Nigel Adkins is targeting getting Tranmere away from the Sky Bet League Two drop zone after a 2-0 win over 10-men Accrington.

Josh Hawkes’ penalty gave Tranmere the advantage before Stanley’s Jay Rich-Baghuelou received a straight red card after a poor tackle on the goalscorer, whose second after half-time ensured victory.

The win leaves the Prenton Park side still in the relegation zone, but a point from safety after a first victory since the middle of August.

Tranmere interim boss Adkins hopes the victory can build forward momentum in the Wirral outfit’s season once again after a first win in charge.

“I’m really pleased with the players’ application, you can see the togetherness with everybody. The crowd were great as well, getting right behind the players, because this was a challenging game,” he said.

“I think it was clear for everybody to go and see and I think we’ve matched that very, very well in the situations we had to.

“You’ve seen a togetherness for everybody, which is important, a bit of structure and organisation on how we need to keep improving because ultimately we can’t be where we are in the division.

“It stops the rot, it stops that negative momentum that we’ve had and we’re trying to get a forward momentum. We’ve got to get a momentum about ourselves and that only comes by everybody pulling in the same direction.

“It’s like that big boulder that’s there and we’ve had a negative roll on it, and we’ve kind of stopped it and now it’s how can we start rocking it to get that forward momentum going and today you could see it.”

Accrington boss John Coleman had no complaints with the result or the red card for Rich-Baghuelou, which proved so costly.

“There’s no excuses, we didn’t perform like we can perform. Our travelling fans were brilliant, they supported us for long periods of the game and we didn’t give them enough to cheer about,” he said.

“We let Tranmere get on to the front foot. There’s nothing in the game, they scored from a penalty and there’s still nothing in the game. No real chances getting made, but we weren’t asking any questions going forward.

“We were loose with our possession, we didn’t press, we let Tranmere outpress us, and they were a little bit more enthusiastic than us in the first half ,despite there being nothing in the game.

“The sending-off has obviously hamstrung us, no complaints, you can’t challenge like that. That ultimately has cost us the game.

“I think we’re still in it at 1-0, a chance to regroup and make positive subs gets eliminated when you’re down to 10.”