TRANMERE made a bumpy start to their pre-season programme under new manger John Barnes, losing to local UniBond League part-timers Cammell Laird at the Kirklands.

A couple of handling errors by trialist goalkeeper Patrick Lane cost Rovers second-half goals to Simon Tucker and Lee Kearns that ultimately settled the contest.

Barnes fielded a mixed line-up of experienced professionals, trialists and youngsters who created enough opportunities to have won the contest. But they paid dearly for the defensive lapses.

Tranmere had marginally the better of the first half and were unfortunate to trail at the interval to a 35th-minute goal by Danny Andrews.

The lively Charlie Barnett, who is yet to agree on a new contract for next season, levelled for Tranmere soon after the break.

Rovers were trailing 3-1 by the time first-year professional Ryan Fraughan notched their second goal on 83 minutes. There was still time for strikers Terry Gornell and Craig Curran to go close to an equaliser.

Tranmere’s line-up included trialist defenders Stefan Hansen, a Dane from Copenhagen, and George Abbey, a defender who had experience in the lower divisions with Macclesfield, Port Vale and Rochdale.

Rovers enjoyed the balance of possession during the first half, often moving the ball sweetly on the well grassed surface.

They might well have gone ahead on 13 minutes when Barnett, well set up by Curran, fired over from a dozen yards.

The visitors went close again on the half hour when Gornell headed Barnett’s chip against the crossbar.

But Tranmere paid for a moment of defensive slackness 10 minutes before the interval when Tucker crossed from the right to give Andrew’s yards of space to fire past the exposed keeper.

Lane, a 20-year-old Californian who was with Belgian club Cercle Brugge, made his first testing save of the night to smother a fierce low shot from Tucker five minutes after the restart.