Sam Allardyce was far from happy after seeing his West Ham United side fall to a 1-0 home Barclays Premier League defeat by Crystal Palace.
The Hammers controlled possession and territory for much of the first half, but could not turn their domination into goals. Instead, both clubs came close twice to opening the scoring - West Ham when Speroni saved well from Mohamed Diame and Andy Carroll and Palace when Carroll and Adrian kept out efforts from Kagisho Dikcagoi.
The second half was hugely disappointing from the home side, who saw the game slip away despite again spending the majority of their time inside the Palace half.
The match was settled in frustrating fashion as Cameron Jerome spun Winston Reid on halfway and ran down the right flank. Despite having little support, Jerome was brought down by Pablo Armero just inside the penalty area and Mile Jedinak rifled the spot-kick high past Adrian.
Big Sam made three changes in an attempt to get his side back in the game, but Speroni's goal remained intact as Tony Pulis's well-drilled side held firm with relative comfort.
"This is Crystal Palace and how they play, with the effectiveness of the way that they protect their own goal which has been the basis of what they have achieved in their last five games and beyond," said the manager.
"To lose to another penalty, having lost to Liverpool on two penalties is just heart-wrenching for us. I have to be fair - it was a silly penalty and Pablo didn't need to do it, and it's cost us dear again.
"In front of goal, we failed. Chances weren't going to be easy to come by against this well-organised team that drop eleven men back into their own half and shut the spaces down, so we had to be clinically good, but unfortunately we weren't.
"In the end, we've had a very disappointing 1-0 defeat to another penalty. When you look that we've only had two penalties all season, it just hasn't panned out for us that way.
"It was really disappointing and I was a bit frustrated that the players didn't continue what they were doing very well at before they lost the goal - they lost their rhythm by allowing their passing to go astray too much and became a little bit panicky, I feel. They tried their best to get us back in the game and get us a result, but it wasn't to be."
West Ham continually threatened before the Palace goal, getting in behind down the flanks and occasionally through the middle, most notably when Diame twice worked Speroni with shots before half-time.
After Jedinak's spot-kick, however, the confidence clearly flowed from West Ham and into the visitors.
"The players tried to force it too much after Palace's goal. They had got what they wanted and were defensively resilient anyway, but would just sit there after the goal. They weren'y going to venture too quickly forward, unless they had an open attacking area when we've over-committed going forward.
"We got in final third so many times that we should have produced something that we usually produce to get at least one goal, but unfortunately we didn't do that."
While a home defeat was naturally disappointing for all concerned, Big Sam put things into perspective when talking about Dylan Tombides, who passed away on Friday aged just 20 following a long battle with cancer.
The manager who gave the striker his first-team debut in a Capital One Cup tie in September 2012 was full of praise for the Australian for his attitude, resilience and talent.
"It has been a difficult day and my thoughts are obviously with Dylan's family, who have supported him from the very beginning of this horrible disease. When I first got here, he was just starting, they thought, to get well following his initial operation, then all of a sudden another problem arose in another area and he tried to fight that particular area for so long.
"Dylan's fight inside him and desire to overcome this disease and play football again were just unbelievable. The way he came in after long bouts of really hard, strenuous treatment that made him very ill indeed, was amazing. He kept bouncing back because football was the only thing he wanted to do. He wanted to play again.
"He recovered from so many treatments, we thought that one would work for him in the end, but unfortunately it hasn't."
A minute's applause before the game accompanied the moving sight of Dylan's father Jim and brother Taylor carrying his No38 shirt to the centre circle, with the number being retired in the forward's honour.
For Big Sam, who monitored Dylan's progress closely, the sadness is magnified by the fact we never got to see him play the regular first-team football his ability would surely have granted him.
"Wally Downes told me as soon as I got here that the best player in the Academy, without a doubt, is going to be Dylan Tombides, but because of this horrible disease we could never get him in the first-team squad as often as we'd have liked.
"I'm disappointed we lost a game of football, but on a day like this football doesn't mean an awful lot after what happened to Dylan this week."