Huddersfield Town manager Mark Robins labelled his side's 4-0 defeat to Bournemouth a "disgrace" as the Terriers endured a nightmare start to the 2014/2015 Championship season.
The hosts conceded after just 24 seconds as Marc Pugh capitalised on some slack defending to put the Cherries in front and they never looked back, with Callum Wilson (2) and Yann Kermorgant inflicting further damage on Robins' wounded side.
And the Terriers chief was under no illusions as to how badly his side had performed in the chastening opening-day loss.
"I never saw that defeat coming," he said.
"It's difficult to fathom. First game of the season, everyone has expectations, the place is buoyant, and you concede after 26 seconds.
"It changes the mood and we just switched off.
"It was an absolute disgrace."
VIDEO: Huddersfield Town writer Doug Thomson reflects on 4-0 defeat to Bournemouth
Robins believes his side lacked purpose in their play and felt the nature of the performance was not indicative of some of the work his side have done during pre-season.
"We didn’t play with any sort of an idea," Robins claimed.
"It looked like we hadn’t done anything all summer and just wasted our time.
"It happened to me at Barnsley, when we lost 4-0 to QPR on the opening day.
"It’s the way we lost, we created very few chances."
Town will have the opportunity to correct their day one disaster when they travel to Chesterfield on Tuesday night to take on the Spireites in the Capital One Cup.
And Robins insists the season will only truly get underway for his charges then.
"[It is] absolutely back to the drawing board," the manager revealed.
"Our season has to start on Tuesday night because it hasn’t started yet.
"You get these days though. It’s not nice to stomach, but I’ll take the criticism.
"We have to fight and it has to start on the pitch.
"If you turn down opportunities to win the ball back, and to mark properly, and allow someone to waltz in after 26 seconds, then you pay the price."
Robins opted for the 3-5-2 formation which he has utilised throughout pre-season but the lack of balance between attack and defence left gaping holes, which Bournemouth were able to exploit with alarming ease.
But it will not dissuade Robins from the three-man backline setup as he cited individual errors for Town's woeful display.
"A lot of teams will adopt the system, and it works when people put the work in," he added.
"Too many decided to take a day off in terms of the defensive side of the game.
"We don’t want to be negative at home, we want to get two up front.
"We have played that way during pre-season and played some good attacking free-flowing football with plenty of shots.
"But maybe we can’t do that."
Despite the signing this week of Conor Coady, fans are eager for more additions to be made before the transfer window closes, although Robins is unsure it will remedy the situation.
He continued: "We can’t overreact and just go out and buy.
"It doesn’t make sense financially.
"We have to do things in a way that makes sense to us."
