Jake Carroll insisted that Motherwell's players are fully aware of the significance of the Lanarkshire derby against Hamilton.
The Steelemen have lost all three encounters against Accies this season despite being in a higher league position before every encounter.
The Northern Irishman dismissed any suggestions that Motherwell didn't prepare properly for the encounter and stressed that players know how important the Lanarkshire derby is to supporters.
He said: "I thought we were {pumped up for the game}, we looked sharp and bright in the warm up. It was just sloppy goals, a red card and a penalty.
"Everything that could have went wrong, went wrong in that opening 30 minutes.
"Of course{it will be difficult for the fans to take}. I spoke last time that we were beat there 3-0 and the fans need to know we are desperate to win these games.
"We know it's a derby, we treat it as a derby and that's why it's more difficult to take than most games.
"They are good at what they do. I don't know if we underestimated them or what the case was but it's just difficult at the moment against them. We need to change it and beat them next time around."
The Steelmen entered the encounter in excellent form which made the result even more unexpected.
Graham Alexander's side had won three of their last four games to ease their relegation fears and Carroll stressed that they must bounce back.
He said: "We've had consistency for the last couple of games up until this point. We just hope it's a blip and you see all around the world that strange results are happening.
"I don't know what it's down to, whether it's down to there being no fans but it's disappointing.
"We've got to look back on it next week and see what we did wrong. We can't start games like that no matter who it is against but especially against our rivals - we started so slowly.
"At half-time, we looked at the positives, tried to attack them, get men forward and score goals. We started to win our battles and that's what we've got to look at for the next game."
It was a nightmare start for the 'Well as they conceded three goals and seen captain Stephen O'Donnell sent off in a crazy opening half hour.
Although Motherwell improved after the break, Carroll conceded it was impossible to recover from that disastrous start.
The 29 year-old said: "It's a shocked dressing room at the moment, we are bitterly disappointed.
"We didn't start the game well enough and before we knew it, we were three nil down with ten men. It's an uphill battle and we had words at half-time to make sure we didn't lose the second half to see where it took us."
"We showed some fighting spirit in the second half but it was too little, too late."
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