Sam Finley offered a brutally honest assessment of his own, and Bristol Rover’s collective, performance in defeat to Lincoln City.
The in-form Imps took an immediate grasp of Saturday’s Sky Bet League One fixture, taking a three-goal lead at half-time before running out 5-0 winners at the LNER Stadium.
Rovers were not without their own chances with Finley himself, Chris Martin and Jevani Brown all going close in the first half, before Antony Evans saw a penalty go over the bar in the second.
However, the Gas were ultimately undone by a slow start to the game, something Finley conceded was a driving factor in the defeat.
“We didn’t start well,” the captain said. “We didn’t get to grips with the game and we didn’t win our individual battles. We weren’t organised and we were caught on the backfoot straight away. We’ve lost the game in the first half.
“Those goals were avoidable. We knew, before the game, what good form they were in. We still had chances in the first half and we could have had three goals ourselves, chances that players usually take for us, but it wasn’t to be today. It wasn’t our day.”
A good spell just before half-time gave hope to the travelling Rovers supporters but Lincoln would find the net twice more in the second half, extending their own unbeaten run to 13 league matches.
“It’s always difficult when your opposition have got their tails up,” Finley continued. “It’s okay to say things like ‘let’s keep a clean-sheet in the second half’ but we know how good they’ve been recently - they’ve been flying - and with the deficit we’ve already got it was always going to be tough. They’re a good side that makes chances, so it was tough.”
With eight games remaining in Sky Bet League One, Finley insisted he and the Rovers squad would be putting in the hard work to ensure as strong an end to the campaign as possible.
He added: “It’s difficult to be part of a game like that. People might question my game or what I’ve brought to the table but I want to take the responsibility, as captain.
“It’s down to me, it’s down to the gaffer and it’s down to the other senior lads in the changing room to pull the younger lads through it and go again.
“We need to go away and freshen the mind and the legs, and come back with tempo and intensity to finish the season strongly.”