NEW manager Ronnie Moore has promised to turn Prenton Park into a fortress as he leads Tranmere Rovers in their battle to pick up vital points.

The Rovers’ veteran got the call to return to the club as caretaker manager on Sunday following the sacking of Les Parry after the side suffered defeat against League One bottom club Chesterfield.

This was the final straw for Rovers’ hierarchy who had seen the club slide to within a single point of the League One drop zone, enduring 11 games without a win.

Tranmere are currently 19th in the table with 34 points - their new boss has 13 games left this season to reverse the alarming slide.

At his first press conference on Monday Ronnie, who made more than 370 appearances for Tranmere scoring 86 goals, said: “Take it from me, I’m ready. I want to turn Prenton Park into a fortress.

“The lads will have that fighting spirit - and if you’ve got 11 players who are ready to roll their sleeves up and put in blood, sweat and tears, you’ll win more games than you lose.

"The first thing is to get 50 points or above.

“When a club’s down the way we are at the moment, there’s no magic wand to wave.

“But look at Notts County. New manager and the club’s in a better position than we are and have won four games in a row. I don’t see any reason why that can’t happen here.”

It is 12 months since Ronnie was fired as Rotherham manager and he hasn’t been in a job since.

“When I got the sack at Rotherham they were fifth in the league and four points off automatic promotion. I’ve just got to be careful because sometimes you can get the sack for being too good!”

On Rovers’ fitness, Ronnie observed: “I watched the Chesterfield game on Saturday and it just looked as though the sides were really low on confidence and it was a sloppy goal that won it, so the boys just need to tighten up.

“Defensively, we’re not looking too bad.

“It’s just going the other way we need to improve. This comes from wins and having smiley faces on the training ground.”

Chairman Peter Johnson said: "I’m really pleased to have Ronnie back. He knows this place so well and can hit the ground running, which is important.

“I’m both sad and delighted.

"Sad because Les is a good friend of mine who has done a good job over the past three seasons, but of course managers pay the price for one win out of 20 and we couldn’t let things go on the way they were.

“There are only 38 points available and we need about 15 or 18 of them. It’s a big call, when you consider we’ve only had one win 20.”

“It was a difficult conversation, but I think Les suspected things were getting more difficult and I was just waiting for the win.

“We’d go to all the away games and Les would say the win will come today, but it never did.

Kevin Summerfield and John McMahon will remain in their current positions at the club.

Ronnie Moore took Rovers to within an inch of the play-offs in 2009 and was only denied his place for a crack at the Championship by an 88th-minute equaliser in the final game of the campaign by Scunthorpe United.

He was surprisingly sacked a few weeks later as Rovers brought in John Barnes and Jason McAteer in an ill-fated experiment that ended almost as quickly as it had begun after a string of resounding defeats.

Their replacement was the club’s former physio, Les Parry.

Rovers face Notts County at Prenton Park on Tuesday evening. 7.45pm kick-off.

They are at home again this Saturday against Leyton Orient. Kick off is at 3pm.

Wirral Globe: Daily Echo on Facebook - facebook.com/southerndailyecho Like us on Facebook