"I hate standing here explaining away defeats and none of us like where we are, but there were some good things today," he said.
"I thought David Wheater was phenomenal, Lee Cattermole did very well and Ben Hutchinson also did well when he came on.
"Catts has been playing and training very well and I felt he deserved his opportunity.
"I've got to give George (Boateng) credit, he accepted the decision (to drop him) with very good grace. He's shown great maturity in taking it on board and he's still a very big part of our football club.
"We win and lose together. Nobody expected us to do anything here but we've got to leave with our heads up.
"They've given everything. I threw a couple of youngsters in today and they've given me everything I was looking for.
"Things will turn for us if we keep working as hard as we did."