This Tuesday evening sees the annual pre-season meeting between Blue Square North side Southport and our very own League One side Tranmere Rovers at Haig Avenue.
 
Rovers are in good pre-season form going in to their fourth (fifth if you include the Wrexham game) pre-season game having scored ten goals and conceding just three.

New signing Gareth Edds appears to be impressing for Rovers having scored four goals so far, including a hat-trick against Heswall last Wednesday.
 
Southport are also coming into the game in good form with draws at home to both Manchester City and also Chester City respectively.

Southport’s main man is striker Tony Gray who has netted in both the aforementioned friendly games.

Southport's Haig Avenue Stadium

Last season’s meeting between the two clubs ended in a 1-0 win for the home side with the that man Gray getting on the scoresheet for Southport.
 
Rovers appear to have a fully fit squad for the game as Ronnie Moore yesterday told the Official Tranmere Website that Chris Shuker, Antony Kay and Ian Goodison should all return after missing out against Marine thorugh injury although there is no news on summer signing Edrissa Sonko who also missed the Marine game, reportedly through injury.

However, one player who will almost definitely miss out is John Curtis who is rumoured to have left the club during his trial period.
 
So far Rovers have fielded a 4-3-3 formation in all of the previous friendly games and look likely to fulfil that expectation for a fourth time. The main wonder however, is who fits into this formation and which combination works best.

I'm sure the main function for the Southport game will to further improve fitness levels and to test different combinations of players to see which work the most effectively.

If you are going to the game enjoy it!