Boss Paul Jewell apologised to fans after his worst defeat in management as nine-man Town were hammered 7-1 at Peterborough. The Blues manager refused to blame a number of questionable refereeing decisions for the severity of the loss.
Jewell said: "I think that’s worst defeat I’ve suffered as a manager. For 12 minutes I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Well, I could believe what I was seeing because it’s happened too often, and obviously the 45 second minutes was the longest 45 minutes of my football life.
"It was damage limitation at half-time. We had nine men, they were playing with superb confidence and popping the ball around. We were just trying to keep the score down.”
The Blues boss refused to blame a number of contentious decisions by referee Graham Scott: "I’m definitely not going to hide after a 7-1 defeat and blame it on the referee.
"Someone just said that three of their goals were offside and the penalty was outside the box. That might be true, but it doesn’t hide what’s going on in our team and the defending was of shambolic proportions.
"I’ll take responsibility, I’m the manager, I pick the team, so I’m not hiding behind anything else. I’ll take it on the chin, I’ll get my tin hat on and fight through it and try and get people in there who are worthy of playing for us because there are too many people who are not good enough or worthy to play for us.”
Jewell says the results in the last week are as poor as they come: "I don’t think too many teams can have conceded 12 goals in five days and it’s hugely embarrassing and it’s really, really hurting me. But what can I do? I’ve just got to try and bounce back tomorrow and try and get people in the building.
"Some of the goals we concede are just ridiculous. The last goal sums us up. The guy’s gone through three challenges and has just brushed us off. When it becomes physical, when it comes down to the nitty-gritty, the white flag comes out.
"Whenever we come under pressure, we collapse. Anyone who has seen us over the last couple of years will have seen that as soon as it gets tough to many go missing.”
Jewell apologised to supporters and promised that he will turn things around: "I’m hugely embarrassed and I’m sorry. They’ve been fantastic for this club. I’ll take it on the chin, I know it’s down to me. I’m hurting every bit as much as they are.
"They were singing ‘we want our money back’ and they deserve it. These fans that turn up week-in and week-out, home and away, they deserve better. I think I deserve better than what I’m getting from the players as well. I’m determined that we will eventually get it right.”
Peterborough manager Darren Ferguson was unsurprisingly delighted: "It was as comfortable as it could possibly be when they went down to nine men, but even before that the most pleasing thing for me was the first half because for 20 minutes we just carved them open and got four quick goals.”