Craig Disley insists Bristol Rovers need to finish the season strongly to avoid the risk of starting the next in the doldrums.

The Pirates' midfielder remembers how the side failed to win in their final 15 games of last season and closed the campaign by losing five out of six.

And Disley believes that miserable run had repercussions when it came to the start of the current campaign

"We have to finish strongly. If you look at what happened last year, we were pretty shocking over the last six or seven games," said Disley.

"We saw this season that we started sloppily because we finished the last one sloppily.

"But there's no way this management team will let us rest on our laurels. We want a good finish to get ourselves into the top 10."

Rovers hope to bounce back from Tuesday's 2-1 home defeat by Huddersfield by continuing their impressive recent away form at Tranmere on Sunday.

Wingers David Pipe and Jeff Hughes could both be back fighting for places in a team that is unbeaten in their last six away matches.

Coach Paul Trollope will have to decide whether to persist with the 4-3-3 formation the Pirates have employed in their last two games.

Disley said: "We need to win games and it's an attacking formation. We've not had all that much time to work on it and it's something we're trying out which hopefully can come good for us.

Trollope said: "It's a learning curve for all of us. I'm looking at possibilities over the rest of the season and experimenting a little bit to see what best suits individual players. The system does demand different things from the normal 4-4-2.

"The game is evolving and changing and there aren't too many teams who just play in straight lines. We need to evolve too."