Frustrated Micky Mellon refused to use Dundee United’s Scottish Cup semi-final as an excuse for being rocked by Ross County.
United lost 2-0 at Tannadice and led a frank dressing room discussion ahead of next weekend’s cup clash.
Mellon, who will lead his team to Hampden to take on Hibs, admitted his team weren’t at it and never recovered from losing two first half goals.
Mellon said: "I have been asked about that and it is a difficult one
"It would be easy for me to stand here now and say it was a distraction.
"That would be the easy answer but we spoke all the time this week about fighting hard to not allow any excuses to come our way and say it was a distraction.
"We wanted to be a team who can put two performances together and a team that can adjust and adapt to what the game is saying to us, but we weren't able to do that.
"I keep coming back to it, it was two really poor goals which is always going to make it really difficult for ourselves but there was a lot of time after that and a lot of things that disappointed us.
"We can't dwell on it, we have to move on with lessons learned."
Mellon expects a reaction from his players and knows he has some big calls to make at Hampden this weekend.
“We spoke there and we will speak again next week,” the United boss confirmed.
“It is all about what we do in the future.
“You are always thinking.
“I have never said I had a preferred team.
“I would like to think all the players believe if I play them they could get Dundee United a result.
“We need to put two performances together and we need to be more adaptable.”
