CALVIN Zola insists bagging the winner at Scunthorpe today will more than make up for his losing return to Prenton Park.

The giant striker felt Crewe were unlucky to exit the Johnstone's Paint Trophy when Tranmere's Chris Shuker netted the only goal of the second-round tie with four minutes left.

Zola, who cost £200,000 from the Wirral side in the summer, stressed he had nothing to prove against the club he spent four seasons with.

"It would have been very nice to have gone to Tranmere and scored. I tried hard, but I will be even more happy if I score on Saturday against Scunthorpe and we win the game," said the striker.

"We deserved something at Tranmere because of the way we played. Prenton Park is always a tough place to go to, but we coped with their pressure and their long balls."

In fact, Crewe dominated the first half when Zola was presented with a juicy opportunity to put his side ahead, only to shoot straight at former team-mate Danny Coyne.

Strike partner Tom Pope also clattered the post, but the early promise turned to despair when Rovers came out revitalised after the break.

"They had a spell on top like any team at home will have, but we coped with that," said Zola. "Overall it was a good performance from the lads after the Northampton game when we weren't at the top of our abilities, so we were really disappointed we lost a game we shouldn't have lost.

"There was a lot of positives to be taken from the game. We worked very hard for one another and showed some good ability in the first half when we were on top.

"The only thing that was missing was scoring that goal. But we have to take the positives and build from there and hopefully we can go to Scunthorpe and win the game."

And Zola, who has yet to score for Crewe and be on a winning side, believes youthful inexperience is costing his new team dearly at the moment.

"We have been inconsistent," he noted. "But we have got a young squad which is always going to lack a bit of consistency.

"The experience comes with games and that is what the young boys are getting. With young players you are always going to get some ups and downs, but hopefully we can find that consistency we are looking for.

"We think we are a decent team which should be doing a lot better than we are because of the ability we have got in the squad.

"Now it is up to us to go on and show it."