Newport County manager Graham Coughlan was left feeling frustrated after his side fell to a narrow 1-0 defeat against Barrow AFC on Saturday afternoon.
A first-half strike from Cole Stockton was enough to claim all three points for the Bluebirds in Cumbria.
“We didn’t turn up today and we got what we probably deserved,” said Coughlan.
“The biggest disappointment for me was the lack of hunger and the lack of desire to win a game of football. When you want to get into the top ten you’ve got to show a lot more hunger, win your individual battles and we didn’t. Too many players had an off day.
“The conditions were tough but they were for both teams. It was a really difficult day and I get that, but the conditions shouldn't have to do anything with desire, work-rate or attitude. This group have that in abundance but we didn’t display it today.
“The first half was tough as we couldn’t maintain possession or get ourselves up the pitch to build a platform. Then second half we were in the ascendancy with the conditions but we didn’t have enough quality to go and open the opposition up.
“The lads have been magnificent all season. I need to be careful and contain my emotions because that was a real opportunity today. It was a chance to build on our good run and go on and put another three points on the board.
“You’ve got to win your individual battles, show that hunger and that wern't us today. We’re an intense team who play on the front foot and I just didn't see that from us today. I don’t like it when we’re not at it.
“We needed to do more to win the game and we didn’t.”
The Exiles were forced into a change at half time after Nick Townsend came off with an injury. Coughlan provided an update on his shot-stopper's fitness post-match.
“Nick felt his groin just before half time,” added the Exiles boss.
“We didn’t want to take any chance with him. We’re down to bare bones at the minute so we didn’t want to take any more risks on losing more players.
“We felt Johnny [Maxted] would go in. He was fully fit and Nick wasn’t so we made the change.”
You can watch the Manager's thoughts on Newport's YouTube channel by clicking HERE.
