MICKY Moore was left perplexed and frustrated as Barrow AFC left Tranmere Rovers with a 1-0 defeat.

Barrow fell to a 93rd-minute James Norwood strike, after an uncharacteristic error from Mouusa Diarra to gift the Rovers man the man in his own area.

The late blow followed a Byron Harrison disallowed goal and an Adi Yussuf effort cleared off the line in the first half, as well as a sterling defensive effort from the AFC team in the latter stages.

Moore was particularly baffled by the disallowed goal at the end of the first half, when Harrison headed home a Dan Jones throw.

The AFC players and fans celebrated, and the referee looked happy to award it, until the linesman flagged for an otherwise unseen offence.

Despite watching the relays of the incident post-match, Moore was still left in the dark as to the reasoning.

“I can’t see it on the video,” Moore said of why the goal had been chalked off. “They will have their reasons, but I’ve watched it and I can’t understand it.

“Byron is running on to the ball, he’s headed it and it’s gone in over the keeper. For whatever reason, the referee has decided to disallow it.”

On the game overall, he added: “It’s very disappointing. I thought the lads were magnificent today, I thought the performance was really good. To come to a place like Tranmere – a massive club with a lot of expectations – to have one cleared off the line in the first half, to have one disallowed with no rhyme or reason, and then to concede in the 95th minute, it’s hard to take.”

Moore hoped Diarra would learn quickly from the late error which handed Norwood the chance to score the winner.

He would not criticise the AFC defender, highlighting the previous good work he has done for the club, saying he was optimistic there would be lessons learned ahead of Tuesday’s match against Guiseley.

“The kid is distraught,” Moore added. “He doesn’t need me telling him – he has his own high standards.

“He’ll feel a little bit low tonight; he’s a footballer and he understands that.

“But he scored the goal against Maidenhead the other week to get us back in the game. We don’t put blame on any one person, we’re in this together. We’re not having a blame culture here, but hopefully he will learn from it and we go again on Tuesday against Guiseley.”