TRANMERE Rovers' League Two campaign continued with a 3-1 defeat against Forest Green Rovers last night

Paul Mullin's 85th minute strike wasn't enough for Micky Mellon's squad at the New Lawn Stadium.

The striker came off the bench to put Rovers back in the game after trailing 2-0 at half-time.

But the hosts sealed the points in stoppage time courtesy of Tahvon Campbell.

The hosts started the stronger of the two sides and went ahead in the 11th minute after Reece Brown picked up the ball inside his own half after a flick on before racing in on goal and slotting past Rovers' Scott Davies.

Tranmere nearly responded instantly when James Norwood collected a great long-range pass from Luke McCullough to get in behind the Forest Green defence, but his low effort was saved well by James Montgomery.

Just before the 20 minute mark, both teams had opportunities to find the all important second goal.

First, the hosts hit the crossbar courtesy of a free-kick from Dayle Grubb from 25-yards. From the free-kick, Tranmere went on the counter attack as James Norwood was once again denied by Montgomery.

Two minutes later, Rovers nearly turned home a goalmouth scramble with Manny Monthe coming the closest to getting his boot to the ball.

The visitors conceded a penalty when skipper Steve McNulty fouled Tahvon Campbell.

Gavin Gunning's penalty was excellently saved by Davies but Liam Shephard was on hand to turn home the rebound.

On the hour mark, Scott Davies pulled off an important save to deny Campbell from inside the penalty box.

At the other end, Jay Harris came within an inch of scoring his first league goal of the campaign.

Linking up well with Norwood, the midfielder found space in front of goal but Montgomery pulled off a fine stop.

The second Tranmere change came in the 64th minute, Mullin switching with wide man Connor Jennings.

Campbell was proving to be Forest Green’s dangerman, but Davies again was equal to his effort, a curling shot from 20-yards palmed away by the former Fleetwood Town goalkeeper.

With five minutes to go, Mullin grabbed a goal back for Tranmere Rovers, slotting home from inside the penalty area to set up a frantic end to the game.

With Tranmere pushing for an equaliser, Forest Green hit Tranmere with a stoppage time goal to seal the points.

TRFC will now move on to this weekend’s home encounter against Crawley Town in League Two.

Reflecting on the game in an interview on the club's website, manager Micky Mellon said: "We came here on the back of a good run of results with a fantastic backing from the fans.

"I felt in the first half we were not brave enough with or without the ball to show the type of team that we are and that we have good players at this level.

"We were not brave enough without the ball to go and press and get involved in certain one v one situations. We were not good enough at times with the ball when we got in good areas.

"We had a chat at half-time and we did better in the second half.

"We had a chance to get back into the game but again in certain moments, we were not good enough when either pressing, defensively or when we had the ball to go and open Forest Green up.

"That is football and that is the way it is. It is disappointing we didn’t perform over the course of 90 minutes, it is disappointing we were not brave with our without the ball for the full 90 minutes because the players are every day in training and it is disappointing that with the turnout we had from our fans, it took us so long to show the bravery to go and represent them.

"We will go again, we will come in on Thursday and we will be working hard.

"We will show the players what we need to show them in order to get the performance right for Saturday."