Goalkeeper Scott Davies is convinced Tranmere are heading in the right direction regardless of the outcome of Saturday’s Sky Bet League Two play-off final.
The Wirral side will return to English football’s third tier for the first time since 2014 if they beat Newport at Wembley.
The club have endured some tough times since that relegation five years ago, not least when they slipped down further and out of the English Football League altogether in 2015.
Three years in the National League followed, but with Mark Palios and his wife Nicola, the club’s owners, turning around a business that was losing £1million a year, the platform was laid for a resurgence.
Davies arrived from Fleetwood with the club at their lowest ebb and has played a prominent role in their rise.
After missing out in the National League play-off final two years ago, Rovers returned to Wembley last year and secured promotion with victory over Boreham Wood.
This weekend sees them head back to the national stadium for a third year in succession, with promotion again within grasp.
Davies, 32, said: “I signed here four years ago when the club wasn’t in a great place. The chairman and his wife hadn’t been here long, but they set out from the get-go to get the club back to where it was previously.
“This is just another step. We took a huge step last year. If we do it again then great, but if we don’t, you only have to look around and see where the club is now to see it is going nowhere bar upwards. The only way is up.
“There’ll be many more highs and lows in the history of Tranmere. We just have to make sure it is another high.”
Davies believes the team’s recent experiences of playing at Wembley will serve them well against the Welsh side, who finished in seventh, one place below Rovers.
“I think a core of this group have been through both emotions,” said Davies, who could captain the side if Steve McNulty is on the bench, as he was in the semi-finals. “We know exactly how it feels to lose there and win there.
“It’s a big part of it that we have been there and done it. That can only help.
“We have got a group I believe a lot of are playing below their level. For one reason or another we are at a point in our careers where maybe we have had to win our way back up. A lot of us are doing that now.
“But we have still got a job to do and hopefully we can continue putting this club back to where it originally was.”
