Andy Ryan says the difference between Championship title-chasing Kilmarnock and play-off hopefuls Hamilton Accies was obvious, and admits the Rugby Park side made it very difficult for them.
Killie notched up their fifth successive win over Accies this season, as goals either side of half-time from Fraser Murray and Blair Alston saw the points stay in Ayrshire.
Ryan admits Accies didn't do enough to challenge their hosts, and were made to pay the price.
He said: "It was a hard game to get into. They made it difficult. They were on us right from the start, first balls, second balls, and we just didn't get going today at all - we were very, very poor.
"I think you can see the difference between the teams and you can see that they're fighting for the title.
"They were out on the front foot, played with confidence and made it very, very difficult for us."
Ryan, who was captain before being taken off just after the hour-mark, says Accies need to move on from the defeat and start winning games to move back up the table, starting with basement side Dunfermline at New Douglas Park on Saturday.
He said: "I think it's important to forget it, but we also need to learn from it.
"It's not good enough, but we'll need to look over that, because we didn't have a spell in the game at all.
"Moving on to Saturday, it's a big game, at home, and we need to win.
"We haven't won for a while, but it's not concerning. We have been ahead in games, but have been conceding poor goals. We've also had chances in the games to kill them off and we haven't.
"It's up to us, the boys in that dressing room, to turn it around.
"Every game is a big game, the exact same as coming down here today.
"We wanted to win, but we didn't get the result or the performance that we were looking for, so we'll go on to Saturday now and hopefully get a better performance and result.
"I don't know [if we can still get a play-off place]. We just need to take it. The boys in there are hurting just now.
"We've let ourselves down, we've let the supporters down who have come down here today, with a poor performance, so it's up to us to put that right next week."
Follow Lanarkshire Live Sport on Twitter via @LanLiveSport, like us on Facebook or find us on Instagram for the latest sports news, pictures and video.
