Mick McCarthy has revealed his Cardiff City players are feeling "sick" after conceding an injury-time equaliser to Blackburn Rovers, which has all but ended their hunt for the last play-off spot.
The manager admitted that he had few grumbles about the result in the end, given Rovers hit the woodwork three times before Adam Armstrong netted a last-gasp equaliser, but was furious at conceding a goal so late on.
The Bluebirds boss, who looked as though the wind had been taken completely out of his sails, said the draw felt more like defeat.
Asked if his players felt the same in the changing room, McCarthy replied: "Absolutely. They were very disappointed at the lateness of both goals (in each half), but certainly the equaliser in the second half.
"We should be able to hang on to that.
"Everyone is feeling the same way, they're all sick about it."
Cardiff have five games left to play and are nine points behind Bournemouth, who also have a game in hand over the Bluebirds.
City are in eighth place but, all things considered, Saturday's result appears to have consigned them to second-tier football next season.
And McCarthy said he is of course disappointed with gaining just one point from the last three games, which has put paid to any hope of edging into those top-six spots.
"I've not done the last three results on purpose to quell any talk of the play-offs, you can rest assured that's not the case," he added.
"I don't know the other results, but I thought even before today, eight points adrift with six games to go was an unlikely sequence of events.
"Whether we won all our games or not, the other teams are capable of winning theirs. All we can do is look after our games and performances and results.
"Unfortunately we haven't."
It means that Cardiff can perhaps now turn their attentions to next season and gives McCarthy the opportunity to field a few youngsters or players who have not had much of a look-in in recent weeks.
And, judging by the manager's comments, that looks to be the plan of attack moving forward over the next five games, with one eye squarely on the summer transfer window.
"I've been here nearly two months so you're always evaluating it and calculating what you need, what's not going to be here," he said.
"We've got players on loan who are very unlikely they'll be coming back and we will be losing a bit of quality there.
"The next five games, we want to win them and get points, but we will have an eye on what's been happening next season."
