Eric Ramsay accepted his Albion team were "second best" in several areas as they suffered an incredibly disappointing 3-0 defeat at Portsmouth on Saturday.
Strikes from Conor Chaplin and Millenic Alli put the hosts in a commanding position at the break, before Ebou Adams completed the scoring in the opening minutes of the second period.
Albion rarely threatened and, in truth, were well beaten on the south coast. The head coach says it was a really poor performance and insists the whole group will have to "look themselves in the face" and make big improvements going forward.
Ramsay said: "That was a really disappointing performance from beginning to end. It's one we have to own, take accountability for and really stare ourselves in the face as a group of individuals who are desperate to get better.
"There's certainly no lack of will or lack of desire to improve the team's situation, but what we saw today wasn't reflective of where we need to be in any way.
"We had real intent to make sure we didn't feed the crowd in the opening stages, and we knew how it would feel here. It's a heavy atmosphere; their connection with their crowd at this point is good, they're in a really good rhythm. It's obviously a tough place to come and play.
"We wanted to make sure that we didn't add to their momentum, that we took it away, we dampened it, but that wasn't the case in the opening stages, of course. We fed it through not being competitive enough in the fundamental things in the middle of the pitch, not just the midfield players but the team as a whole.
"Obviously we lacked real quality on the ball when moments arose to take the sting out of the game and show some composure, so on a couple of levels it was really disappointing.
"There's an absolute necessity when you play against this team here, who play at a really high rhythm, they play with a directness, they want to cross quickly, they want to play into the front quickly, to compete in a strong way. We didn't deal with that in a way that is reflective of that.
"We looked like a team that was second best around the box, second best in the really consequential moments and that cannot be the case when we come away from home.
"I suppose, on the back of what was a really positive performance against Derby in that sense and in difficult circumstances, to have seen what we've seen today is nowhere near it.
"I wanted to make sure that we had a real sense of difference in the second half, hence the three changes.
"There were elements of the performance that improved, but by the point you started to see those improvements, the game had largely gone.
"Over the course of my time here, we've started games poorly, and we have to make sure that we start games better. We have to make sure that we're not constantly chasing and everything we talk about in the build-up to this game, from the coaching staff to the players, is with that in mind."
