James Norwood hits 15th of season as Tranmere overcome Oxford City

James Norwood’s superb season continued as he helped Tranmere safely progress into the second round of the FA Cup with a 2-0 win at Oxford City.

Micky Mellon’s side can now look forward to hosting Southport in December, having breezed past their non-league hosts on.

With Tranmere and Oxford having shared six goals when they met earlier this month, the visitors were on the scoresheet after just six minutes, a sweeping counter-attack seeing Paul Mullin tee up Norwood, who lifted the ball delicately over keeper Craig King to bag his 15th goal in 19 appearances this term.

Midway through the half, referee Craig Hicks saw nothing wrong when Zac McEachran went down on the edge of the Rovers area under pressure from Manny Monthe.

Shortly afterwards, Mullin stole the ball from City’s Frankie Musonda and jinked to the right before curling expertly into the net.

Home goalkeeper King was forced to deny Mullin a second not long after while he also beat away an effort from Norwood just past the hour mark.

And with 13 minutes remaining, Tranmere’s Jay Harris let fly with a blistering effort from range but King reacted to tip the ball over the crossbar.