Dean Cornelius feels Motherwell let Steven Hammell down in his latest audition to become the new permanent manager at Fir Park.
After recording a 1-0 win at St Mirren last week with 10-men on his dugout debut, caretaker boss Hammell saw his side fight back from 1-0 down to equalise in stoppage time at home to St Johnstone yesterday.
But there was another twist in the tale as Saints found a winner in the fourth minute of added on time through Stevie May to claim all three points.
It was a sickener for the Steelmen and Cornelius has arguably taken it harder than anyone.
The 21-year-old used to watch Hammell at the Steelmen in his pomp and the boyhood Motherwell fan is living the dream with one of his heroes growing up now his gaffer.
So the midfielder, introduced at half-time to help spark an albeit fruitless second-half revival, has taken the defeat to heart and feels the players needed to give more to help Hammell's cause.
He said: "I don't know about the other boys but, personally, I feel we've let Hammy down because they [Hammell and assistant Brian Kerr] have come in under tough circumstances and they've not had a lot of time to work with us.
"But they've lifted our spirits, they've tried to put across their ideas and I don't think we executed them the way he wanted us to.
"For me as a Motherwell fan, I know all about Hammy and I know what the club means to him.
"It's the same with Kerrso. They've been about the club for a while and, especially with the young boys here and I know what they are like with the younger players.
"You could see last week they gave a debut [to Kian Spiers] and this week they gave a debut [Robert Mahon].
"They are not afraid to throw you in whenever you are ready and I do think they've come in here and lifted the spirits.
"You can see already their ideas are there and can work for us, but time will tell."
Saints broke the deadlock in 28 minutes when a long ball forward was flicked on by the chest of Theo Bair into the path of Jamie Murphy, and he drilled a low-strike into the bottom corner past a helpless Liam Kelly.
Motherwell almost provided an instant response when Connor Shields' deflected strike on the edge of the box struck the post.
In the second half, Motherwell were in the ascendancy in search of an equaliser and the pressure on the visitors intensified when van Veen sent Efford down the wing. He beat his man and burst into the box, but he dallied as space opened up for the shot and went to ground.
Claims for a penalty were waved away by referee Willie Collum and the whistler wasn't interested again 15 minutes from time when Ross Tierney went down easily in the box.
But in stoppage time Saints' resolve was finally broken when Stephen O'Donnell's header hit Graham Carey to find its way into the far corner.
It looked to have earned a deserved point, but May popped up to win it for the visitors.
And Cornelius reckoned Motherwell's finish to the game was "criminal."
He added: "In front of our crowd, the fans all getting us up for the game, we should come out here and be looking to win the three points, it doesn't matter who the opposition is.
"To scrape a 1-1 would have been better than a loss, but it still wouldn't have been good enough.
"We knew we had to change something at half-time.
"He [Hammell] tried to lift us again and we came out in the second half a lot more positive.
"There still wasn't the amount of quality that we would want and it was all half chances really.
"But when you get the goal and equalise the game, to concede a late goal like that and switch off is criminal.
"We just need a bit of awareness and willingness to win the game.
"We weren't good enough.
"To concede the goals we did and the way the game went, I don't think we've done enough from start to finish."
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