A disastrous spell in the second half saw us concede three goals in eleven minutes which saw goal shy Brentford run out comfortable, and well deserved, 3-1 victors. This came after Chris Llewellyn had given us the lead a few minutes before the interval while Anthony Williams also saved a penalty just a minute later, when Shaun Pejic appeared to win the ball cleanly but referee Mr Taylor pointed to the spot.

Brian Little was honest in his assessment: "I think that today showed me the task ahead.

"In the second half, when we were arguably ahead against the run of play, it was disappointing. It wasn't anything other than panic. There was no reason for people to panic, but we panicked all afternoon, which is poor.

"It is strange as we have worked so hard on the training ground but we didn't transfer that to a match situation. We were really poor today and we probably gave away more free-kicks in the first 45 minutes than we have done recently. If we are doing that regularly then it is a starting point for mistakes.

"All three goals were shocking. The first goal, we are trying to win a ball on the edge of the box that we don't need to win, the second goal doesn't need describing really there is no reason in a match for it to end up in the net and the third one was just a result of everyone's confidence having gone.

"Even though we struggled to be the better side, when we got in and around the area I thought that we looked okay.

"The goal was a good goal and soon after that Chris has got in again and probably should have hit the target. Just before they equalised, Chris has had a chance which he snatched at on the edge of the box so we had good chances but we were never comfortable and couldn't relax defensively.

"The work on training ground that we have done had led me to believe that we had got more organised but they were poor, simple mistakes. It was things like slashing at the ball when you don't need to and tackling when you don't need to tackle.

"That is a bad result and it shows that the task ahead is very difficult. We have got three or four games before January and we have got to dig in and soldier on.

"If it doesn't get better than that, then I am thinking of the bigger picture because we probably need one or two new faces looking at it. I think that the last two games have opened my eyes; I didn't think that we were as bad at Dagenham as we were today.

"If you are going to concede three goals like we did today then you are not going to win football matches.

"At the start of the second half, I genuinely thought that we were okay. We were organised and their first goal came out of nothing. We tried three times to win the ball on the edge of the area when we didn't need to and we should just have let them have possession.

"I thought that it was a penalty. That summed up our defending, the lad was running away from goal and twelve yards wide and it was a needless one.

"I thought that their strikers led the lads in defence a bit of a merry dance really, they were cleverer than our defenders and we fell into the trap of fouling them on too many occasions. We gave them two free-kicks during the first half and they both made me close my eyes they were that close.

"We were never comfortable all afternoon but once we got the goal you felt 'come on let's push on'. The forward play wasn't the problem and in the previous four games we have defended well but today we were all over the place. The second goal has sort of deflated everybody but we have got to be big enough to handle that.

"We still had twenty minutes at least to get back into the game but there was a real sense of panic.

"It is hard to answer today why there was such panic but that is what it was panic. It was sheer panic.

"Full marks to the opposition they deserved to win and could have won by four or five, we can't take that away from them.

"We need to help the lads that are here or fetch the right ones in. At the moment we have got to soldier on together but I can't answer where that performance came from."