TRANMERE boss Micky Mellon admitted his side were “nowhere near where we want to get to” after Rovers fell to their second consecutive defeat of the new season.

Mansfield’s Riley Harbottle’s second-half header from Hiram Boateng’s corner proved to be the difference in a game of few clear-cut chances as last season’s beaten play-off finalists got their season up and running at Field Mill.

Tranmere had early penalty shouts waved away when Elliott Nevitt went down under pressure while Rovers almost took the lead on the half-hour after Kane Hemmings latched on to a poor backpass by Jordan Bowery.

Rhys Oates and Jordan Bowery had opportunities to extend Mansfield’s lead before Christy Pym made a good finger-tip save to keep out Ethan Bristow’s header and then denying Paul Lewis in the closing stages.

Afterwards Mellon said he felt gutted that his side’s effort had not been rewarded.

“I can’t fault the lads for their effort and running power,” he said.

“We had a good go and were competitive. There were moments when we can still do better with the ball and we are nowhere near where we want to get to.

“We can do better but there are plenty more positives to take this week.

“I’m gutted for the players, I think we started the second half as the better team, we had a 15-minute spell where we couldn’t quite convert but then we didn’t really create anything.

“To lose another goal to a set-piece is not good enough, we can’t be losing goals from set-pieces. To lose the goal how we did was a sore one.

“We kicked on and huffed and puffed and got behind them

“If we had had a bit more quality or fortune it could have gone our way. The players kept going and we have to keep our heads up and keep banging away at it.

“There were a lot of decent performances but we understand that we have to keep improving and we will work hard to keep improving.”

Tranmere travelled to Accrington Stanley in the first round of the Carabao Cup last night.