Tony Mowbray felt Blackburn Rovers were below the standards they have set after conceding two soft goals in a 2-1 defeat to Preston North End.
A brace from Callum Lang condemned Rovers to a second defeat of the Championship season. The defending for both was disappointing, whilst at the other end, they missed some great opportunities.
Though a Stanley Mills got them back into the game with 40 minutes still left, they were unable to find parity. Jayden Fevrier hit the bar and Daniel Iversen made a few saves but the first half proved costly.
"We can be much better than what we showed today," he reflected.
"If you fall below the standard you set yourself, then you shouldn't really expect to win.
"I think we came believing we were going to win. We lost two really soft goals, which was so unlike us.
"If you think we went to Lincoln just three days ago and felt like we faced a thousand crosses and we headed them all out, and the first team to stop them scoring a goal.
"I thought we'd come and be able to deal with it and we never really got to the level where we needed to get to, to get our second goal.
"I think we were ultimately on top for most of the game, possession-wise. Field tilt, they call it these days, was probably where the game was played mostly, but they carried the threat and they scored two goals.
"We have to find the level of consistency that we need in football matches as we go along, because I think we have a pretty good team if we can get the team on the grass."
Rovers' clear lack of squad depth was on show again with 11 players absent. Kristi Montgomery had to play centre-back and Harvey Higgins was brought on for his debut.
Mowbray admitted that tired legs again played a factor with Preston able to freshen their team up in the final 20 minutes.
"You can see that, there are no excuses for us," he said.
"We've got six academy boys on the bench there. I put one of them on today because I've seen him score a goal in some practise games early in pre-season.
"He just needed an opportunity, didn't really come, I thought they were pretty resolute in the last 20 minutes, half an hour.
"I said that after the QPR game last week, I thought we were probably better than QPR for an hour and then they started making changes and we started making changes and we got weaker and they got stronger and they ended up winning 2-1.
"We were left frustrated in the end. We have to be better, we have to find more consistency, we have to be better and yet it was a day where we felt as if we were on top for the majority of the game and yet we didn't have that clinical aspect to us that training on the grass most days brings.
"The strikers get used to hitting the back of the net, the wingers get used to putting the ball in the right areas and yet it's a frustrating period at the moment with so many games in such a short period of time."
Mowbray was asked whether Rovers were any closer to bringing in a free agent, as he alluded to on Thursday, but batted the question away.
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