Hamilton boss Stuart Taylor admits his side gave themselves a mountain to climb by going down 3-0 to Raith Rovers in the first half, but denies the game was 'done' by then.
Taylor says he told his players at half-time to go and win the game and not concede any more goals, but says their reaction to disappointment wasn't good enough.
A Kieran MacDonald own-goal and an Ethan Ross double had Rovers home and dry by the interval, and in truth it could have been a heavier score-line against a toothless Hamilton.
Taylor said: "In the first half we weren't good enough, we go 3-0 down and the way we go and lose the three goals is against what we're all about.
"It's not good enough, it's as simple as that. You set targets and you work hard in training all week and it was disappointing to lose the goals in the manner that we lost them, and we gave ourselves an uphill battle.
"I don't think it was settled [a half-time], I think it was just very difficult for us to come back from it.
"I asked them to go out in the second half to go and win the game and don't lose any more goals."
Taylor admitted MacDonald's OG after five minutes got Accies off to the worst possible start, and they must work hard now to climb the Championship table.
He said: "Losing any goal is very difficult and hard to take but an own-goal is obviously a lot more difficult.
"We look for a reaction from that and we didn't get the right reaction.
"I wouldn't say it's a lack of confidence, I think we just made the wrong decisions in the first half, didn't look to go on it in the way we would like to, and need to, get on it.
"We didn't do that in the first half at all. We didn't look to go and play, and whether that's down to the way Raith played against us... I don't think that was a confidence thing, not at all, but we need to respond better to scoring goals.
"Our response to disappointment is not good enough. We need to deal with that and improve on that.
"We have to bear in mind that when we do look to try and win games that we do it in the right manner and don't leave ourselves open, look to build from the back and be creative, and we weren't that today in the first half, we weren't that at all.
"We had an edge off us for whatever reason. We didn't pick up enough second balls, didn't win our battles, and therefore we didn't deserve to be ahead in the game."
Defender Jamie Hamilton was missing today following his heart scare last week, but Taylor says he is on the mend.
"He's passed all his tests with the consultant, and that's that," he said.
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