TRANMERE boss Micky Mellon admits he remains 'cautiously optimistic' about the club's chance of play-off success as the season progresses.

Speaking during a press conference at the club's Solar Campus training ground in Leasowe this afternoon ahead of Saturday's League clash with Notts County at Prenton Park, Mellon admitted it had been a 'decent' week for the club, with a 0-0 draw with Cambridge last weekend and James Norwood netting a 2-1 victory against Port Vale on Tuesday, which moved the side up to ninth in the division and within touching distance of the play-offs.

On the recent results, Mellon said: "That's how quickly things can happen when you're picking up wins.

"We're really pleased with the last three games, picking up seven out of the nine points available. They have been good performances as well."

Looking ahead to what promises to be a tough game against Notts County at the weekend, he continued: "At this stage of the season it's starting to emerge what prizes you're fighting for; whether it's fighting to stay up or in play-offs, or to win the league.

"It's a tough time of the season where anything can happen and we've got to concentrate on what brings us success and not get side-tracked by anything else.

"Every game in this division is tough and you have to fight to the very end to get something and I don't expect anything different from the weekend."

Assessing his squad's performance so far, he continued: "A few weeks ago I said it was important that we try to, first and foremost, stay in this division.

"The players have done fantastic in getting us towards that now and, mathematically, we're getting towards that.

"I'm not going to kid anybody on and say we don't know where we are and how far we are behind. This is to remind people of where Tranmere's come from.

"It's a gradual rebuilding job and I don't want people rushing too far ahead of that and believing that we set out at the start of the season to make the play-offs, because that's not what we spoke about. We're still rebuilding and improving all the time.

"We're delighted with the position that we're in and will fight hard to try to get inside the play-offs zone.

"I don't want everybody to get carried away with themselves and getting too disappointed if everything doesn't go our way.

"We're ahead of schedule in terms of where we believed we would be. But that doesn't mean we won't give it a right good go and try to get out out of this division.

"We'll fight hard to try and do approach every game to try to win it, and at the end of it all, fingers crossed, we'll make it to the little cup competition and have an opportunity to try and get out of the division.

"When I started at the club I said was cautiously optimistic moving forward, never really set any expectations other than we had to stay in the league.

"We'll do all we can to make sure that we're a League Two club minimum next season.

"I'm here to give the players the best possible chance to win games of football. So I don't try to get too high or too low and get the players to do the same.

"If we get beaten; for example, we try to look at the reasons why and try to work on that in training the following week.

"We work very hard and understand that it's football and anything can happen.

"We tend to understand why we've lost or won a game.

"That keeps us on an even keel."