Tranmere Rovers manager Micky Mellon feels his side “never met the tempo” during their 2-0 defeat away at Bristol Rovers on Tuesday night.
Goals either side of the break from Jonson Clarke-Harris and Tyler Smith saw Tranmere slip to a loss at the Memorial Stadium as both Corey Blackett-Taylor and Ollie Banks sent off after half-time.
Mellon said: “We never met the tempo of the game early on, we didn’t answer the questions that were answered early on, there was a lot of free-kicks and you have got to deal with that and overcome that and we didn’t.
“We never really got going in the competitive side of it. Right up until probably half-time and then in the second-half we changed things a bit, we got people closer and higher up the pitch to try and cause them a bit more trouble and we showed a severe lack of discipline and responsibility for everybody and two mad acts that we will deal with.
“You have got to be honest and say the game today was stop-start with loads of free-kicks and we weren’t really going to be able to play the game how we wanted to and you have to try and be first to every ball, winning those headers, winning those knockdowns from the start and you have to compete better.
“There is always a tempo in every game that you play in from the start, especially when you come away from home and we’ll keep banging on about it. We’ll have to learn very fast and you have to meet the tempo of that game and you have to hang in on there and try and overcome that.
“We will keep working on that and we will have to learn very fast with the players that come to this level are on a steep learning curve, the lessons are you come to any away game in League One and you have to be determined.”
Micky’s full post-match interview will be available to watch on iFollow Tranmere. CLICK HERE to sign up.