NIGEL Clough said the 1-0 defeat at Derby County was harsh on the Brewers and came down to one mistake that cost his team.
"There was a lot of effort and endeavour and I thought we played quite well today - good organisation as usual - but we need to make more of our situations.
"We don't feel we have been outplayed too many times this season but we keep losing by the odd goal and those little mistakes have cost us."
It was a Johnny Russell strike after 81 minutes that won the game for Derby.
Clough said: "Stephen Bywater made a good save and it's dropped to one of our players and it should have been hooked in the corner - but it's not. We make a mistake and we lose the game. Matty Palmer has come in and put his hand up and knows he should clear it. He knows he has made a mistake but there's not much more you can do. It just detracts from what was a very good performance today.
"But after Sunderland, that's two games where it has been 0-0 at 80 minutes and we have lost both of them."
It could have been different if Ben Turner's second half header had gone in instead of being cleared off the line.
Clough said: "Ben scored one like that against Ipswich and I thought it was looping in but we had a few situations today and were more of a threat than last year when we got a 0-0 but we didn't make any mistakes last year.
"We had enough of a threat going forward today but our lack of quality in the final third was again apparent.
"We restricted Derby to long range stuff but when they have such good players it's hard to restrict them for a full 90 minutes."