TRANMERE found enough second-half cohesion to finish their pre-season programme on a positive note at Prenton Park on Saturday.

Alan Mahon’s 66th minute equaliser rewarded an improved Rovers display after the interval and ensured they avoided the mild embarrassment of losing at home to League Two opposition.

There were few attacking fireworks to whet the appetite before the League One campaign opens at Yeovil Town on Saturday. But at least John Barnes’s team were tighter and more disciplined than they had been in the 3-3 draw at Morecambe in midweek.

They asserted some authority in midfield during the second half, but clear-cut scoring chances were hard to come by.

Barnes will at least be relieved Tranmere avoided losing a player to injury, a fate that befell Shrewsbury’s luckless Lewis Neal who was stretchered off just before half-time.

Barnes turned to the former Leyton Orient defender Brian Saah to plug the defensive gap on a short-term basis.

Saah 22, who does not have a club after being released by Orient this summer, was a late inclusion at centre-back alongside teenager Ash Taylor. He could be around for a little while longer, depending on Barnes’s success or otherwise in recruiting players in the loan market this week.

The back four was given some uncomfortable moments during the opening half as the Shrews showed flashes of the flair that helped them reach the League Two play-offs in May.

But Tranmere began brightly enough. Shaleum Logan, the 21-year-old right back starting a season-long loan from Manchester City, drove a 20 yard shot into the chest of goalkeeper Chris Neal and Craig Curran headed Aaron Cresswell’s left-wing cross narrowly over the bar inside the opening 12 minutes.

But Rovers were fortunate to survive on 15 minutes when a Lewis Neal free kick was flicked onand Craig Disley’s header rebounded off the inside of the post straight into the grateful hands of goalkeeper Luke Daniels.

Shrewsbury went ahead five minutes later. Centre-back and captain Kevin Langmead headed Jake Simpson’s left-wing corner, which looked to get a deflection, into the roof of the net.

A minute later Jake Robinson clipped the top of the crossbar with a curling shot struck with the outside of the boot.

Rovers’ best effort of the half was a sharp 24th-minute overhead kick from Taylor, which dropped just over the bar. But the home team’s passes began to find their targets with more consistency after the turnaround and midfielders Paul McLaren and Jake Welsh became more influential in directing the flow of the game.

Alan Mahon delivered a couple of high quality crosses into the box without finding a striker to convert them and Curran put a diving header wide of the target from a well-flighted centre by Chris Shuker.

Daniels had to make another sharp save against the team he served last season, pushing Steve Leslie’s rising shot from 15 yards over the crossbar.

Mahon’s ability to make a dangerous delivery from set plays produced Rovers’ goal. The Irishman’s left foot whipped in a free-kick from wide on the right.

Unsighted goalkeeper Neal must have expected the ball would get a touch but it flew past him and just inside the far post.