Latics’ boss Paul Dickov castigated his players after watching them beaten at Prenton Park for the first time since August 2006.

Enoch Showunmi’s 18th minute goal settled an encounter in which neither keeper was overly worked.

What upset Dickov though was his players’ performance – or lack of it.

The high-tempo, error-free football that downed MK Dons the previous Monday was conspicuous by its absence.

"Too many times we’ve won a couple of games, had a tricky away trip, then gone out and not performed," Dickov said.

"I’m not saying they didn’t turn up mentally but I think they thought they’d done all the hard work before.

"Tranmere pressed for all of the game and we didn’t; to win football matches you have to do all of the horrible, basic things right and we didn’t.

"They scored with a deflection but I don’t care; it’s come from our free kick when our decision-making with and without the ball was poor.

"I’m really angry because we’d got ourselves into a great position with two wins.

"We’d warned them about being complacent and I think they went out there not giving Tranmere the credit they deserved.

"It was one of those games where we had a number of people not performing.

"There were only four or five who were possibly at it; that’s not enough at a place like Tranmere.

"I thought they were excellent without the ball though; you have to give them credit because to win, you have to do that first and foremost – and they won it in the first 25 minutes."

Dickov had been forced into two changes from the side which defeated the Dons five days earlier.

Reuben Reid’s thigh problem was already known but Zander Diamond was absent with a back problem sustained during Thursday’s training.

Jean-Yves M’Voto came in at the back, while Reid’s absence gave Filipe Morais the chance to play his favoured role up front.

However, that switch didn’t work and saw him swap positions with Robbie Simpson just past the half-hour.

Dickov explained: "I felt that with Filipe playing just off Shefki (Kuqi), he wasn’t getting on the ball.

"When he did get it he was crowded and kept coming deep.

"Our final ball was poor though; we got in some really good positions, especially at the end of the first half.

"We got Chris Taylor in some good positions in the second half after we told them that we looked a threat when we put two or three passes together.

"We started the second half like that but then we stopped doing it."

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