Tranmere Rovers v Crawley Town preview: Can Reds pick up their first away win of the season?

Micky Mellon, manager of Tranmere Rovers. (Photo by Lewis Storey/Getty Images)

Crawley Town travel to Tranmere Rovers in midweek looking for their first away win of the season.

Confidence seems to be on the floor at Crawley at the moment with a humiliating 5-2 defeat at home to Carlisle summing up how this season is going for The Reds. They face up against Micky Mellon’s Tranmere Rovers side, who are one of the most inconsistent teams you’ll find in League Two this season.

They find themselves 13th in League Two but on their day are a much better side than their league position suggests. Rovers are similar to the Crawley side of last season in that they had the capability to push for play-offs but couldn’t string together a consistent run of results.

The Super White Army did pick up an impressive 1-0 win at Stevenage in their last outing and also beat league leaders Leyton Orient at the end of January. Micky Mellon’s side will be searching for their first back-to-back victories of this calendar year when Scott Lindsey’s side arrive at Prenton Park.

They’ll certainly fancy their chances with Crawley struggling but The Reds need to start scrapping for their lives to get themselves out the bottom two. It’s the start of three away games in a week for Crawley and with only six points picked up on the road this season it doesn’t bode well for The Reds.

The first goal may prove to be crucial in this contest with it being very rare that both teams score when Tranmere are involved. Only once in the last seven games Tranmere have been involved in both teams found the back of the net and that was a 3-2 defeat away at Stockport.

However, anything like their performance against Carlisle and Crawley could be on the wrong end of a hammering once again.

It’s the first time the sides have met this season and Crawley desperately need a result to move them closer to 23rd place Hartlepool, while Tranmere need to get some consistency if they’re to mount a late play-off charge.