Bristol Rovers were the next victims of a pre-season drubbing from North End, leaving pirates boss Ray Graydon fuming saying his team was "Not at the races".
North End had a few injuries, so resorted to a 3-5-2 formation. Craig brown insisted "Don't read too much into this", as he previously last season used this formation and it failed.
The Whites could have, and should have, scored in the first seconds of the game when Ryan Clarke made an excellent save from a McKenna drive.
Ten minutes into the first half David Healy ran into the box, leaving Richard Cresswell unmarked. He cleverly sent Cressy a pass-back, only for him to disappointingly blast it over the bar.
Two minutes later The Pirates had a great chance when Cresswell lost possession near the half way line, and Agogo collected it, but skipper Lucketti forced him to shoot it inaccurately over the bar.
After plenty of possession from the away side, their efforts finally paid off when they scored on 25 minutes. Midfielder McKenna put a pass through to Cresswell, who ran past two defenders and drilled it hard and low into the bottom left hand corner.
They scored another goal five minutes later when another great pass from McKenna to Healy enabled him to find Keane on the edge of the box, and blasted it home.
Rovers got one back on 34 minutes, and they had Brian O’Neill to thank. He made a rash challenge on Tait, and referee Probert had no hesitation to point to the spot. The Pirates had a lucky streak, as the initial penalty from Carlisle was saved, but the rebound was In the back of the net.
Another penalty was conceded just before the end of the first half, but this time it was North End’s chance to score their third, after Hyde tackled Cresswell from behind. Set piece expert Alexander blasted it into the net.
Healy gave them a three-goal cushion for the second half, as he scored in injury time. He got the ball near the edge of the box, turned and curled it brilliantly into the top right hand corner.
Rovers obviously got a telling off from their manager Graydon at half time, as they came out and created a fair few chances to get them back into the game. Street got the ball and forced Gould to make a great save on 53 minutes.
But it didn’t take long for on-form PNE sub Abbott to score another for the Whites. Sloppy defending from Rovers let Abbott score the easiest goals ever, lack of communication making the error costly on 6 minutes.
Savage eradicated his error 2 minutes later, however, when Street ran past Alexander on the right, for him to make a brilliant pass, and Savage headed it home.
Abbott was lively as ever for The Whites up-front, and he scored on 78 minutes when The Pirates defended diabolically again when Edwards scuffed it in the box when trying to clear it, and Abbott just tapped it into the net.
Rovers scored a consolidating goal on 88 minutes when Kevin Street latched on to Lonergan’s misjudgement of a free kick, and hit it home.