TRANMERE’S early-season struggles under the management regime of John Barnes and Jason McAteer lapsed onto a more serious level at Brunton Park.

The team’s failure to offer effective resistance to the front runners Leeds and Charlton was worrying enough but on Saturday they found a way to lose comprehensively to an unexceptional Carlisle United side.

It was the Cumbrians’ first home win in three attempts, Tranmere’s fifth defeat in six League One outings and only Southampton, with a 10 point reduction, are keeping Rovers off the bottom of the table.

There were some mitigating circumstances for the visitors. They were reduced to 10 men shortly before the interval when fullback Shaleum Logan was dismissed for two bookable offences committed in the space of a minute.

But Barnes did not reach for the excuse that Tranmere lost three second-half goals while playing with a man short. Nor did he seek to defend Logan for two moments of poor judgement.

Too much else wrong with Rovers’ performance to occupy the thoughts of the former Liverpool and England winger. The shortcomings ran from front to back.

They failed to score for the fifth league and cup game in a row and rarely threatened home goalkeeper Lenny Pidgeley. They allowed Carlisle to dominate the midfield and hold the initiative throughout the 90 minutes.

The home team’s pressure, persistent rather than inspired, wore Rovers’ defensive resistance down. Once Carlisle made the first breach through Joe Anyinsah on 59 minutes, Tranmere’s spirit was broken. The contest was only going to have one outcome from that point on.

Further goals from Danny Livesey on 67 minutes and Ian Harte on 77 made the afternoon look like a comfortable ride for the Cumbrians, which ultimately it was.

Goalkeeper Luke Daniels pulled off a clutch of saves to keep the score down to reasonable proportions. Teenage centre back Ash Taylor, a second-half substitute in the reshuffle that followed Logan’s dismissal, made some dogged attempts to hold back the tide of Carlisle attacks.

But some of the older and more experienced players around him looked as if they were resigned to their fate. Shoulders drooped and heads dropped.

Rovers’ performances have tailed off so disconcertingly since the heavy defeat at Leeds on August 22 that the debate about the style of football Tranmere are attempting to play under Barnes’ direction has become secondary to concern about the team’s spirit and capacity to compete effectively.

The bright and encouraging performances home supporters witnessed in early games against Grimsby and Gillingham are looking more like mirages with each passing defeat.

Barnes made a tactical change at the start of the game, moving Chris Shuker from wide on the right into a central role just behind striker Ian Thomas-Moore.

The variation did not produce any fireworks in an untidy opening half in which Carlisle gradually began to ask more questions of the Tranmere defence.

Daniels, almost embarrassed when an early 30 yard shot from Ian Harte bounced just in front of him, did well to beat out long-range efforts from Paul Thirlwell and danger-man Matty Robson that flew through packs of players.

The goalkeeper was left flat footed by a free kick from Kevin Hurst that curled around the defensive wall and slapped against the crossbar.

Logan’s afternoon unravelled quickly. He picked up a first yellow card for pulling on the shirt of Robson after the Carlisle wide midfielder a ran past him in the 42nd minute. Less than 60 seconds later Logan had an arm raised when jumping to challenge Robson for a header. The defender’s elbow caught Robson in the face. Referee Carl Boyson quickly raised a second yellow, followed by the red.

Barnes introduced Taylor as a third centre back after the break but there was no stemming the tide of Carlisle attacks.

Daniels made two more full-length saves from Hurst and Graham Kavanagh and the visitors could barely keep the ball out of their own half in the minutes before the first goal arrived on 59 minutes. Hurst worked Robson behind the defenders on the left to play a low cross into the goalmouth where it was stabbed home by Anyinsah. Mr Boyeson ignored Tranmere claims that the ball may have crossed the goal-line before Robson centred.

Rovers were punished for losing the ball in their own half of the field on 67 minutes when Hurst swung a deep cross beyond Daniels’ reach to the far post where centre back Livesey was unmarked to head in.

Daniels’ blocking save prevented Scott Dobie from scoring a minute later but the third goal arrived on 77 minutes when Harte put his head in front of a couple of markers to nod home a free kick whipped in from the left by Robson.

Taylor came closest to a reply from Tranmere with an injury time shot was deflected just wide.