Nottingham Forest midfielder Ryan Yates said the team must show a reaction after two poor performances when they face Stoke City at The City Ground on Saturday.
A home defeat against Huddersfield was followed up by a point at Birmingham in midweek, with both displays leaving a lot to be desired, and Yates has revealed that Chris Hughton let the squad know that improvements must be made.
He said: "It was very tough, we underperformed and had some chances, with Lyle and I hit the bar, but we played with no purpose and it was like we were on our holidays. We were second best and we need to show a reaction on Saturday because that is not good enough.
"It is a tough place to go, Birmingham, the pitch is always bad and you can make as many excuses as you like but it is all about results at the minute. We stuck in there, showed our character and Grabbs was as cool as ice and scored the penalty at the end. We had a couple of big chances, Lyle's chance was a good chance and I should have done better with my header, so in terms of big chances we probably had the better but that doesn't take away from the fact that we underperformed, we never really had control of the game and we didn't play through the thirds.
"It was unlike us really as we have been looking to play but last night we hid a little bit, went long and that was the easy thing to do. It was what they wanted us to do and it is something we have to learn from."
He added: "I can only speak for myself, as my mindset is the same whether it is the first game of the season or the last game. I will always give 100 per cent in every single game and as players, that is our job and our duty to do that. People's livelihoods are on the line, the manager is here and we have to perform for him, for the fans and we have a duty to perform at the highest level possible.
"The manager hasn't been happy and rightly so. At Birmingham it was smash and grab and we were relieved to have a point because we didn't deserve it. Straight after the game, the manager got us in the dressing room and told us it wasn't acceptable and he wants to see a reaction from us which he is completely right about."