David Moyes says his West Ham United team gave themselves too much to do with their sluggish start at Leicester City on Wednesday night.
The Hammers fell to a 4-1 defeat at King Power Stadium, as two goals in the first half and a brace at the end sent the visitors home without reward.
Mark Noble's penalty at the start of the second period gave West Ham hope with the scoreline at 2-1, but Leicester got back on the front foot in the game's closing stages and Moyes said the final outcome was fair.
"The big thing was Leicester played well and we didn’t - we can’t dress it up in any other way," the manager said.
"I’m disappointed with the performance, although I wasn’t disappointed with the fact we improved in the second half and gave ourselves a chance.
"In the end we were slightly chasing the game and a bit of bad defending for the third goal really put the game to bed.
"I felt as if we’d got ourselves right back in it, but in a way went chasing it a little bit when we should probably have waited to try and get it. We got picked off once or twice, but as I said I thought Leicester played well today.
"We have been doing okay, so tonight was disappointing."
In the end we were slightly chasing the game and a bit of bad defending for the third goal really put the game to bed
David Moyes
One major positive for the boss was the return of Michail Antonio from injury, as the No30 came on at the break and gave his team another option going forward.
"Antonio gives us something, he allowed us to play the ball forward and maybe get in behind a bit more," he explained.
"We hadn’t had that in the first half at all - we struggled to get out and struggled to make enough good passes.
"In the second half we got the ball forward a bit more which gave us the opportunity to get up the pitch. It was good to get Michail back because he is so important to us.
"We won’t make any excuses [over the result], we’ll get back on the training pitch and work to be better. We’ve been good - tonight was probably the worst I’ve seen us defensively at different times, but overall we just need to do much better."