Lee Bullen last night admitted he felt "embarrassed" by Ayr United's 3-0 cup capitulation to Queen of the South.
United unravelled as Wullie Gibson's Doonhamers gained revenge against the team who relegated them to League One back in April.
And Bullen insists he'll leave his players to do plenty of soul searching after a reverse which blew Group F of the Premier Sports Cup wide open.
He told the Ayrshire Post: "It's an embarrassing result. Was it a shocking performance? Probably not, but the result is embarrassing and that's what matters.
"Yet again we created so many chances but ultimately had nothing to show for it and that's not good enough when you have your supporters turning up at your home ground.
"If you're not taking your chances, you have to keep the door shut at the other end and we have two experienced centre halves at this level out there.
"But the goals we lost were schoolboy errors - I've seen better goals scored in the school yard.
"We had a lot of the ball and a lot of shots on target, but the only stat that counts is we didn't score with any of them and Queens scored three."
Bullen added: "We need to take our medicine and get back on the training ground.
"We are learning a lot and some players are playing themselves into the team, some are playing themselves out of the team at the moment.
"We'll allow the players to stew on that and beat themselves up because myself and the coaching staff will.
"Then it's back on the training ground on Thursday to be positive and focus on putting things right."
Ayr stuck with a back three but deployed Jordan Houston and Paddy Reading in advanced roles in a bid to carry more of an attacking threat after Saturday's goalless draw against Elgin.
And they looked better from the off, but after a lively start were badly caught out when Queens took advantage of slack defending to score through Lee Connelly.
Dipo Akinyemi twice rattled the woodwork in the first half as Ayr looked for a leveller and Sean McGinty had a 35 yard drive tipped over the bar.
Ayr were looking far better going forward, but as a result were wide open at the back.
And Queens felt they should have had a penalty when Connelly looked to be tripped by new boy Alex Kirk but Ayr survived the appeals.
United began the second half on top and had Queens pinned back in search of the equaliser.
Akinyemi almost had his goal when touching on a Frankie Musonda header, but Max Currie again denied him.
And then Ayr were made to pay for their misses as a mistake cost them dear.
Aidan McAdams came for a cross but his punch was only partially cleared and Connor Murray was on hand to mop up from eight yards.
Queens could have added to their lead when Calvin McGrory fired just over the bar.
But they did put the seal on their victory late on when ex-Ayr man Josh Todd punished more wide open defending to fire home the third.
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