Elliott Dickman pulled no punches following Sunderland under-23s’ defeat to Exeter City on Sunday.
After a goalless opening period, the hosts struck twice to clinch a 2-0 win and progress to the knockout stages of the Premier League Cup.
And speaking post-match, the under-23 boss shared his take on a disappointing afternoon.
“We should have progressed from the group but on the day, we just weren’t good enough,” admitted Dickman.
“We went into the game knowing that if we didn’t lose we had a chance of qualifying for the next stage if we picked up a result in our last game, so it was a disappointing afternoon.”
He continued: “Yesterday the pitch wasn’t great but that’s the same for both sides and they played the conditions better than we did.
“You have to give them a lot of credit and they deserved to win the game, but it’s disappointing they had that edge over us.
“The main thing now is the lads learn from the game and understand what they need to do better, and if they do that we’ll take the result on the chin and move on.
“We’ve had a lot of games recently but our players want to play in the first-team and their schedule is relentless, so again it’s about how they learn to prepare and recover from games as individuals.
“And although our schedule has been demanding, I don’t want to use that as an excuse.”