Tranmere Rovers boss Micky Mellon reacts to his side's defeat to Carlisle United

The home side’s manager said his team gave a “poor performance” against Paul Simpson’s Blues.

United’s 2-0 win ended a seven-game unbeaten league run for the Wirral outfit.

And Mellon conceded that his side seldom looked like getting back into things after Kristian Dennis’s first-minute opener.

Saying he “understood” the frustrated reaction of home fans, he added: “It was always going to be difficult when you give away a goal so quickly. It was a poor goal.

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“We’re sorry for the performance. We were poor. We didn’t really recover. We tried a few different things to get us going but nothing really worked because we had so many of us off.

“You’re still in it at 1-0 but then you give away an unbelievable penalty that makes it more difficult.

Micky Mellon (Image: Richard Parkes)

“But we weren’t good enough all afternoon to get that goal back – we made poor decisions or didn’t get it into their dangerous areas enough.

“The game trickled away from us. We didn’t look like scoring most of the afternoon.

“All we can do is respond and get back to what we are.”

Tranmere had a brief spell late in the first half when they put Carlisle under some pressure.

But they remained short of chances as Simpson’s side fended off Rovers’ threat, the home side dropping to 11th in League Two.

“We got a wee bit penned in so wanted to get them out and higher, and we did, but when we got into areas we didn’t do enough,” Mellon said of a tactical change he made.

“We lost too many battles, too many headers and knock-downs. If you’re not winning them you’re not going to get any momentum.

“We never won enough ball or got on the ball enough to get ourselves higher up the pitch.

“It did become a battle around the back three, and we’ve got two strikers over 6ft but we didn’t pin their centre-backs or get it into feet to cause enough problems.

“It was a poor performance.”