But they could not stop the march of time as the current crop of Rovers heroes strolled to a one-sided victory.

Nobody would have predicted any other outcome but Sean O'Driscoll's men had a ruthless edge about them in the way they dispatched the 'old timers'.

There were no giveaway consolation goals, no freebie penalties and no larking about.

The only concession made by the present incumbents of the red and white hoops was not to go flat out and play the game at a pace more acceptable to their opponents.

It was as if the Barnsley game had left a few scars and Rovers were in no mood to hand out any more gifts.

Club captain Adam Lockwood was certainly not giving anything away and he spent the whole of the first half keeping a tight rein on the Legends youngest player Robert Gill while former top scorer Paul Barnes hardly had a kick.

Matt Mills was in a similar miserly mood after the interval as he denied Gill with a last ditch tackle on one of the rare occasions the Legends had a chance to score.

But the passage of time could not completely dim the skills of the past masters.

John Doolan showed he could still pick a pass despite a slightly more roly-poly appearance and Francis Tierney, who will forever be remembered in Rovers folklore, looked as if he had been in special training for the game as he put in a sprightly display.

Despite the score Dean Walling and Leo Fortune-West did well in defence with the latter proving just as competitive in his makeshift role as he was when put himself about in attack.

Although the tackling on both sides was tame Tim Ryan found it difficult on occasions to hold himself back and only once had a chance to fulfil the crowd's wishes to 'shoooot' but was unable to find the target.

The old pretenders did well for the first twenty minutes after which they only trailed by one goal.

But inevitably the floodgates opened and they must have been glad the game was only half an hour each way.

Young Waide Fairhurst set the ball rolling for the current side when he fired home in the 4th minute but Rovers had to wait another twenty minutes before finding the net again.

Paul Heffernan forced the ball home from close range and a miss-kick by John Spicer led to Darren Byfield adding the third a couple of minutes later.

Doolan came closest to pulling one back with a cracking effort from 20 yards early in the second half but James Chambers took advantage of linesman Paul Mayfield's inability to stay on his feet when he made it 4-0 despite looking offside.

Lewis Guy rattled home a gem with a spectacular volley from 30 yards for the fifth before Ben Smith blasted a penalty past his goalkeeping coach Lee Butler for number six.

Stuart Elliott added the seventh after Butler had done well to parry a fierce effort from Lewis Guy seconds before the final whistle.