Tranmere captain Steven Jennings blasted “talk is cheap” and says it is time they proved they can walk the walk after defeat to Cheltenham.
Rovers sunk deeper into trouble in League Two after losing 2-0, a result that leaves them dangling tantalisingly about the relegation zone.
And Jennings pulled no punches after another limp display.
“We didn’t really get going,” he said.
“We were slow out the traps, and as we have been lately, we’ve been giving silly goals away.
“The first should have been well defended, the second, Kayode Odejayi came in and said sorry at the end, he’s completely switched off.
“We’ve just had a long, hard chat. There’s only us who can change it.
“We need to pick ourselves up and get behind each other, because we have actually got not a bad side. It’s just putting it together.
“It’s always in the players hands.
“The gaffer picks the team and the eleven starters have got to go out and play to what they can.
“At the minute, I don’t think one of us can look at ourselves and say ‘we’ve done ourselves justice.’
“We all need to look ourselves in the mirror and go again Tuesday.”
The squad had a long debrief on the pitch on what went wrong at Whaddon Road.
But Jennings reckons there is no point in playing the blame game.
“Alan Rogers said to us ‘what is it?’, he continued.
“I had my say and the majority of the lads had their say.
“But now’s the time when you can’t start pointing fingers.”
Tranmere are back in action tomorrow against high-flying Wycombe.
For some in the lower echelons of the table, facing a team who lie third might be a daunting task.
Not so for Rovers though, who have performed better against the higher placed clubs, compared to slipping up against relegation rivals York, Carlisle and now Cheltenham.
And Jennings says it is time to start showing some bottle if they want to stay up.
“We’ve got to stand up and be counted, because it looks like it’s starting to get serious again,” he added.
“We’ve got twelve games left. With the team we’ve got, we shouldn’t really be counting them in that way.
“But it’s come to that.
“We’ve most definitely got enough to stay up.
“But talk is cheap. You’ve got to start to doing it.
“There’s no point me saying ‘we’ve got a great squad, we’ve got a great bench’ if we’re not picking results up.”
Matthew Jones 