ROVERS' boss Ronnie Moore slammed his side's second-half performance as "gutless" as Tranmere suffered a 4-1 defeat against Carlisle United at Brunton Park.

He accused some players of lacking passion and questioned their pride in pulling on a Tranmere shirt.

Moore was particularly unimpressed with his defenders, saying: "That's as bad as I've seen a back four since I've been a manager."

Carlisle had taken the lead early on and, although Rovers had chances to level, once the home team got their second shortly after half-time the outcome was never really in doubt.

Ryan Lowe pulled a goal back on 80 minutes, but it was too late for Rovers to mount a revival.

Moore made three changes to the team that lost 5-0 at Peterborough in the FA Cup as Jason Koumas, Ash Taylor and Jon Otsemobor came in for Jake Kirby, Ryan Edwards and Danny Holmes. Former Rovers winger David Amoo started for Carlisle.

In his post-match interview, the manager said: "The first-half was wide open but the second-half performance was unacceptable. It was gutless.

"That's as bad as I've seen a back four since I've been a manager. We've backed off, been weak, mentally and physically.

"It's hard to say the back four because Liam has been all right and Fonners made some good saves but the rest of them...

"We can't have that in the position we're in, we need men who want to wear the shirt.

"I put the eleven out there to fight and roll their sleeves up because our season started today, but we've lost 4-1 to Carlisle who are in a similar position to us.

"We've worked hard to stop conceding goals but then you see a performance like that today. It's soul destroying for me, for the chairman and the supporters.

"They've seen so much bad, bad defending.

"There wasn't enough passion and pride in the Tranmere shirt. I've put the eleven out so I must take some stick for that but I expected a bit of heart and desire."

He continued: "They'll all be in tomorrow and we'll get things sorted because we've got another massive game against Gillingham.

"It wasn't good enough all round, from myself and from the players."

Moore revealed a groin strain ruled James Wallace out of the match after the midfielder had originally been included on the team sheet ,and added: "The opportunity was for other players to step in and take that position - but we were found wanting."

The result puts Rovers in 20th position in League One - just one place above the drop zone - with a tally of 20 points.