MANAGER Les Parry admitted to two disappointments after Tranmere suffered their third League One defeat in a row at the hands of MK Dons at Prenton Park.

Rovers, a goal down in spite of putting up a spirited fight in the first 45 minutes, were booed off at half-time by a section of the crowd and their performance subsided in the second period as the visitors notched up a seventh straight victory by a 2-0 scoreline.

Parry said: “The first disappointment was the crowd’s reaction at half-time. I think people know how honest I am. In fact I’m probably too honest at times when I criticise us and our performances.

“With hand on heart, I could not see where the boos came from after our first-half performance. We were playing probably the best team in the division. We were 1-0 down but we had the better of the play.

“The second disappointment was the second-half performance: our inability to raise our game and generate some atmosphere.

“I have seen MK Dons three times and watched DVDs of them and I bet they have never played so many long balls as they did in the first half because of the way we squeeze them. In the second half we did not do that and they were able to play. That was a massive difference.”

Parry added: “I don’t blame the crowd for the second half because we were poor. We’ve got to be realistic. We went long quite a lot because they were squeezing us and we panicked a bit.”

Tranmere, without a victory in their last five League One outings, slipped down to 15th place in the table, six points adrift of the play-off zone. Rovers will aim to regain some ground during a Christmas programme that includes home games against Rochdale on Boxing Day and Bury on December 30 and will hope for some positive backing from supporters.

Parry said: “We have individuals who make a mistake and struggle to cope with the booing. You can see their performances deteriorate and the more their performances deteriorate, the more the crowd boo them. You want to help them but you can’t.

“We keep on saying how important the crowd are and they can be negative as well as positive.”

Tranmere’s attempts to halt a run of poor results won’t be helped by a hamstring injury to Ian Goodison which will keep the Jamaican centre back out of action for three to four weeks, nor by a thigh strain likely to sideline full-back David Raven for a fortnight.

The pair missed Saturday’s game with Mark McChrystal and Michael Kay stepping in as replacements.

Parry said: “Ian Goodison did his hamstring early in the week we had keep it quiet. Mark McChrystal came in and is always going to be steady and hopefully Michael Kay will benefit because David Raven is going to be out for a little bit.

“John Welsh did not train all week after twisting his knee and he was a little bit below par. I don’t complain about injuries but they do test you.”