Ian Dawes a happy man as Tranmere see off Swindon

Caretaker boss Ian Dawes was full of praise for his players after he picked up his first victory as Tranmere manager with a 1-0 win over Swindon.

Harvey Saunders’ first goal at Prenton Park since joining from Bristol Rovers in January was enough to give the home side the points in a scrappy encounter.

Saunders netted his second goal in four games on 22 minutes after the Swindon defence failed to clear the danger and Josh Hawkes steered the ball into the path of the 25-year old forward.

Swindon began the second half brightly and could easily have been level when Jonny Williams forced a good save from Rovers keeper Mat Hewelt.

Kane Hemmings and Hawkes could have made things more comfortable for Rovers who both wasted good opportunities to double the lead.

The away side almost snatched a point with late chances falling to Williams and Shade but Rovers hung-on to record their first win in seven matches.

“For us today it was so positive and to a man I thought everyone was outstanding,” Dawes said.

“We had to make some tactical tweaks because it’s a different kind of game and in League Two you have to win games in different ways.

“The effort these players are putting in is commendable and what you’ve got to remember is that we’ve got nine players out for the season.

“For them to go and put in the performance and win the game for the club and the fans, you have to credit them.

“We’ve had less possession but we’ve scored a goal and had three really good chances on the break and possibly could have scored another one.

“If anyone has any doubts about these players not working hard enough for the club for the rest of the season then that performance proves that’s not the case.”

The defeat was Town’s fourth in succession and means it’s now eight games without a win for boss Jody Morris, who took over from Scott Lindsey in January but has only recorded two wins in his reign at the County Ground.

“The amount of ball that we had today and the amount of passes, you’d like to think that we’d create more chances but we just lacked quality,” he said.

“I felt we were the better team for large spells but when you gift a goal the way we did from one straight goal kick then that’s on us.

“I felt in the first half we got ourselves into some decent positions to exploit Tranmere but I don’t think we chose the right pass at times.

“When we did get into good positions we weren’t set up as well as we could have been in terms of getting people in the box.

“We need to defend better and not give goals away and be better in the final third; we created chances today that I think we should have scored from.

“If you’re not gifting goals then you might nick a 1-0 win away from home which would be much needed.”