Heswall 0, Tranmere 3

Jul 19 2007 by Nick Hilton, Liverpool Daily Post

TWO crisply finished goals by Steve Davies enlivened Tranmere’s pre-season victory over Heswall last night.

The teenage winger made a late entrance at Gayton Park 10 minutes after the interval, then struck goals on 60 and 68 minutes to add to a first-half strike from Chris Greenacre.

The West Cheshire League side provided dogged opposition to make Tranmere work harder for their goal-scoring opportunities than they had in the opening warm-up fixture – a 6-0 success over a weakened Cammell Lairds last Saturday.

Manager Ronnie Moore changed his line-up almost completely at the break – as he did at Kirklands, and on this occasion the second half team looked sharper than those who started the game.

Moore gave French trialist, Christian G’Hale a 55-minute run in a wide attacking role and may take another look at him in the fixture at Marine on Saturday.

Geert Bakker, the Dutch trialist who played at Lairds, was absent last night, having agreed to join a Belgian club.

Tranmere started as if they were intent on matching their four goal first half showing against the Shipbuilders.

Midfielder Paul McLaren fired narrowly wide after being well set up on the edge of the box in the second minute and striker Calvin Zola looped a header against the crossbar from a chip by G’Hale two minutes later.

But Heswall quickly began to demonstrate their determination to offer stiff and stubborn resistance, closing down Tranmere’s attacking options whenever they could.

They kept the professionals at bay until falling victim to a typical piece of opportunism by Greenacre, Tranmere’s leading marksman of the last two seasons.

The experienced striker pounced on a shot from outside the box by Shane Sherriff that was running wide of the target, dispatching it swiftly past goalkeeper Ian Greenhalgh.

Tranmere continued to dominate the possession without moving the ball as slickly as they needed to to open up the Heswall defence.

Rovers also had to survive an uncomfortable moment at the back when the part-timers had two shots blocked in a scramble in front of goalkeeper Danny Coyne in the 22nd minute.

However, the woodwork denied Rovers a second goal just before the interval when Zola directed Chris Shuker’s right wing corner against the crossbar with a powerful header and Sherriff’s shot from the rebound was deflected for a corner.

Ian Goodison remained at his centre-back station during the second half in the absence of Ben Chorley, who had a knock.

Greenhall prevented Tranmere adding an early second half strike by stretching full length to keep a low accurate shot from Gareth Taylor out of the bottom left hand corner.

The second goal arrived on the hour however, when Davies, running through the inside left channel onto a flick from Taylor, fired the ball powerfully home from 15 yards.

Midfielder, Adnan Ahmed, powered a shot narrowly over the crossbar from long range in the 64th minute. And four minutes later Davies added the third goal with a venomous effort from 25 yards after taking a pass from Carl Tremarco.

Davies, looking for a hat-trick, curled an ambitious 40-yard free-kick towards the top corner on 83 minutes, but Greenhalgh scrambled quickly to cover the danger.

The keeper was beaten by striker Craig Curran’s shot after the teenager squeezed between two defenders in the 85th minute, but his effort ran wide of the post.

TRANMERE first half: Coyne, Johnston, Goodison, Kay, Sherriff, Shuker, McLaren, Jennings, G’Hale, Zola, Greenacre. Second half: Achterberg, Stockdale, Holmes, Goodison, Tremarco, Jones, Henry, Ahmed, G’Hale (Davies 55 mins), Taylor, Curran.

NEXT GAME: Marine v Tranmere, friendly, Saturday, July 21, 3pm