Tranmere put four past U's

Jake Cassidy scored a hat-trick as Tranmere continued their blistering start to life in League One by downing visitors Colchester 4-0.

Cassidy, on loan from Championship side Wolves, scored once before the break and twice in the second half, with Zoumana Bakayogo also scoring as Colchester were comprehensively put to the sword at Prenton Park on Saturday. Colchester's Anthony Wordsworth sent a flashing header wide from a Michael Rose cross three minutes in, with the winger then going close for a second time shortly after when he was foiled by Owain Fon Williams. A 4-0 win for the home side looked unlikely as Tranmere's goalkeeper was again called into action after 25 minutes to claw away an instinctive Clinton Morrison effort, but Tranmere then awoke from their early game slumber and only a post could save Colchester when Rovers' James Wallace met a corner with a bullet header. Cassidy broke the deadlock when he nodded Andy Robinson's 40th-minute cross beyond Mark Cousins from close range and Tranmere never looked back. Cassidy snatched his second four minutes into the second half when he lashed a strike past Colchester's exposed stopper after the ball fell kindly into his path. Bakayogo then swept Tranmere's third into the net when he found the far corner from Liam Palmer's 58th-minute lay off, while a brilliant solo effort from Jean-Louis Akpa-Akpro rebounded off the inside of a post moments later. But Cassidy was on hand to ensure he would keep the match ball after 77 minutes, sliding in to poke the ball home after good work from Wallace.