ADAM MCGURK’S career with Tranmere may be at the fledgling stage but he already has good reason to regard Brisbane Road as a happy hunting ground.

The 22-year-old striker plundered two goals in Rovers’ 3-0 win over Leyton Orient on the penultimate weekend of last season.

So making a swift return visit on the second weekend of the new League One campaign has McGurk excited – even though he’s expecting the Londoners to make things tougher this time around.

“It was a good day for me down there last year,” McGurk said.

“I remember the second goal just to be on the chest and went in. The result was good, the performance was good and hopefully it will give us a lot of confidence to go down there and do well again.”

Tranmere were pleased when the Metropolitan Police confirmed the fixture would go ahead following rioting in the capital earlier this week. The prospect of making the long journey to London to play the rearranged game on a Tuesday night later in the season was not an attractive one.

McGurk’s Tranmere career belatedly came to life towards the end of last season. The early months, following a move from Aston Villa in the summer, were dogged by injury troubles that frustrated his attempts to establish a regular first-team place.

Scoring a spectacular last-gasp winning goal as a substitute in a crucial victory at Bournemouth at the beginning of April was something of a turning point in McGurk’s fortunes.

By the time Tranmere’s preseason programme of friendly matches was up and running this summer, it became clear McGurk had pushed himself further up the pecking order.

He duly started Tranmere’s first two games of the new season, a 1-0 League One win over Chesterfield at Prenton Park last Saturday and 3-0 Carling Cup defeat at Doncaster in midweek.

McGurk hopes he will reap the benefits of working through a full preseason training programme with Tranmere – an advantage he was unable to enjoy in three injury blighted years with Aston Villa’s youth and reserve teams setups.

McGurk said: “This was my first full preseason training for four years and I think the benefits have started to show already. I feel fitter and sharper. The more games I play the better I should be.”