Tranmere Rovers boss Micky Mellon felt his side “surrendered too tamely” to Carlisle United in the FA Cup.

The Wirral side suffered a second successive defeat to the Cumbrians in Saturday’s first round tie.

And Mellon admitted his team’s performance in the 2-1 loss at Brunton Park was nowhere near good enough.

“We’ve surrendered too tamely an FA Cup tie,” he said.

“We spoke about the importance of it, the history of the club, and to make sure we fought harder to make a bit of history and a bit of excitement for the fans, and we didn’t deliver on that.”

Mellon felt his side were denied a legitimate goal when a Dynel Simeu effort was disallowed for a foul on Tomas Holy – a “poor, poor decision”, he said.

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But he did not pretend his side deserved anything more than they got.

“It was a really poor first half,” he told BBC Merseyside. “We were way off it, in most of all of what we had to do.

“In the second half we rallied a little bit, should have had an equaliser, we huffed and puffed, but let the game run away from us, with a cheap second goal.

“We just never got going and it ends our opportunity in the FA Cup far too easily.

“The change of shape in the second half maybe helped us, but certainly the change of attitude to it being an FA Cup tie helped more.

“But we had to do that from the start. Too many were just found wanting. We looked like we were feeling sorry for ourselves that it wasn’t the game that suited us as individuals at times.

“You can’t do that. You have to be more gritty and determined. We showed more in the second half but it has to be from the start – you can’t keep chasing games.

“A lot more of the game was played in their half in the second half, but it should have been that from the start.”

Rovers defender Tom Davies also admitted Tranmere did not deal well enough with Carlisle’s threats.

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He said: “It was nowhere near good enough. One to 11 we didn’t represent the club as well as we should have. It’s hard to take.

“They [Carlisle] are a good side. They put you under pressure and they’re relentless. We need to find a way to do that to teams.

“There was a distinct lack of fight which is something a Tranmere team should never have. We’ve been told that in no uncertain terms. We’ve let ourselves down and the club down.”