TRANMERE Rovers are through to the knockout stage of the Leasing.com Trophy competition after beating Aston Villa U21s in the first round.

Goals from George Ray and Connor Jennings sealed the 2-1 win for Micky Mellon's side against at Prenton Park on Tuesday night.

Cameron Archer opened the scoring for the visitors, but Mellon’s men won it through George Ray sweeping home a volley on 13 minutes before Connor Jennings met Corey Blackett-Taylor’s cross late on in the second-half, to scramble in.

Rovers face Salford City in the knockout stage of the competition at Prenton Park on Tuesday November 12 (7.45pm kick-off).

In an interview on Tranmere Rovers' website, Mellon said today: "I think it was important that we treated the game with the respect that it deserved, because we wanted to get something out of the game.

"It was an opportunity for us to try and keep moving forward as a group, players to get time under their belt that needed time, so all in all at has been a good day’s work for us.

"We stuck to what we do, and kept working to the principles that everything we do defensively and attacking wise, and just try and be good at them and trust them, pass the ball when we got it, we just kept pegging away and it has been a good evening’s graft for us.

"It was important for us to have the right attitude, because so many times I’ve had these games before and it’s just not happened but the players, to their credit, took it in the right way and it was played in a good spirit and it was a worthwhile game of football."