And he admits the defeat by Birmingham City on Saturday gave him a nasty surprise.
"After the week we had had with the win over Chelsea, and the atmosphere in the dressing room and the tunnel before the game, I felt as confident as I could be that we would win," he admits.
"But a poor decision in not dealing with a ball that came down the right channel - and the goal sets the tone to make the atmosphere wrong.
"But credit to the players, they played their football and got back into the game with a terrific goal from Joe Cole.
"But, like so much of this season, although we had lots of possession, we did not really create enough in the final third.
"So we were playing well enough without making their keeper work and make saves, and one minute before half time, just like against Charlton, it was slack defending.
"Instead of going in at 1-1 with it all to play for the goal changes the atmosphere again - understandably.
"Until we solve our defensive problems we will always take one step forward and one step back like we did last week; you cannot ship two goals a game expect to win.
"It is not as if the opposition are playing well - we are giving them presents and by poor play we are saying, from individual players 'there we are, have a goal'.
"It is unacceptable defending and the players concerned who work hard on the training ground with lots of practices, it is up to those individual players to sort themselves out and stop making them.
"Then we can think about improving our goalscoring record at the other end, especially at home this year.
"We can't keep losing the first goal at home and expecting to win the game - and we have lost three times at home already this year.
"It isn't on, and people who are concerned in this situation have to stand up and be counted."