TRANMERE boss Micky Mellon is already fully focused on the next game despite his side’s confidence-boosting 2-0 win against Exeter.

Rovers gave their play-off hopes a welcome lift thanks to goals from Josh Hawkes and Elliott Nevitt at Prenton Park.

The deadlock was broken as Hawkes hit his sixth goal of the season in the 39th minute.

City huffed and puffed to get back into the game but failed to find an all-important leveller.

And Nevitt put the game to bed with nine minutes to go with a downward header from Merrie’s delightful delivery.

Sam Foley should have added gloss to the scoreline but he missed at the end.

It was a first win in six after sliding out of automatic promotion contention.

And it dented the Grecians’ title bid as they fell five points off table-toppers Forest Green.

“Every game’s a must win,” stressed Mellon, who saw his side snatch a late point at Bradford City on Good Friday. “We’ve just got to keep going and see where it gets us.

“We understand that there are going to be ups and downs as the season comes towards its climax.

“We know we have to keep our focus, keep our heads down and keep trying to knock the results out. That’s what we’ll be trying to do.

“It was a good all-round performance at an important time of the year.

“We scored a couple of goals and keeping a clean sheet is also very important.

“Over the weekend with the very tough opposition we’ve got we knew the minimum we needed to get was four points and that’s what we got.

“We wanted six, of course we did. But we’re all right, we got a draw away from home and backed that up with a great result today.

“We go to the next game now trying to get a result in that. We’ll just keep going.”

Next up for Rovers is a trip to Stevenage on Saturday, April 23.

“It has been a long season and now it is about me being able to judge where the players are at and what they need to be prepared for the next game both mentally and physically,” added Mellon. “But we have enough experience on the coaching staff to know when we need to heat that hot tin roof and when we need to turn the heat down a wee bit.

“They certainly deserve a break because the mileage they’ve clocked up in the last few days is incredible.

“The crowd were fabulous - they knew that we needed them today because they’re so experienced of being blessed with good seasons over the past five or six years.

“They played their part massively and they can count themselves as being part of why we got that result.”