ACCRINGTON STANLEY.............3

TRANMERE ROVERS....................2

(Att 2,151)

TRANMERE Rovers again relinquished a lead to end up 3-2 losers against Accrington Stanley.

Two second half goals from Abdulai Baggie put Rovers in the driving seat but strikes from James Gray and Kai Naismith in the last four minutes gave the hosts all three points.

Manager Rob Edwards said his team's current habit of letting things slip is worrying: "We've had so many leads and chucked them away it's driving me mad. I'm as frustrated as anyone."

Edwards made just one change to the side that beat Morecambe last weekend. With Owain fon Williams away on international duty with Wales, Peter Brezovan came in to make his debut after signing earlier this week from Portsmouth.

The home side, who had yet to win a league match this season and were at the foot of the table,  opened the scoring when they were awarded a penalty on eight minutes.

Naismith broke into the penalty area and was brought down by Rovers' on-loan Aston Villa defender Janoi Donacien and the referee awarded a spot-kick.

James Gray fired low and hard and, despite Brezovan getting a hand to the effort, he could not keep it out.

There was a lull in the action and the next goalmouth incident wasn't until the 33rd minute when Naismith cut inside from the left hand side and fired a low shot which Brezovan saved.

After the break, on 55 minutes, Rovers almost caught out the Stanley offside trap with Marc Laird threading a through ball which split the defence but 'keeper Joe Lumley got the ball a split-second ahead of Eliot Richards and cleared it.

With 20 minutes remaining, Tranmere took the lead.

A combination of James Rowe and Max Power won the ball back midway in the Accrington half. It was played forward to Baggie, in behind the defence again, who rounded Lumley and side-footed home for his second of the game.

On 78 minutes, Edwards made a double substitution with Jason Koumas and Jake Kirby replaced James Rowe and Eliot Richards.

Moments after the change, Stanley levelled. A long throw-in was flicked on by striker Marcus Carver with the ball headed into the bottom corner by Gray for his second of the afternoon.

Accrington retook the lead on 82 minutes as Adam Buxton hit a curling shot from the edge of the penalty area which Brezovan saved, but the ball fell to Naismith who tapped it home.

In the second minute of injury time, Rovers were inches away from an equaliser. A corner was only half-cleared with the ball falling to Koumas who hit a powerful shot from 25 yards, which hit the crossbar and went out for a goal kick.

That was the last action and Stanley held on to take all three points.

A disappointed Edwards said: "We didn't play well in the first half, Accrington controlled the game.

"So the players got a bit at half time, and they came out and did what we asked of them. They got behind them, passed the ball at the right time and Abs scored two good goals.

"But from there on we didn't defend our penalty box well enough and gave two goals away.

"They've got to make better decisions. Even before the goals there were strange decisions.

"You should play the game the same whether you're winning 4-0 or losing 4-0 and make the right decisions. At times we were anxious and I don't understand why. The players have to make the right calls at the right times.

"We're all learning the hard way at the moment."

The defeat pushed Tranmere back to 15th place in League Two with six games played. They travel to face 18th-placed Hartlepool Utd on Saturday.