Michael Duff felt his team left Wigan Athletic on Saturday having failed to really threaten their top of the table opponents in a 2-0 defeat.
Callum Lang and Charlie Wyke's goals helped Wigan continue their stay at the top of the division with a 2-0 win.
Duff believed his team were unable to compete against the Latics in the first meeting between the two sides since 2003.
"I think we got beat by a better team ultimately," he said.
"That's going to happen this year. We're going to play against teams that are better than us and they showed why they are top of the league.
"We never really laid a glove on them and gave them two really poor goals.
"You can talk about us being poor but they're a good team so you can probably focus on them rather than us."
Watch Duff's full post-match reaction above on iFollow and on the EFL iFollow app on your smartphone.
It's an away game to end the month on Tuesday with a visit to the Stadium of Light to take on Sunderland. Tickets and away travel for the game are on sale online and from the ticket office.