James Tomkins was disappointed that a valiant West Ham United effort did not gain tangible reward at Everton on Saturday.
The Hammers were shorn of five of their star performers of the season to date for the Goodison Park trip due to injury, yet they still departed Merseyside with the sense that they should have taken something from the game.
It looked for a while that they would after Mauro Zarate cancelled out Romelu Lukaku's opener, but a breakaway goal from Leon Osman 17 minutes from time settled it and left Tomkins - and the rest of his team - cursing their luck.
He said: "When we got back into the game and made it 1-1, we looked the stronger team so we're disappointed to lose it in the end.
"The lads gave it all they had and towards the end we tried to play off Andy. We showed a good effort and on most days we would have gone on from making it 1-1 to winning the game.
"It wasn't to be and it's a hard one to take."
WIth Enner Valencia, Diafra Sakho, Stewart Downing, Alex Song and Cheikhou Kouyate all missing with injury, the Hammers may have been up against it at Everton, but Tomkins said the level of their performance was an indicator of the strength in the squad.
"We had a lot of players out and it shows the squad depth we have now," he continued.
"It was a good effort from us but [the result was] not quite there."
Tomkins had to play the last 40 or so minutes in midfield when Mark Noble hobbled off and he was happy to do his bit in the engine room of the team.
He continued: "I've played there a few times, mainly in the Championship, but also in the Premier League, and I just want to do a job for the team wherever I play.
"When Nobes got injured I had to go in there and do a job and I'm just disappointed we didn't get a result."
Next up for the Hammers is a home game with Newcastle and the No5 is looking forward to putting the wrongs of Saturday right.
"There were positives to take as we go into Newcastle next week," he said. "We had a lot of crosses and we're still looking good for the next game.
"If we can get a couple of the players fit who are out too we'll be in good shape."