Oldham Athletic suffered their first defeat in ten league games in the face of a terrific second-half rally by Tranmere.
The Merseysiders, now under new manager Brian Little, were outplayed in the first half and were lucky to go in only one goal down.
The half time pep-talk worked wonders and it was Oldham who came under the cosh later.
John Eyre fired Oldham ahead in the 29th minute with an excellent angled shot from a deep cross by Paul Murray but other chances went begging.
Tranmere gradually got back in the picture with Ian Hume missing a great chance to equalise when firing wide from close range.
But Hume made no mistake with a fine shot into the roof of the net from twelve yards in the 70th minute after his first effort had been blocked.
Then, nine minutes later, Gareth Roberts netted the winner with an angled drive from the corner of the box when set up by Alan Navarro.
Oldham rang the changes, but in the dying minutes Eyre headed over and Calvin Zola brought an excellent save from John Achterberg.
"We didn't turn up in the second half," said Oldham manager Iain Dowie.
"We totally dominated the first period and really we should have been clear at half time.
"We will have to put the result down as a blip. We didn't do enough to win the game, but I thought we deserved at least a draw." Little said: "We upped the tempo after the break when we changed the system.
"When we got to 1-1 I would have settled for the draw. The winning goal was a real bonus and whether we deserved all three points is not an issue for me.
"We have got to grind out a few results at this stage. The players have been great since I came in."