Gary Rowett admitted his Derby County side were off the pace as they fell to a 4-2 defeat to Reading at Pride Park Stadium.
Derby approached the fixture off the back of a seven-game unbeaten run and four-match winning sequence, but went into the November international break in disappointing fashion.
Liam Moore and Sone Aluko had the visitors 2-0 up early on before Roy Beerens added a third just after the break.
Johnny Russell pulled a goal back to make it 3-1, only for Modou Barrow to add a fourth for the visitors to put the game out of sight - before Chris Martin before came off the bench to net on his 29th birthday to round off the scoring.
Rowett admitted his side were far from at their best as they tasted only their second home defeat of the campaign against last season’s beaten play-off finalists.
The 43-year-old felt his side lacked energy which, perhaps, was down to his players feeling the effects of digging deep to claim impressive away wins at Norwich City and Leeds United in the last week.
After going on a fine run to surge up the table in recent weeks the Derby boss was also keen to not be too critical of his players.
He told RamsTV: “We started very poorly today and the first 10-15 minutes was as bad as we’ve played since I’ve been here.
“We looked like we had no energy and didn’t get out to the ball quick enough. We looked a bit tentative in possession which was surprising for a team seven games unbeaten and on a four-game winning streak.
“I’m not making excuses but maybe the two big away games last week took a lot out of the players, because we didn’t seem to have the same spring about us.
“We spoke at half-time about the need to start the second half well and put them under pressure. We had some of that, winning a number of corners and getting some balls into the box, but we made an uncharacteristic error at the other end for the third.
“It was a very poor day at the office and defensively we were poor as a team. Individually as a team we lacked the spark we’ve had in previous games and didn’t give ourselves a chance with the poor goals that we conceded.”
He added: “We’ve been on a good run and had some fantastic results. We had to work incredibly hard for them. I can’t be too critical of the players but it was a poor performance.
“It is dangerous when you’re on a good run. It looked like a lack of energy and I think regardless of the result one or two of the lads need a breather.”
Derby lost skipper Richard Keogh to injury early on while midfielder Joe Ledley was missing with a hamstring injury.
Rowett admits it would be easy to point to their absence being a factor in the final outcome, but he was keen to avoid making excuses.
He said: “It is very easy to point at factors like Richard Keogh going off and Joe Ledley being injured a factor in today’s outcome.
“Ultimately the team we put out there I felt was good enough to cause Reading problems and win the game.
“When we did things right we did cause them some problems. We could have had a few more goals but we lacked composure all over the park. We hurried to get the ball forward and were hurried out of possession.
“You have games like this; we’ve all seen them – we just wish it was away from home and not at Pride Park.”
