Tranmere Rovers will travel to the Banks’s Stadium on Saturday (15:00) to face a struggling Walsall side in the Sky Bet League Two.

The Merseyside club are still second in League Two and hold a four-point advantage over third-placed Northampton, who have a game in hand.

This follows a comfortable 3-0 dispatch of Swindon Town on Tuesday evening.

Micky Mellon’s side have the best defensive record in the league, with 17 clean sheets in 30 matches this term.

The Whites have been in fine form of late, having picked up 17 points from a possible 24 in 2022.

Tranmere’s Opposition

Walsall sacked their manager Matt Taylor on Wednesday after they lost their seventh successive game the night before.

The tipping point for Taylor was a 1-0 defeat away at bottom side Scunthorpe United, who were down to ten men for 37 minutes.

The torrid run of form has left The Saddlers just four points above the relegation zone in 21st place.

Walsall- Well's Stadium
Walsall’s Well’s Stadium- the venue for Tranmere’s next match

Head-to-Head

The two sides have met 76 times in their history, with Walsall winning 35 of those.

Tranmere have beaten the West Midlands side 26 times and there have been 15 draws.

Prior to this season, Tranmere endured a run of eight games without victory against Walsall stretching back to 2012.

Callum McManaman’s first goal for the Whites was enough to end the winless run in August 2021.

Team News

Tranmere

19-year-old Lee O’Connor, who has been nominated for League Two Player of the Month for January, is available.

Tranmere manager Micky Mellon will hope to have Joe Murphy back in contention after he missed Tuesday’s victory over Swindon with a sore back.

Mellon hopes that will settle down before the trip to Walsall.

Walsall

Ex-Tranmere player Manny Monthé will likely face his old side after completing his seven-game suspension.

Monthé was suspended in December for homophobic abuse whilst he was a Tranmere player.

The Saddlers are set to be without midfielder Jack Earing again, after he suffered concussion in a defeat to Northampton last Saturday.

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