Wycombe Wanderers Mike Dodds admitted his ‘blood was boiling’ at how the Chairboys conceded the only goal in their 1-0 away loss to league leaders Birmingham City.
His side went to St Andrew’s second in the table, nine points behind the Blues who have a game in hand.
The visitors started the encounter slowly and on 21 minutes, Taylor Gardner-Hickman scored the fixture's decisive strike.
His volley came directly from a clearance by former Wanderers keeper Ryan Allsop, and after taking one touch, he fired his volley towards goal.
Will Norris got a huge hand to it, but parried the attempt over the goal line.
Dodds said: “I didn’t like the first half of the first half and until I watch it back, I can’t tell if Birmingham were good or if we didn’t do the things we wanted to execute.
“Eventually, things started to settle down and we got into the game, but the goal was so poor and I told the players about it.
“You can’t allow the keeper to have one ball over the top and it finds its way into the back of the net at any level, especially for a club that is trying to get out of this league.
“I’ll be blunt – it’s a c**p goal to concede and I’m frustrated by it.
"You do all the work during the week to try and nullify their threats.
“So to concede a goal like that with such ease is frustrating – it’s a poor goal to give away and I don’t want this club to be associated with stuff like that.
“I don’t want to say it won’t happen again, but it is certainly something we will try to avoid.
“From my point, I have had five games now and for the first four of them, we were really solid so [conceding a goal like that] boils my blood.
“You do all your work during the week to be organised and diligent and then you let in an easy goal.”
The first half also saw left-back Dan Harvie suffer a serious injury inside the opening 10 minutes, whilst midfielder Xavier Simons received a red card on the stroke of half-time.
Sonny Bradley came on for Fred Onyedinma at the break which helped Wanderers at the back, as they began to look in control.
Jack Grimmer, Dan Udoh and Joe Low went close, but it wasn’t meant to be.
Dodds added: “The red card happens and that completely changes the complexity of the game so we had to shift a few things about.
“I haven’t seen the red card and from the person that I am, it is what it is as it’s now in the past.
“But I thought we were very good in the second half as we stopped Birmingham from getting near our goal and they are a top team.”
Finally, on Dan Harvie’s injury, Dodds concluded: “Without going into it too much, if Dan Harvie is coming off then it’s not a good sign.
"We will assess him and see what happens, but we have a luxury of players to choose from."
