Chris Wilder labelled Middlesbrough's defeat at Bristol City a "backward step" as he was on the losing side for only the third time since taking over at the Riverside in early November.
Andi Weimann and Antoine Semenyo did the damage for City in a clinical attacking display, with the Robins then withstanding a late rally from the visitors to record their fourth straight Championship win at home.
Boro's travel plans were disrupted by Storm Eunice as the squad were unable to fly during the daytime to Bristol, with the squad boarding a plane at Teeside Airport only for it to be cancelled on the runway, and instead had to take a five-hour coach trip to the south west which meant they didn't arrive until 10:30pm.
That being said, Wilder didn't want to use those frustrations as an excuse for the below-par display as he admits his team weren't ruthless enough at either end of the field.
Boro won the possession battle 63.2 per cent to City's 36.8 per cent, and out-shot the hosts 21-5, with 10-4 in terms of shots on target but all they had to show was Matt Crooks' last minute header from a corner to deny the Robins a first clean sheet since December 4.
“There are no excuses. We weren’t unlucky and got what we deserved," Wilder said. “Games are decided in both boxes. We couldn’t keep the ball out of our net and didn’t do enough to punish them going forward.
“The match summed up our weekend after what happened yesterday, but that’s football sometimes. It was a difficult team performance to summarise, not great at times, but at others good enough to create a lot of chances.
“It wasn’t the ideal preparation, but I take nothing away from Nigel and his team. They’ve got some really good young players.
“Nigel is like me, trying to rebuild the squad, but still trying to get results and put his experience on a difficult job. They’ll be delighted with the result.”
Wilder's opposition number Nigel Pearson was proud of his team's effort, endeavour and execution even though he admitted some individuals weren't fully firing on all cylinders.
Weimann and Semenyo scored the goals, their 16th and sixth of the season, respectively, but Pearson also wanted to highlight the work of the third cog in his attacking machine, Chris Martin, as the veteran played a valuable role.
"His ability to make it difficult for their centre backs," said Pearson, in terms of what stood out from the 33-year-old's play. "He didn’t have chances himself, but he was a part of a lot of our attacking play.
"Antoine didn’t have one of his better games but still managed to score which is good and Andi has done what he’s done all season and been in the right place at the right time and it was a really good finish too.
"We’re really pleased with the result and that’s the most important thing in the context of the season so far. Our away form has been very frustrating for us recently because we’ve not been able to produce the results that we feel some of the performances should have done through our own fault as much as anything."
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