WANDERERS boss Gareth Ainsworth pulled no punches after his side went out of the JPT Trophy at arch rivals Bristol Rovers with their second successive defensive horror show.

They conceded two goals in the first ten minutes, following on from the three they shipped at home to Northampton on Saturday, and the damage would have been even heavier than the 2-0 defeat they suffered had it not been for Matt Ingram in goal.

Wanderers’ defence this time was much changed with Danny Rowe and Sam Wood operating as full backs and Sido Jombati and Aaron Pierre partnered together in the centre.

But the outcome was the same as at the weekend and the experiment backfired and Blues’ backline which had previously been breached just five times in ten league games has now conceded five in the last two games.

Ainsworth said: “Bristol were the better side tonight and we were awful. We gifted them two goals early on but they could have scored a few more in the second half.

“There were a lot of chances at both ends tonight and we didn’t put any of ours in, so they deservedly went through to the next round.

“We tried a couple of things tonight and there is plenty to work on. We know what we need to do and we will be working on that over the next ten days until our next game.

“That break is good for us. We can get away from it for a little bit which is good mentally for us as well and we will be working heavily on keeping teams out because we have let some soft goals in during the last two games.”

And he admitted he is pleased that his side don’t have to go back to Bristol this weekend for a re-match in the league after that match was called off on Monday owing to Rovers having three players called up for international duty.

He said: “We are what we are. We are a small squad and this break is ideal for us. We are going to take our time, regroup, get together and go again. We had some big players out of the team tonight so it’s not too concerning but we just need to tighten up at the back because it was a bit messy at times and they took their chances well.”

Wanderers hugely missed the defensive buffer of suspended midfielder Marcus Bean and his absence exposed that experimental rearguard.

Ainsworth made four changes to his side for the clash bringing in Ryan Sellers and Max Kretzchmar for their first starts of the season and restoring Sam Wood and Jason Banton to the side.

He said: “It’s opened my eyes to a few things, good or bad and I will keep that to myself but it was nice to see the likes of Ryan Sellers, Jason Banton, Max and Aaaron Holloway getting a good 90 minutes and Sam Wood coming back was another plus after six weeks.

“There were a lot of negatives but some good points as well which we will take into the next few games.

“The performance defensively wasn’t good enough. Maybe we made too many changes at the back. We tried something and it’s obviously not worked but it’s nice to be able to do it and try it but I thought we were all over the place at times and I expected better than what I saw out there in defence and we didn’t stick it in the goal at the other end.”

“After ten minutes we were 2-0 down and I was disappointed with that. It’s not an ideal way to start the game but there were some good chances. It’s two bad starts to two halves now and we were out of the game."