian use the word ‘youth’.

 

Paul Linwood and Paul Brown have already found themselves shipped out on loan this season (to Wrexham and Accrington Stanley respectively) as Brian Little seemed to favour experience over youth but both players have since returned to the Club to join the likes of Steve Davies, Chris Dagnall and Sam Aiston in fighting for a place in the team.

 

So to Saturday’s landmark which saw two of Rovers youth set-up come good and notch their first ever league goals for Rovers and hand their struggling team all three points.  Jennings, assisted in midfield by young loan signing Steven O’Leary from Luton Town and the experience of 38 year-old Mark Rankine seemed to finally give the Rovers midfield some presence in the game after they had struggled in previous games.

 

The knee injury to captain Jason McAteer that will see him miss out of action for a further 4 to 5 weeks has been an opportunity for the likes of Jennings and one which he seems to have grasped firmly in his last few games.

 

With Danny Harrison returning to action after a broken nose and Sam Aiston also pushing for a place perhaps Rovers have turned a corner in terms of their midfield problems, even if it is to early to say that the season as a whole has turned the corner.

 

To those Rovers fans who got to see a couple of pre-season games, the emergence of Steve Davies will have come as little surprise and every connected with the Club will have been delighted to see him score his first senior goal for Rovers to open the scoring on Saturday.  Playing upfront in a three-pronged attack with Chris Greenacre and Delroy Facey, Davies should continue to make an impact as long as Brian Little stays with the 4-3-3 formation.

 

The final promising moment to come from Saturday’s game was a second successive clean sheet which is something Rovers have not managed since the trip to Bournemouth on September 2^nd.

 

So the questions that Rovers fans will be asking now include whether Little has enough faith to give youth a further chance even when the experienced Jason McAteer returns from injury and also whether the 4-3-3 formation that saw Gareth Roberts play in his natural left-back position for a change is now the way forward on a long-term basis.