Caretaker Andy Crosby urged his players to “stay humble” after Tranmere extended their unbeaten run to six games with a 2-0 League Two win over Cheltenham at Prenton Park.
Kristian Dennis’ first-half header and a late Cameron Norman strike proved crucial as Rovers put some daylight between themselves and the League Two relegation places.
Interim Tranmere boss Crosby, whose side have now taken 12 points from their last six games, said: “It was a good three points and another clean sheet.
“It’s important that we stay humble, we enjoy tonight’s victory, which you’ve got to do when you win and then we go again on Tuesday.
“I thought we made a slow start and we gave the first real good opportunity of the game to the opposition with the header in the box.
“But we grew into the game and got a foothold and started to play through their press and some of the football we played was really pleasing.”
The hosts started brightly with Norman almost opening the scoring in the third minute from close range.
The visitors had a glorious opportunity to snatch the lead in the 20th minute when Timothee Dieng’s header flew narrowly over.
And he was made to pay five minutes later when Dennis connected with a Josh Hawkes corner to nod the ball home at the near post.
Rovers could have increased their lead after the break through Sam Finley, Omari Patrick and Regan Hendry, who all had good opportunities to make things more comfortable.
But any tension was eased in the final minute of stoppage time as Norman fired home from the edge of the area to make the points safe.
Crosby added: “We’ve managed to not give them much throughout the game and I felt we could have taken advantage of some of the situations we created.
“But we’ve had 15 shots and we’ve got to keep focusing on that part of our game.
“We need to keep working, we’ve had a good month and the crowd were amazing again, but we have to stay humble and think about what we’re doing to try and win games.”
Cheltenham boss Michael Flynn – who has seen his side win just once in eight games – said: “We weren’t good enough tonight.
“They outbattled us, they used the ball better than us and we conceded from another set play, which is disappointing.
“But I’m not going to come out here tonight and kick my players when they’re down. They are hurting in there and they’ve lost a bit of form.
“So this is when they need me to stick up for them and back them and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. They’re trying and we’re just falling short in terms of a bit of quality.
“There are a few things missing like the quality on the ball, defensive set plays we haven’t been good at, decision making and the energy we need to press wasn’t there.
“We haven’t been setting up negatively or changing what we are doing, it’s just that they haven’t been producing to the levels that they were earlier in the season.
“We’ve just got to regroup, stick together and try and finish the season as strongly as we can.”
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