St Albans City crashed out of the FA Cup and manager David Noble felt it was the worst performance he had ever seen in his time at the club.
A solitary goal from Alfie Cerulli, 12 minutes into the second half, was enough for Billericay Town to win 1-0 in the third qualifying round.
And Noble was not mincing his words.
"That performance is really hard to take," said the boss. "It's the worst I can remember since I've been at the club, and on such a big occasion too and with everything that this game brings.
"To perform like that, it is beyond disappointing.
"If you can't deal with the ball being kicked from one end to another, which we didn't, you can't expect to come away with the victory.
"Our quality was scandalous in that first 25 minutes, the unforced errors were horrendous.
"I thought we settled into it and the 20 minutes before half-time was our best spell and I felt we'd rode through the storm, got a bit lucky, and could start to play better.
"But we came out in the second half and played even worse.
"Michael Johnson is the only player that can hold his head up and say he performed at a level.
"The rest need to have a look at themselves because that is not the standard I require to play for this team."
They head back to the league on Saturday with Eastbourne Borough the visitors to Clarence Park.
Noble says they will be ready, even if this will haunt him for a long time to come.
He said: "This performance will be in my mind for a while but I'll come in Tuesday ready to work, ready to put it right.
"I won't dwell on it. As difficult as it is, you have to move on quickly.
"This one will give me nightmares for a while."
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