Town boss Paul Jewell was hugely disappointed by the Blues' 3-1 home defeat to Nottingham Forest, the Liverpudlian again left ruing individual defensive errors after Forest - who were without a goal in their last seven matches - netted three times for only the second time this season, the previous occasion having been when they last scored in the game against Town at the City Ground in November.
Jewell said: "It was hugely disappointing. Some of the defending which went on today was calamitous really and it’s not the first time this season.
"We created a few opportunities in the first half but we were always susceptible. Every time a ball went in the box or there was a long ball, there was blind panic.”
The Town boss says centre-half Ibrahima Sonko was a big loss: "I think we missed Sonko, I think he’s been a bit plus for us and he was missed today being suspended.
"There were straight long balls that we missed and all of a sudden they were at us and we were under pressure. They were meat and drink to most centre-halves but today for some reason we were all over the place.
"I take responsibility because I’m the manager, so it rests at my door,” he added. "But some of the individual basic errors from experienced players I’m struggling to explain.”
While conceding twice at one end, Jewell felt his side ought to have scored themselves at the other: "Daryl’s had two really good opportunities at the back post, JET’s had a header and he’s hit the underside of the bar.
"We’ve probably created more opportunities than them in the first half but we found ourselves two goals down.
"From their perspective, they’re great finishes, but the second goal should never have come to that. We were under pressure and gave the ball away. The lad did a little bit of skill and stuck it in the back of the net. We shoot ourselves in the foot.”
The Blues manager explained his change of formation, revealed that the missing Jimmy Bullard had phoned in sick: "Jimmy was ill, he rang me this morning about 10 o’clock and said he’s been up all night and there’s obviously been a bit of flu going around.
"Chopra’s been a bit low on confidence. I thought they might play with five in midfield and I just thought it would give Andy Drury a go. He did excellently, I thought he was a bright spark today. We’ve created more opportunities today at home than we have for a while.”
Jewell defended himself against accusations that playing only Jay Emmanuel-Thomas up front was an overly cautious approach: "Daryl Murphy’s an attacking player, Lee Martin’s a winger and Andy Drury’s an attacking midfielder. I don’t think it was a defensive system.
"Against Derby we played 4-4-2 and we created fewer chances then. You can talk about systems all day, it’s about players. We created more opportunities today than we did against Derby.
"You always have to nullify the opposition but for me it wasn’t a defensive formation at all. You can talk about formations all you like, Barcelona don’t play with a striker and you wouldn’t say they’re defensive.
"And if you give goals away like we did today, it doesn’t matter how many forwards you play."
Jewell admitted that it was another poor result and says his side need to improve, particularly at the back: "We’re hugely disappointed and some of the defending was embarrassing but it’s not as if we’re the champions of Europe and Notts Forest are mugs, it’s two teams who both think they should be in the top echelons of the league.
"But I didn’t expect us to be as bad as that defensively, we were very, very shaky. OK, we’ve lost Sonko, but we’ve got to be doing better than that.”
Skipper Grant Leadbitter added: "We can't give goals away in the manner that we have done today.
"We're doing it far too often and you just can't do it at this level or you are going to get punished.
"When you give goals away early in the game you make things hard for yourself, but that is football and we need to look ahead to the next game."
Forest manager Steve Cotterill was delighted with the win, which he says has been on the cards: "If you look at the performances, that result has been coming, unfortunately it’s been taking too long to come.
"I thought the goals we scored today were outstanding, three fantastic goals and we’ve done it with nine players who would predominantly be in your 16, of which seven would be in your starting line-up, not here through injury.”