Sam Allardyce has apologised to Blackburn's travelling support for his side's woeful display at Manchester United on Saturday.
The 7-1 loss at Old Trafford was the first time Rovers have lost by a six goal margin since 1983.
An injury-hit Blackburn side simply had no answer to United's awesome attacking power, with Allardyce able to do little other than hold his hands up and say sorry on behalf of his players.
"I would like to apologise to the Blackburn fans who made the journey because what they saw was not very good," he said.
"You might say the first goal was a foul on the keeper but it is neither here nor there because the referee didn't give it.
"That sort of defending was not good enough to cope with a Manchester United side that was full or running, flair and talent.
"In the end, they mesmerised us. It is not what we wanted or expected but we have to take it on the chin.
"What is important is how we fight back from it."
It was an unfortunate way to cap a week that began with a £43million takeover by the Rao family, who would presumably have hoped for better.
But Rovers were unable to cope with the absence of so many senior players and new signing Herold Gouron lasted less than half an hour of his first Premier League start before he was hauled off, completely caught out by the pace of the game.
After three victories in their previous four games, Blackburn had made the short trip south full of optimism.
But Dimitar Berbatov's 71-second opener wrecked Allardyce's plans and now he can only look ahead to a key fixture against Wolves next weekend trusting that he will have more senior players available and his team can put on a far better show.
"The truth is Manchester United have better players than we do," he said.
"They are hundreds of millions of pounds ahead of where we are and on the margins of finance, we shouldn't have any chance of winning.
"To combat their quality we have to be dogged, resilient and organised. But sometimes it shows. Unfortunately, this time it did.
"We wanted to give the fans more. Hopefully we will make it up to them next week when we play Wolves."
