Everton boss Sean Dyche acknowledged failing to make the most of chances had cost his side after they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by fellow Premier League strugglers Southampton at Goodison Park.
The visitors went through to round four 6-5 on penalties after Alex McCarthy pushed Ashley Young’s spot-kick against the post.
The shootout followed a 1-1 draw in which Abdoulaye Doucoure’s 20th-minute header was cancelled out by one from Taylor Harwood-Bellis just past the half-hour mark.
Unsuccessful efforts from Everton included Jesper Lindstrom twice being unable to convert decent opportunities, seeing shots saved by McCarthy either side of the equaliser.
Dyche – whose starting line-up showed eight changes – told a press conference: “After piecing together the team this morning, with three players going down ill overnight, I think we’ve given as good as we could get with the players available.
“To piece that together and deliver a performance that I thought could win, especially with the chances…I know that’s been a challenge from even before my time, taking the chances that kill a game, and we haven’t done that tonight. But a lot of the performance was right enough to win the game.
“Some of the play was good at times, effective, we opened them enough times to go and win the game, but we didn’t take chances and you go down on penalties.”
Dyche revealed Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Vitalii Mykolenko and James Garner had all missed out through illness, that James Tarkowski had been absent due to a back issue and that Idrissa Gueye was not involved because of a “personal issue” related to the player’s father.
The manager’s decision to substitute striker Beto and replace him with Young during the second half drew a negative reaction from some Everton fans in the crowd.
Dyche said: “The fans have a right to say whatever they want to say, I’ve never questioned the fans here and I’m certainly not going to. They have been amazing since I’ve been here.”
Everton and Southampton are bottom and second-bottom of the top flight respectively, both having suffered four defeats from as many matches so far this season.
The Toffees – who had led 2-0 only to be beaten 3-2 in each of their last two outings, against Bournemouth and Aston Villa – will look to get off the mark when they play Leicester on Saturday, while Southampton host fellow promoted side Ipswich.
Saints boss Russell Martin – who made 10 changes – was asked after the cup tie if it felt like a big moment in the season with Ipswich to come, and said: “I hope so, we’ll see at 5pm on Saturday.
“(In the the 3-0 loss to Manchester United on Saturday) for half an hour we were brilliant, and looked very much like the team we want to, and then we have a disappointing moment (having a penalty saved) and it completely derails us.
“Tonight, we had a tough moment, conceding, and then responded brilliantly. So I think that’s the learning.”