Caley Thistle head coach Billy Dodds felt his side gifted Motherwell soft goals in their 4-0 League Cup defeat at Fir Park.
The Caley Jags were blown away in the first-half by Premiership side Motherwell, with Kevin van Veen scoring twice and Danny Devine turning into his own net.
Dutch striker van Veen completed his hat-trick with a second penalty on 67 minutes to ensure smooth progress for the home side.
“I think when you give decent teams like Motherwell goals – they all wanted the ball and when you’re playing Premiership opposition, they go onto another level,” said Dodds.
“We looked a bit shocked to start with but you’ve seen results recently, where teams can collapse. I think we did everything but collapse.
“We had a horrendous penalty given against us. I just said to them for the second half that we’ve seen some of the results recently and we don’t do that. I think 3-0 would have been a fair result.
“I know they had more chances but my players worked their socks off. They worked so hard.”
Caley Thistle improved marginally during second half
Van Veen got his first after nine minutes, tapping in from Joe Efford’s cross, before Devine attempted to block Matt Penney’s cross but could only divert it past Ridgers.
Motherwell got a third before the break after Daniel MacKay was adjudged to have brought down Sean Goss and van Veen thumped home from 12 yards.
Caley Thistle were marginally better in the second half but felt aggrieved when David Carson was adjudged to have handled in the box, with van Veen again reliable from the spot to complete his treble.
“We gave away some soft goals to start with and when you do that against Premiership teams like Motherwell, they grow,” added Dodds. “They all wanted the ball and you’re in for a hard night if you do that.
“I thought after the first 10 or 15 minutes it was going to be a fair cup tie but when you lose the goal, we’re in shock a wee bit. We then lose another goal and get the penalty given against us.”