NIGEL Adkins claimed his Tranmere side were together and enjoying themselves after recording a 5-1 League Two victory away to 10-man Salford.

Harvey Saunders, Kieron Morris, Connor Jennings, Regan Hartley and Josh Hawkes were on target as Tranmere recorded their first away win of the season and the first time they'd scored five goals away from home in over ten years. 

Matthew Lund scored Salford’s only goal which had little impact in the context of an otherwise one-sided performance, while the hosts lost Conor McAleny to a 72nd-minute red card.

Tranmere have lost one of their last eight in the league after losing four in a row prior to their current purple patch.

A delighted Adkins said: “When the team is together, everyone achieves more. Everyone is understanding their roles and responsibilities, stepping up, talking and organising each other.

“We enjoy being resilient, we enjoy grafting and working hard and we enjoy being physical. The lads were good with that and yes, we’ve got an away win. It’s been a long time coming and the fans were great.

“I thought we were outstanding, first half in particular. Our defensive shape, our resolve, our organisation to be aggressive while we go and press was great.”

“Harvey Saunders was a massive threat all the way through. I can’t speak highly enough of Connor Jennings.

“The way we pressed as a team in a compact shape, to press aggressively was great. Salford want to pass it and we nullified that in a big way. We were such a threat.

“We scored five but we could have scored seven or eight.”

Adkins said the team's current success was down to individuals understanding their roles. 

"People understand their responsibilities," he said. "We've got a framework to work from and we enjoy being resilient when we need to be and when we haven't got possession of the football and we enjoy grafting, working hard and being physical.

"The opposition may have the ball but we're hard to beat - we're solid now and we'll wait and be very aggressive when we press and I think the fans appreciate that.

"An away win has been a long time coming and it's great for the fans that we've backed up the victory we had going into Christmas."

Rovers travel to Harrogate Town on Friday evening knowing another win would move them even further away from the League Two relegation places.

"We've picked up one or two little knocks so here's where the squad gets utilised," he added. "I'm looking at the team and there's an understanding and an organisation. Everyone has bought in to what we want to go and do - there are plenty of meetings and plenty of dialogue goes on and you can see the players are enjoying it. 

"Yes, I've brought some experience in but it's been all of us. We have sports science staff here who make sure the right information is given to the players so they can prepare themselves and for me at times we ran over the opposition today.

"We have great coaching staff who are working hard. Kevin Mulligan put a game plan together because we do a lot around Sun Tzu's The Art of War and knowing your opposition and in the first half in particular it worked an absolute treat.

"Let's enjoy this moment because it was February when we last won away from home - 20 games in all competitions - that's a long, long time."