Motherwell striker Kevin van Veen has held his hands up for their Europa Conference League exit and admits he let the fans down with his displays against Sligo Rovers.
It is, ultimately, Graham Alexander who has carried the can for the 3-0 aggregate defeat to the League of Ireland side after he left the club yesterday by 'mutual contest.'
But the Dutchman, who signed a contract extension at Fir Park earlier this week, says he and his team-mates need to shoulder the responsibility, while admitting he wasn't happy with his own contribution over the two legs.
Speaking before news of Alexander's exit, he said: "Last season was a high for everybody but speaking for myself, in the last two games I feel like I’ve let my team-mates down and the fans down.
"I could have done a lot better myself, everybody in the dressing room on Thursday felt the same way – we could all have done a lot better.
“We worked very hard all year and in pre-season to basically throw it away. We’re definitely down.
"If you’re sitting in there happy then something’s wrong with you.
“I feel like I could work harder for my team-mates and my team-mates could work harder for me.
"We let ourselves down. It’s nobody’s fault but ours as players, not the staff, not the fans, not the club.”
The Steelmen need to pick themselves up quickly for tomorrow's trip to St Mirren, where Steven Hammell and Brian Kerr will take the team on an interim basis.
And the club's top scorer last season hopes he can make another big impact this term.
He added: “I scored 11 and had six assists last season. My aim is to do the same thing. I want to be an important player, I want to score goals, set goals up.
“Last season I missed a lot of games because of illness, injury and suspension.
"I only had 24 starts. I want to be sharper, quicker, fitter.
“I was very disappointed in my own performance. I didn’t sleep on Thursday. I was really looking forward to the game but it was a really painful one.
"I got criticism for my own performance and it was well deserved – when someone doesn’t do their job well enough, someone will say something.
“I’ll take that on the chin and work hard for myself to improve and be better but Sunday is the chance for us to pick ourselves up and we have to do that.
“If we go into Sunday the way we all felt immediately after Thursday’s game, it would be another negative. It hurts for everybody but we have to pick ourselves up.”
Follow Lanarkshire Live Sport on Twitter via @LanLiveSport, like us on Facebook or find us on Instagram for the latest sports news, pictures and video.
