Hamilton Accies skipper Brian Easton says their dismal defeat to Raith Rovers must act as a wake-up call.
The veteran defender watched his side concede inside 65 seconds on Saturday when Dylan Easton weaved his way through the heart of their defence to net a fine solo goal, before Jamie Gullan's strike 16 minutes from time sealed the points.
But the most disappointing aspect for Accies was they barely troubled their opponents, having been so creative in their opening games that earned three consecutive draws.
With the unbeaten start now at an end and Accies sitting eighth, Easton said: "We are bitterly disappointed. In our first three games we showed a lot and it felt like there was a lot of progress, like we were heading in the right direction.
"But this is a real wake up call to tell us we are still not there yet.
"We've still got a lot in this team and we've let ourselves down badly.
"But boys need to know it is not going to come easy, especially in this league when you have to be up for every single game.
"We have been in the first three games but we didn't show anything today.
"If you are going to get beat, you can at least go down swinging.
"We made it a very comfortable game for Raith and we made it hard for ourselves losing the goal inside two minutes.
"We just never really managed to get a foot in the game, we never made a tackle, we never got close enough."
Boss John Rankin and coach Darian MacKinnon read the riot act at full-time and Easton said players must strive to show the standards the ex-pros displayed in their careers.
"With the personalities they've got and the way they played the game, they were gutted and raging - and rightly so," said the 34-year-old.
"When they played it was all heart, real determination and we just didn't have that all across the park.
"We let them down and we can't have that. We need to up our standards."
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