Rovers picked just two players with first team experience in Paul Henry and Adnan Ahmed against the up and coming non-League side, whilst playing for Lairds were several former Tranmere players, including Olly James, Luke Holden and Graham Branch.
The Tranmere line-up was as follows:
Kennedy
Holmes Richardson Waterfall Cresswell
Wilson Taylor Ahmed Henry (c) Fraughan
Gornell
It took the home side just three minutes to open the scoring, as the ball was hit home through a crowd of players, leaving Peter Kennedy unsited, from inside the penalty area.
Despite this though, the game started slowly, with niether side able to produce too many chances in the opening stages of the match. Often, each side would get in good positions, but a combination of great defending and a poor final ball led to the ball being cleared and danger passing by.
Rovers were pushing forward, with Ashton Taylor creating plenty in midfield, and he was unlucky to see a couple of excellent-looking passes run just too far to the Lairds goalkeeper, whilst on other occasions, Tranmere's main creator was closed down quickly in midfield.
However, Taylor was lost on 30-minutes as the tall Welsh-schoolboy international picked up a knock in a hefty tackle and was forced to limp off, replaced by pacey first-year scholar Jack MacKreth.
There were plenty of such hefty tackles going around, with each team having players fly into tackles, with Ryan Fraughan and Paul Henry in particular the chief culprits for Tranmere.
Rovers were struggling to keep hold of the ball at the back early on, but as the half wore on, the passing became better and Tranmere were able to push forward.
Paul Henry had Rovers first real chance but put the ball just wide before a brilliant run by the ever-impressive Terry Gornell down the left-wing eventually saw the youngster, who has been given the number 14 shirt ahead of the new season, carry the ball into the area before shooting across goal and wide.
It was then that at half-time, Tranmere were 1-0 down, although Peter Kennedy had had very little to do in the Rovers goal, making just a couple of saves from weak shots low down, mainly due to the Rovers defence keeping the ball away from goal, with Waterfall in particular winning anything that came his way.
Tranmere started the second half with the same team that had ended the first, but it wasn't really until another first year scholar, youngster Jamie Ashcroft, joined the action just before the hour mark, replacing Dave Wilson and pushing upfront in a 4-3-3 formation with Gornell and MacKreth, that Rovers began to pose any real threat to the Lairds defence.
With the increadible pace of MacKreth combined with Ashcroft's ability to find plenty of space on the field, Rovers began to create more chances in front of goal.
It was just after the subsitute had been made that Rovers equalised, as a brilliant piece of passing on the right eventually saw Cresswell send a brilliant cross into the penalty area, where Luke Waterfall rose highest to powerfully head the ball home off the underside of the crossbar.
After another ten minutes in which time very little happened, Lairds took the lead for a second time on 71-minutes, as Tranmere's marking was slack from a corner and the Lairds player was allowed to rise and head the ball home from only a few yards away from goal.
For the last 19-minutes, Tranmere pushed forward and started creating more and more chances. Terry Gornell was unlucky not to score as he cut inside and saw the pace taken off his shot by a slight deflection, making it a comfortable save for the 'keeper, before Aschroft made a wonderful run right from the half-way line to deep inside the Cammell Laird half, only for his options on passing to be limited, as he had no support, and the run eventually came to nothing.
Tranmere though did equalise on 82-minutes, with Waterfall again the scorer, as Ryan Fraughan sent a perfect left-footed cross towards the far post, drifting the ball over the 'keeper towards Waterfall, who headed the ball down into the corner of the net.
The former Barnsley player had another chance late on as he headed another cross goalwards, this time from at least 14-yards out, only for the goal-bound header to be saved by the 'keeper on his goal line.
The game then finished 2-2, a fair reflection of the night as niether team really deserved to lose. Although at times Tranmere's midfield was fairly anonomous, especially after Ashton Taylor went off, they still created chance, with Fraughan's cross for the goal being inch perfect.
At the back, Rovers were superb. Waterfall and Richardson won anything and everything that came their way, with Waterfall in particular winning some crucial headers, whilst the full-backs Holmes and Cresswell were as consistent and impressive ever.
Waterfall then has to win the man of the match award for his two goals and impressive defending, but other players to put in good performances were Terry Gornell and for the thirty minutes they were on the pitch were Ashton Taylor and Jamie Ashcroft.