Mike Jackson delivered an honest assessment of his team’s display as Tranmere Rovers suffered a 1-0 defeat at Newport County on Saturday afternoon.
Saikou Janneh’s solitary strike earned the hosts all three points at Rodney Parade, with the Whites unable to build upon on last weekend’s share of the spoils at Salford City.
Rovers were reduced to ten men in the second-half, Paul Lewis seeing red for a challenge on Joss Labadie.
Providing his verdict on proceedings, Jackson said: “I don’t think we played particularly well. The events of the last week or two have just caught up with us a little bit. We’ve had some lads coming back today for a day’s training, the likes of Banksy, Rides and Feeney- but that’s no excuse. We just didn’t get to the pace of the game, we lost too many first and second balls, gave away too many fouls and we had to be better with the ball.
“The sending off doesn’t help things. We had a little rally, but it wasn’t to be. It was disappointing because we’d been at a good tempo recently, but we weren’t at that today. Fair play to them, they make it hard for you and they’re good at the dark arts.
“Those battles in and around the pitch, I don’t think we won enough of them: first and second balls. If you don’t win them, you don’t get the control you need to get on the ball,” continued the Tranmere boss. “When we made a couple of passes, we settled down and looked like we were going to open them up. We didn’t carry that on and were just too wasteful with the ball to get going.”
Although left disappointed by the outcome of the contest, Jackson was satisfied with Jack Young’s first appearance for the Club as he turned his attention to Rovers' upcoming home fixtures against Leyton Orient and Southend United.
“You’re always looking for some positives when you have a defeat and I think he [Young] came on and did well. He showed what he’s all about, so that’s a good thing for us.
“We’ve got to bounce back in these two home games and show a good response. Hopefully we’ll get some players back.”