Clint Lancaster admitted injuries and a sending off proved costly as Aberdeen Women were beaten 5-0 by Hibernian at Meadowbank.
Jorian Baucom netted a hat-trick for the Hibees before Shannon McGregor and Brooke Nunn also got on the scoresheet as the Dons suffered their heaviest defeat of the SWPL season.
The loss was not the only disappointment for Aberdeen as defender Madison Finnie was shown a straight red card in the 67th minute for hauling down goal scorer Baucom.
Injuries also played a part in the heavy defeat as midfielder Laura Holden and goalkeeper Faye Kirby both had to leave the field prematurely.
A disappointed Lancaster said: “It (the injuries and sending off) killed us. The injury to Laura is far from ideal, and then losing Faye was a real blow.
“You go down to 10 players and you’ve not got your first choice goalkeeper in there, it’s difficult, but you get games and nights like this in football – unfortunately that is just the way it is.
“Sometimes when you play good football against teams, you just don’t get the result.”
Aberdeen had started the brighter of the two sides at Meadowbank, with plenty of early chances, which Lancaster was left ruing at the full-time whistle.
The Dons boss said: “It just wasn’t our night.
“We had good chances in the first half but we’ve not taken them again, and that’s another game of getting into good areas, but not taking our opportunities.
“They go down the other end and then score, but in the first half – and in my opinion – we played some good football at times. They lumped it down the middle.
“They lumped it down the middle and that caused us problems. That was our downfall really because the penalty came from that and we’ve not judged the ball forward.
“All the goals were preventable and that is a shame.”
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