Tranmere Rovers.........2

Chester.........................0

First half goals from Liam Hogan and James Norwood earned Tranmere Rovers victory over Chester in a full-blooded ‘old Cheshire derby’ at Prenton Park.

Tranmere took the lead after only five minutes when Chester keeper Jon Worsnop failed to deal with an Adam Mekki corner and Hogan was on hand to head home.

Norwood had the ball in the net for the hosts two minutes later following a slick passing move but was ruled offside.

Rovers doubled their lead on 35 minutes however, when Norwood set off on a direct run from mid-way in the Chester half, gliding past several opponents before executing a composed low right foot finish past Worsnop.

There were loud appeals from the travelling support on 54 minutes when Hogan clearly handled the ball in his own area but the match official somewhat controversially blew for a foul in the defender’s favour.

With quarter of an hour to play Chester were eventually awarded a penalty after Hogan handled again, but John Rooney’s spot kick was brilliantly saved by Scott Davies.

Norwood then had an opportunity to kill the game when he was put clean through on goal, but he was foiled by the onrushing Worsnop.

Ryan Higgins missed a great chance to pull one back for The Seals late on, before substitute Craig Hobson headed wide from close range, but Rovers saw the game out and collected three hard-earned and very welcome points.

It was Rovers' first win in five attempts, played out in front of an impressive crowd of 7433, including over 1,500 away fans, creating a cup match-like atmosphere.

Manager Gary Brabin said: "I thought it was a real good performance, especially the first half. We’ve gone in 2-0 up and I thought it was thoroughly deserved.

“We’ve had another few chances as well but first half you can’t complain. I thought we were ruthless.

“At 2-0 up its always a dangerous score line, after our last home game when we’ve had a real good performance and ended up throwing it away in the last eight minutes, so it was a good solid performance and it was nice for Scotty as well to save a penalty at the end.

“We were a threat all over the pitch. Real solid performance and we knew at half time that they were going to come out kicking and screaming and that was the case so we had to raise it again and I thought we did.

“Although Chester got back into the game in periods I think Norwood’s had another two one-on-ones, Andy Mangan unlucky to be offside right at the end clean through and Adam Mekki’s had a couple of shots on target.

“We’ve created a lot of chances. That was pleasing and it was a good three points.”

The victory saw Tranmere rise to 8th place in the table on 15 points.

Rovers' next game is another derby fixture away to Southport on Tuesday evening.

Match stats

Tranmere Rovers: 2 Hogan 6, Norwood 37

Chester: 0

Half time: 2-0

Star man: Adam Dawson (Tranmere Rovers)

Attendance: 7,433

Entertainment: 4/5

Ref rating: Simon Bennett (8/10)

Tranmere (4-4-2): Davies player rating 7; Ihiekwe 7, Sutton 7, Hogan 8, Hill 8; Mekki 6, Jennings 7, Harris 6, Dawson 7 (Jackson 78, 6); Norwood 8 (Margetts 90, N/A), Mangan 7 (Maynard 85, N/A).

Subs not used: Turner, Ridehalgh

Chester (4-4-2): Worsnop player rating 5, Kay 4, Heneghan 5, Sharps 5, Hunt 5, Higgins 7, Rooney 6, Shaw 7, Mahon 5 (Hughes 45, 5); O’Hanlon 6 (Richards 64, 6), Hannah 7 (Hobson 70, 6).

Subs not used: Chapell, Forth