MANAGER Andy Ritchie will tell his team to be wary of two wide boys when Town try to take three points from Tranmere Rovers tonight (7.45).
Prenton Park chief Ronnie Moore has taken experienced left winger Kevin Cooper on loan from Championship club Cardiff.
And Rovers are also set to recall right winger Chris Shuker, who missed Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Swindon because of a thigh strain.
Cooper, 32, has plenty of know-how from a career which has also taken in Derby, Stockport, Wimbledon and Wolves.
He has been brought in as cover for Steve Davies, who has been sidelined by cruciate ligament damage.
Town’s boss, players and fans know only too well the danger posed by Shuker, who shone for Ritchie’s Barnsley when they beat Town in the League I play-off semi-finals the season before last.
Cooper and Shuker will try to establish supply lines for frontmen Gareth Taylor and Chris Greenacre, the Wakefield-born striker who just loves to score against Town.
Six years ago, Greenacre fired a hat trick to help Mansfield dump Town from the FA Cup, and last season, he netted three times in two Town-Tranmere clashes.
Town’s goals against tally – 19 in 12 matches – is a concern for Ritchie, whose side have leaked six in their last two away games, at Walsall and Doncaster.
And he’s desperate to blank out the boys from Birkhenhead, where Town have won just three times in 19 visits and lost on six of their last seven.
“They like to play with wide men, but so do we, and we have to ensure we do it better,” said Ritchie, who again names 17-year-old striker Danny Broadbent in his squad because Andy Booth and Lucas Akins are out injured.
