Frustrated Town boss Mick McCarthy was left bemoaning conceding two "awful" goals as the Blues were defeated 2-0 at home by Nottingham Forest in front of the Sky cameras. Britt Assombalonga netted after only 17 seconds, the fastest goal in the Championship this season, then added a second in first-half injury time.
"A bad day at the office? That probably sums it up,” the Blues manager admitted. "It couldn’t have been any more awful, the [first] goal we conceded, that’s for sure.
"I was asked on Thursday about having a fast start and I said that that wouldn’t matter if we started as we did against Rotherham [when Freddie Sears scored after three minutes] and it ended the same [in a 2-2 draw].
"But I didn’t expect them to have such a fast start. It was a real awful, awful goal for us to concede, and it was always going to make it tough.
"Both goals were awful, probably worse than the Rotherham goals. So, from a team which had seven clean sheets out of 11, we look like we’ve no chance of keeping one playing like that.”
He added: "Mistakes are made and if you make mistakes and they capitalise on them, which they did [you concede goals], perhaps before we weren’t making the mistakes.”
"It was a catalogue of them, a sequence for both goals. They were really poor goals to concede.”
Having gone behind and then conceded the second goal McCarthy says it was never going to be easy to get back into the match against a resolute Forest backline.
"It was always going to be difficult to get through them and we rallied in the second half,” he continued.
"Whatever we say about the first goal, giving that away, the second one was just abysmal, to concede that before half-time.
"If we come in at 1-0 then we can do something about it. We still attempted to do something about it, but it makes it far more difficult and it gives them that opportunity to have that siege mentality and they did. But all round, it’s a bad day at the office.”
The Town boss was at a loss to explain how the Blues had been so impressive as they won 2-1 at Sheffield Wednesday a fortnight ago and then so poor today.
"If I could explain that I’d be doing very well,” he said. "I find that very difficult, to try and explain how well we played and how disciplined we were [at Hillsborough] and how tough and resolute we were and then give two goals away like we did today, is as far removed as you could ever get.”
Having won at Wednesday the Blues had a chance to build some momentum against a Forest side, which had won only once in 12, hadn’t previously recorded a victory on their travels or a clean sheet anywhere this season.
"It’s hugely frustrating,” admitted McCarthy, who revealed that striker Leon Best missed out on a place on the bench having suffered a minor knock.
Forest manager Phillippe Montanier felt the goal in the 17th second goal was key and said he hadn’t taken such an early lead in a game for many years.
"When I was a player we scored after 10 seconds and I had to wait 25 years to see the same situation,” he said.
"It was very good. It is very important when you play away to open the score but it was a tough second half.
"However, we defended very well and we conceded only two shots on target and we had many opportunities of scoring.”