Pundits say that results don't matter in pre-season, but four wins from four and signs that fitness levels are high in the North End camp bodes well for Alan Irvine and his men.
The boss was generally pleased with the outcome of the afternoon's work at Prenton Park, and saw it as a useful exercise to take the win against a much stronger side than anything we've faced since reporting back for duty on July 1st.
"It was a big step up for us here," he told PNE.com after the game.
"With all due respect to the teams we've played so far, Tranmere are a huge step up, and everybody knows that it's not an easy place to come to, so I was happy with the work out we got.
"There are plenty of things that we still need to work on, but this is still about fitness, getting a good runaround, and making sure that people are covering distances.
"Obviously we have been challenged a little bit more today. There were things that were good, and there were things that weren't so good, and we will obviously look to work on all the things that we feel aren't so good."
A brace from Jon Parkin meant that he joined Chris Brown as leading scorer so far in pre-season with four apiece - not bad from three games each. Irvine admitted:
"I'm delighted about my strikers because you want everybody to be scoring goals. This time last year, Neil Mellor was scoring a lot of goals, and started the season that way. Obviously it's delighting to see Parky and Browny scoring the goals that they're doing at the minute.
"They're both working very hard, and they've come back showing that they've done a bit of work over the summer. Everybody knows that Parky wouldn't enjoy the type of work that we're doing at this moment without the ball, but full marks to him - he has worked extremely hard in every single session. He has really pushed himself to the limit and he is really starting to see the benefit of that.
"The extra work that Browny is doing seems to be giving him a lot of benefit. He's done very well throughout the whole of pre-season so far, he's not had any problems, and I hope that continues to be the case. He realises now what he has to do to look after his body."
The only drawback for the boss is that not everyone is quite ready to step up their preparations due to niggles here and there, but that's not going to hold him back in his quest to get everyone fit and ready for the demands of Championship football.
"Pre season is going ok," he assessed. "I'm a little bit disappointed because of the little injuries we've picked up; there's only one that I could say is down to the running work - the rest of it is all things like knocks, tightness and pulls that have been picked up during football sessions.
"We were missing six players who certainly would have been in contention to play today, and they're six players who'll be in contention to start the season with us.
"That was disappointing, but we've said right from the off that we'll gear the training to the strongest, and that's what we'll keep doing. It's important that we don't slacken off, just because we've picked up a couple of little knocks and things."
