JEFFREY Sarpong scored from long range and fellow trialist Maic Sema also impressed for Blackburn Rovers in a 2-0 win at Tranmere Rovers.

Rovers fielded a largely youthful line-up at Prenton Park, with substitute Connor Mahoney firing home an impressive second goal nine minutes from time.

Most of the first-team squad are instead expected to feature in tomorrow’s 3pm friendly at League One club Oldham Athletic.

Boss Gary Bowyer did hand a start at Tranmere to new boy Sacha Petshi, who had previously appeared on trial against Accrington Stanley and in a behind closed doors friendly against Crewe.

The towering Frenchman showed some nice touches in a holding midfield role as he looked to impress.

But it was Sarpong who broke the deadlock in the 76th minute as his 25-yard strike appeared to wrong-foot former Accrington Stanley goalkeeper Scott Davies.

The Ghanaian right winger, 26, featured in Tuesday’s behind closed doors match with Crewe but was making his first public appearance for Rovers at Tranmere, firing wide from a good position from a Sema cross minutes before his goal.

Sarpong was born in the Netherlands and has spent the past two seasons in with NAC Breda, who were relegated from the Eredivisie in May.

As a youngster he turned down interest from Chelsea to turn professional with Ajax, for whom he made more than 20 appearances. He later moved to Spain with Real Sociedad but was released in January 2013, having trial spells with Stoke City and Sheffield Wednesday before returning to the Netherlands.

He appeared 10 times for the Netherlands under 21 team but has since said he wants to play for Ghana at senior level. Sema linked up with Rovers this week and the Swedish left winger headed against the crossbar after only five minutes at Prenton Park.

He later provided the pull-back for substitute Jordan Preston to fire over from close range shortly after half time.

The pacy 26-year-old spent the end of last season in Cyprus with AEL Limassol after moving from Norwegian side Haugesund.

Sema, nicknamed ‘Magic Sema’ in Sweden, started his career in his homeland with IF Sylvia and Hammarby, where he was player of the year.

He also had a spell in the Netherlands with MVV Maastricht.

Rovers also handed another trial appearance to former Crewe midfielder Liam Nolan, who had previously featured against Accrington and in the behind closed doors game against his old club.

This was Tranmere’s first home game as a non-league club, following relegation from League Two last season, and they were almost behind inside the first five minutes when David Carson and Sema headed against the bar.

Young centre back Scott Wharton was playing for Rovers, 15 months after suffering a fractured skull while appearing for the club’s under 17s in the Spartak Cup in Moscow, but he was unable to stop Cole Stockton getting a shot in for Tranmere that David Raya saved comfortably.

Raya then denied Lois Maynard, before half-time substitute Preston fired over for Rovers after good work down from Sema.

Rovers took the lead through Sarpong before Mahoney quickly made it 2-0, as he impressively cut in from the left and fired low into the bottom corner from 20 yards.

Connor Thomson was close to adding a third late on as Rovers took control.

Rovers: David Raya; David Carson, Sam Lavelle, Scott Wharton, Jack Doyle; Jeffrey Sarpong (Luke Wall 77), Sacha Petshi, Connor Thomson, Liam Nolan, Maic Sema (Connor Mahoney 77); Anton Forrester (Jordan Preston 46).

Subs not used: Andy Fisher, Lewis Mansell.

 

Tranmere: Scott Davies; Liam Hogan, Michael Ihiekwe, Ritchie Sutton, Matt Hill; Lois Maynard, Steven Jennings, Jay Harris, Andy Mangan, Liam Ridehalgh; Cole Stockton. Subs: Luke Pilling, Mitch Duggan, Evans Gumbs, Jack Fleming, Eddie Clarke, Kevin Cringle, Ben Jago.