Harrogate Town v Tranmere Rovers: Connor Kirby determined to nail down starting role

The 22-year-old ex-Sheffield Wednesday man will start in the engine room alongside Lloyd Kerry against the Merseysiders due to Josh Falkingham's absence through suspension.

Kirby was introduced as a 41st-minute substitute during Saturday's 2-1 loss at Newport County after skipper Falkingham was sent off for two bookable offences.

And, having thoroughly impressed in South Wales, the former Owl says he wants to build on that performance this evening and look to nail down his place in manager Simon Weaver's starting XI.

"For me personally, I've been in and out of the side and I want to play every game, that's what I've come here to do, to play games," said Kirby who has started just twice in League Two since arriving at Wetherby Road.

"So, hopefully I can make another statement against Tranmere and give the gaffer a bit of a headache as to who he picks.

"On Saturday, the gaffer and Thirs [Paul Thirlwell] just told me to be disciplined and look after their number 19 [Scott Twine], which I thought I did really well. It's not great to come on with 10 men, obviously you want to come on when we've got 11 so I can enjoy myself, but I had to be disciplined and I thought I did that.

"Personally, I thought I did well and hopefully I can carry that into Tuesday with Josh not being available.

"As a team, hopefully we can produce a better performance and get the three points."

Looking back on Saturday's defeat to the League Two leaders, Kirby said that there were some positives to take, though he felt that Town's lack of ruthlessness in front of goal once again proved costly.

"Newport are a top, top team .We did everything we could with 10 men against top of the league and obviously to concede from a set-piece that late on is very disappointing and we were a bit down and upset about it," he added.

"There are loads of positives to take. I thought we were very disciplined and did our jobs, everyone dug in, every single one of us gave our all.

"We know that the referee made some poor decisions, but it's not his fault that we lost the game. He made his decision [to send Falkingham off] and we just had to get on with it - which I thought we did.

"It's been a bit of a problem the last few games, not taking our chances. We need to be more ruthless. If we start scoring more goals we'll start winning games and can move back up towards where we know we can be in the table.

"We've just got to focus on it in training and when it comes to game-day hopefully we can take our chances."

Kick-off tonight (Tuesday) at the EnviroVent Stadium is at 7pm.