Marine  0 - 4  Tranmere R                                                   

                          Gareth Edds 27

                        Bas Savage 70

                                    Craig Curran (pen) 79

                            Terry Gornell 90

With the tall ships in one direction and Britain's biggest sporting event of the weekend just a few miles down the road at Birkdale in the other direction, today saw the small matter of a pre-season friendly in Crosby as Rovers travelled to face Marine which become an annual fixture in recent years.

Following on from the 6-2 win over Heswall on Wednesday, Ronnie Moore once again began with a 4-3-3 formation for a side that failed to feature four players as Chris Shuker, Ian Goodison and Antony Kay watched from the sidelines whilst the injured Edrissa Sonko also didn't feature.

Newly signed defender Luke Waterfall started the game at the back alongside Ben Chorley whilst Danny Holmes also made a start at right back.  Andy Taylor started at left-back.

Bas Savage joined Ian Moore and Chris Greenacre in a three man attack in front of Steven Jennings, George O'Callaghan and Gareth Edds in midfield.

Coyne

Holmes Waterfall Chorley Taylor

Jennings O'Callaghan Edds

Savage Moore Greenacre

A decent crowd at the Arriva Stadium saw an entertaining game with both sides creating some decent chances and some good football on display at times.

Gareth Edds and the Rovers Players Celebrate Edd's Goal

Danny Holmes fired a great shot just over the bar after fifteen minutes after some great football by Rovers in the build up to the chance and just a few minutes later the lively Ian Moore cut in from the right side of the area and fired a powerful shot which was deflected wide of goal when he had a number of players waiting in good positions in the penalty area who may have been able to do better had he crossed.

Marine, who had former Rovers player James Olsen in their starting line-up, struck the bar shortly after through Peter Cumiskey before Rovers took the lead just before the half hour.

George O'Callaghan played a corner short to Steven Jennings and on the end of it was that man Gareth Edds again who followed up his hat-trick at Heswall in midweek with yet another goal, firing into the bottom right corner in a fairly crowded penalty area.

Edds had a further two chances to score in the first half and Savage also had a shooting opportunity as Rovers went into the break just one goal ahead after an entertaining first half.

Ronnie Moore made two changes at half-time as Steven Jennings and George O'Callaghan were replaced by Paul Henry and trialist Charlie Barnett.

Craig Curran Dispatches His Penalty Leaving Lake Helpess in Goal

Rovers continued with some good football but Marine gave as good as they got as the defences had to be on top of their game.

With half an hour remaining, Rovers made four more substitutions as Ian Moore and Chris Greenacre were replaced with younger blood upfront in the shape of Craig Curran and Terry Gornell whilst Adnan Ahmed and John Achterberg replaced Gareth Edds and Danny Coyne.

On 70 minutes, a neat turn by Bas Savage saw him fire a low shot into the bottom right corner of the goal for his first Rovers goal but to the disappointment of the Rovers fans present there was no sign of his trademark moonwalk celebration.

Craig Curran fired over from the edge of the area on 72 minutes but just five minutes later the same player was fouled in the area by Ricky Newman and Craig Curran himself dispatched the penalty to make it 3-0 to Rovers.

Terry Gornell forced the Marine keeper Sean Lake into a save in the closing stages but got his goal shortly afterwards when some good work from Bas Savage freed Craig Curran and he squared for Gornell to fire home from inside the area to make it 4-0 which is how the game ended.

On the whole a decent display from Rovers where on the floor football was in evidence on occasions and a 4-0 win, although harsh on the efforts of Marine, was a good result to look back on ahead of the next friendly against Southport on Tuesday night.

Ben Chorley

Captain for the day, Chorley was solid at the back and distributed well when required.  A good guide for the young Waterfall alongside him and with no sign of Goodison in the side today, Chorley was a more than able stand-in.