TRANMERE Rovers boss Micky Mellon could hardly contain his anger after his side’s 2-0 home defeat to Mansfield Town.

Goals from Riley Harbottle and Davis Keillor-Dunn ensured the Stags picked up their eighth away win of the season in impressive style.

The visitors took the lead when Harbottle headed home from close range in the 34th minute for his fourth goal of the season and never looked back after that.

And Town doubled their lead in the 54th minute when Keillor-Dunn had the simplest of tap-ins after Tranmere goalkeeper Murphy could only deflect the ball onto the crossbar.

This latest defeat leaves Rovers 15th in the table with just four wins from their last 20 league games.

Mellon said: “I can understand why the fans are p***ed off because I’m p***ed off and it’s hard to explain how you feel when you see the goals that you give away impact what it is you’re trying to do.

“We all work very hard on our defensive play and I’ve seen some stuff there today that just isn’t good enough at this level.

“We lost so many battles across the pitch and I just don’t know why we’re not aggressive enough when we need to be.

“The last however many games we’ve given away goals that disappoint you because we work so hard and know so much about what we want to see – it’s just so poor.

“I have to take responsibility for this as that’s my job and that’s what you do as a manager and whether that’s right or wrong that’s the way it rolls.”

Rovers now face a trip to second placed Stevenage on Saturday knowing their own hopes of making the play offs are hanging by a thread.

“At the end of the day, I’m crystal clear on what it takes to be a good footballer and a good team,” added Mellon. “This team and myself get on fantastically well so there’s no relationship problems - what has got to happen is they’ve got to understand what to do in order to win games.

“I’ll keep supporting them and keep backing them and they know what they need to be better at and we’ll just have to keep going.”