Cardiff City manager Steve Morison believes his players were overawed by the occasion of the South Wales derby as his side whimpered to a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of bitter rivals Swansea City.
The Bluebirds were dismantled on their home patch by Russell Martin's men and there was clear daylight between the two sides from the first minute. And Morison admitted that his team let the Bluebirds supporters down with that meek display.
"It's the losing that hurts," Morison said. "I would say it's a tough one to take but it's not because they were better than us all over the football pitch. We have been on an incredible run and we have let everyone down today, myself, my staff, the players, we haven't done enough for this football club.
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"We have let ourselves down. Unfortunately we can't go again Tuesday. We can't dwell on it. Hopefully we don't dwell on it too long, because the remit when I took the job was to keep this club in the Championship next year - not to win certain games. Obviously, we all want to win this game for the magnitude of it and how big it was. And I'm in charge when we've had the first double done against us. It's a worse defeat than we had earlier in the season, but the goal was to stay in the Championship so that's what I'm going to focus on."
When asked why he thought the team were so easily blown away, Morison candidly said that he thought the players did not handle the occasion, in front of more than 27,000 fans - the biggest crowd of the season, well enough.
"I just don't think we dealt with it very well, the occasion," Morison added. "I mentioned it to them yesterday, to hopefully mention it and get it out of their system - 'You're allowed to be nervous, you're allowed to be scared and worried about what's coming up'. It was the biggest crowd of the season for us and a lot of people for us didn't deal with the occasion well enough.
"They were four really, really poor goals. It just shows where we are. We are that close to being really good or really poor. We have been really consistent, but with all areas they were better.
"I totally get that it's huge for the fans, the players, it's huge for everyone. But we lost. But we can't do anything about it. The silence in the dressing room said a thousand words. It won't be a very nice place to leave, it won't be a very nice place to be around.
"There were lots of verbals from the people on the side today, as I was standing there as manager, and it is what it is. You've got to take it on the chin."
