Marvin Bartley didn’t get his campaign off to the start he wanted as Queens went down 1-0 away to Montrose.
The new boss took his place in the dugout for the first time but was left frustrated by the narrow loss.
The 36-year-old said: “Obviously it ended in defeat and I’ve said to the boys that the goal we’ve conceded is unacceptable.
“I don’t mind teams opening us up and scoring a great goal but everything we had spoken about during the week we allowed to happen and it has ended up in the net.
“There are some harsh realities for boys, they need to learn very quickly.
“It’s not just one individual but that goal will not be accepted with me as manager of the football club.”
The former Livingston assistant knows there are fine margins in football but is also aware that teams can easily be punished and isn’t afraid to make changes if required.
He said: “If you keep falling on the wrong side of these fine margins then something needs to change. Obviously the manager has changed and if the same sort of goals are going in then maybe it’s the players that need to be changed. I have a lot of time for everybody, we have worked hard during the week. It’s not just one individual, we need to learn from these mistakes as individuals and as a team.”
With the Scottish Cup taking centre stage next weekend, Queens have a break before their next league game away at Peterhead and the gaffer is looking to use that time to work with the squad.
He said: “We will learn, we have a big two weeks ahead of us now, we will train hard.
“There were positives from the game. We were creating chances, some of the play was good also but the thing that has frustrated me is the goal. Kevin Dabrowski hasn’t had many saves to make. It’s not all doom and gloom but if you’re not ruthless in both boxes you’re not going to win games of football.”
He added: “I’m bitterly disappointed because I think in the main the boys did enough to take at least a point away from the game.
“It’s not just about the goal we have conceded it’s at the other end too. Obviously, Toddy has missed a penalty, we’ve missed some gilt-edge chances that should’ve ended up in the back of the net. On another day, we could’ve scored three goals, but we haven’t. We deal with the harsh realities and we move forward from there.”