A HALF-TIME shake-up from Neil Young inspired the Blues to a well-deserved victory over a youthful Rovers side on Tuesday.
The Chester manager told his players to up their game at the break and gave them just five minutes of the second half to improve before he began to ring the changes.
And the changes certainly did the trick as Michael Wilde netted a quickfire double to ensure the impressive Blues made it three pre-season friendly wins in six days.
Young said: “We started with three at the back and it didn’t really work for us as I thought Tranmere’s young lads stretched us in the first half. So we decided to change it (to 4-4-2) and we got the width we needed.
“The two wingers came on and made a difference, the two full-backs got forward more, Carl Ruffer came on and did well and Michael Wilde got a couple of goals.
“Michael is a handful. He’s not the biggest but he gives defenders a hard time and he lives for scoring goals like all good centre-forwards do.”
After a bright start by the hosts, Tranmere got the opening goal their dominance deserved when Max Power headed in Steve Connor’s cross seven minutes before the interval.
That lead was wiped out 11 minutes after the restart when Mark Connolly’s corner was nodded in by Wilde.
Wilde repeated the trick three minutes later as he rose majestically to head home Michael Aspin’s cross to make it four goals in his last three games – and nick the man-of-the-match honour away from Greg Stones.
Chester: Oldfield (Whiteside 54), Aspin, Meadowcroft (Ruffer 50), Horan (Jones 67), Stones (Peers 50), Williams, Burgess (Connolly 10), Armstrong (Ryan 50), Graves (Rigoglioso 68), Hopley, Wilde.
Attendance: 1,927 (553 away).
