Derby County manager Paul Clement has conceded that his side "deserved to lose" their League Cup clash against Portsmouth.
The Rams fell to a 2-1 defeat at Fratton Park on Wednesday evening to exit the competition at the first-round stage.
A lethargic performance from the Championship side saw them fall a goal behind shortly after the second-half restart, before Jason Shackell levelled things up 16 minutes from time.
Pompey academy product Conor Chaplin scored the winning goal moments later to end Derby's cup hopes, however, which Clement admits was a fair outcome.
"We never got going right from the first minute," the Derby Telegraph quotes the ex-Real Madrid chief as saying. "We deserved to lose tonight, basically, on the performance over the 90 minutes.
"I think we were sleeping in the first half. We expected intensity from them. We expected the crowd to really get behind the team, so that wasn't a surprise, but we just didn't cope with it very well.
"I don't think we showed courage in our football until we went behind. We ended up playing some good football really but it was all to late, all to reactive."
Derby, who have now failed to win their opening two games of the campaign, return to action on Saturday when they play host to Charlton Athletic.
Daniel Lewis
