Preston in Town for Prenton’s Pre-Season Opener
By Deadly Submarine
July 17 2009
The first of three upcoming home friendly matches for Rovers takes place tomorrow afternoon with Championship side Preston North End the visitors as John Barnes makes his Prenton Park debut as Manager of the Club after taking over from Ronnie Moore in June. Here we take a look ahead to the game.....
The summer break from football is over already and Saturday afternoon sees Rovers back at Prenton Park already to take on Championship side Preston North End in the first of three pre-season friendly matches at Prenton Park in the next three weeks.
The game of course sees John Barnes take charge of Rovers for the first time at home as the squad look to improve on the mixed fortunes they suffered last Tuesday night with a John Barnes managed team going down 3-2 at Cammell Laird at the same time as Jason McAteer's side were seeing off Heswall 2-0 at Gayton Park.
All of the new signings made so far this summer in Mark Allott, Alan Mahon, Paul McLaren, John Welsh are expected to feature in the game along with re-signed players Ian Moore and Charlie Barnett who only today put pen to paper on a new twelve month deal.
Jamaican defender Ian Goodison was absent from both squads on Tuesday night as he is reportedly still in Jamaica whilst striker Bas Savage is out injured until the end of August at the earliest.
Another player who was absent from both squads on Tuesday night was left-back Andy Taylor who has this week moved on to play for Sheffield United in the Championship for an undisclosed fee.
It seems unlikely that there will be any more new faces brought into the Rovers squad before the game on Saturday afternoon but after a total of four trialists appeared in the two matches in midweek, further appearances from them or even new trialists, cannot be ruled out.
Defenders George Abbey, Stefan Hansen and Chris Riley and Goalkeeper Patrick Lane may well feature further after their appearances last week.
Preston North End, managed by former Everton Assistant Manager Alan Irvine will be a tough test for Rovers having finished sixth in the Championship last season, losing out to Sheffield United in the play-offs.
The match kicks off at 3.00pm and ticket details (in all areas of the Stadium) are as follows......
Adults = £8.00
Seniors 60+ = £4.00
Young Persons 17-22 = £4.00
Juniors (16 and Under) = £3.00
Stay tuned to Total Tranmere on Saturday night for a report and pictures from this match.
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ash taylor was good at the back, and i wouldnt have a problem with him starting the season there
george looked better today than at lairds, was decent at right back, wasnt brilliant when he moved to centre back though
welsh looks good, but could end up seeing red a few times this season, very tough in the tackle
gornell took his goal well