Stuart Kettlewell felt his Steelmen looked dazed as Dundee sent them spinning to defeat at Fir Park.
The Motherwell boss watched their three-game winning run brought to a halt on their first match back from the international break, as Lyall Camron’s strike seven minutes before the interval proved their undoing.
And Kettlewell, whose side have slipped to fifth in the Premiership, said: “I felt we looked a little bit dazed. We looked a little bit dazed in our decision making and our quality, even moments towards the end of the first half in particular where defending looked a little bit chaotic to me at times as a team, not just the back line. So I think we’ve got a real tinge of disappointment, as simple as that.
“It was my greatest fear coming off a good run – and you get asked the question all week – that we come out and we don’t reach the levels that we have.
“There’s been a couple of games we’ve had to hang in there in stages of games.
“But the last period of the game – the last 30 minutes or so you could argue – yeah it was tight and all the rest of it, but I expect better from what the players have shown us.
“We kind of threw caution to wind, we’ve got a lot of attacking players on, we put a little bit of pressure on and Dundee maybe drop off us a little bit.
“I don’t feel we created enough to merit me sitting here stating a claim for winning the game or taking anything out of the game.”
The Steelmen are now preparing to host Premiership joint-leaders Celtic next Sunday, which kicks-off a run of some huge games including their League Cup semi-final at Hampden against Rangers on November 3.
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