Keith Hill insists that he is enjoying the challenge of managing Tranmere and hasn't completely given up on their fading automatic promotion hopes either.

Rovers host struggling AFC Barrow at Prenton Park on Saturday afternoon, knowing that a win will cement their position in the League Two playoffs with a couple of games to spare.

Pressure has been high on the former Bolton boss, who is only under contract until the end of the season, but that can be automatically extended for another year if Tranmere are promoted.

When asked about his future by the Globe, the 51-year old was relaxed and upbeat about the situation.

He said: "The future's bright for me individually, for the club and for this group of players.

"I don't really want to talk about anything really other than concentrating on what it is that we're trying to achieve.

"We came here with an agreement that we would try our very best collectively to get promotion and that is still the aim.

"With respect to myself, I'm totally comfortable with the current situation that I find myself in, which I'm really enjoying."

Rovers ended a winless run of seven matches with a 1-0 victory against Bradford City on Tuesday evening, that eased some of the pressures that Hill and his players have been working under.

But they were once again without top scorer James Vaughan and there was no clear indication of when he will return having made two substitute appearances in the previous two matches.

Hill said: "He's got a massive roll to play (in the remainder of the season) just by being James Vaughan. He will at some point be available for selection, but at this moment in time, he is unavailable for selection."

Aside from Vaughan and long term absentee, captain Scott Davies, Tranmere have no other injury worries ahead of the Barrow match.

The Cumbrian side are not mathematically safe from relegation out of the Football League but Hill insisted that they were as good as safe and as a result, Rovers should be concentrating on picking up wins in their remaining three matches and see where it takes them.

He added: "We've still got a desire to get into the top three. While that's still possible - and it is possible, a lot of strange things happen at the end of seasons - we're still optimistic.

"We're still fighting for that opportunity until it can't mathematically be achieved.

"But at this moment in time, we're just focusing on preparing the players and getting a performance, and most importantly trying to get three points to maybe get a bit of pressure on the two teams above us (Bolton and Morecambe) at least, because they're playing each other."