An upbeat Ian Dawes could hardly contain his delight after seeing his Tranmere side finally record their first win of the season at the third time of asking with a 3-0 victory over Harrogate at Prenton Park.
Goals from Luke Norris, Sam Taylor and Kieron Morris were the difference as Rovers followed-up two disappointing defeats with a much-needed victory.
Dawes said: “The performances over the past three games have been key because if you keep performing the results will come.
“I felt for whoever we were playing tonight as I felt we were going to give someone a hiding in terms of goals.
“It’s still no excuses as you still have to get the wins on the board but we’ve always believed that if the process is right and the performances are there then the results will come.
“Today reminded me of the second half on Saturday, there was a lot more substance to what we did, we were aggressive, came out on the front foot and we deserved to be two goals up at half-time.
“We looked at Saturday’s performance and we had to go with that team again because I thought they were outstanding.
“I thought we managed the game well and we’d get them on the counter sooner or later so the performance overall was outstanding and to get a clean sheet just caps it off.”
Norris rose above a static Town defence to head home a Connor Jennings centre in the 24th minute and just 90 seconds later Tranmere doubled their lead when Taylor raced through a non-existent Harrogate defence before stabbing the ball under Mark Oxley.
The game was put beyond doubt in the 89th minute when Morris fired home to inflict a second straight defeat on Harrogate.
Town boss Simon Weaver said: “I thought we gave the game away in the first half conceding two quick goals and it made it a massive task to get back into the game.
“For large parts of the second half we were the better team to watch and we reacted well to me telling the lads at half-time that we were powder-puff.
“In the second half we played with more determination and anger but we need to do that from the start to get results.
“Of course the two goals we conceded in the first half changed the game and that came about from a lack of discipline.
“You get judged by your results and we’ve had an awful one tonight and maybe 3-0 didn’t tell the whole story of the game tonight.
“You’ve got to take your chances and we had some very good chances to score tonight which we wasted.”
