Bernard Morley couldn't hide his disappointment after he and joint-manager Anthony Johnson watched their Chester FC side put in a Jekyll and Hyde performance against Everton under-23s.
The Blues were superb in the opening 45 minutes and dominated the young Toffees for near enough the entirety of the opening half, leading 1-0 at the break thanks to a debut goal from Anthony Dudley.
But they were all at sea defensively in the second as goals from Nathan Broadhead, Harry Charsley, Bassala Sambou and Shane Lavery handed David Unsworth's side the victory after Jon Moran had briefly levelled for Chester after the hour mark.
There were many positives from an excellent first half, with performances from the likes of Craig Mahon, Gary Roberts, Danny Livesey and a trialist striker among them.
However, the manner of the second-half collapse left a bitter taste in the mouth for Morley and Johnson, whose side now switch their attention to their next game, a National League North season opener at home to Spennymoor Town in seven days time.
"I'm disappointed, obviously, to concede four goals in a half of football," said Morley.
"People might say it's only pre-season and it's not realistic but it is to us, especially with only seven days until we kick off against Spennymoor.
"A little bit of a disappointing second half but overall there were some good things to take out of it. Defensively first half it didn't look like they could break us down at all and I think going forward we created a lot more going forward than we have the last four or five games.
"But that's football for you. The message at half time was don't get complacent, especially the experienced lads, don't let the young lads get complacent. Continue to do the right things, or at least try. But we didn't do that second half, we started to do what we wanted and made individual mistakes and went hiding. Nobody wanted the ball and we were forcing things, but it gives us something to work on next week."
Goalkeeper Grant Shenton was at fault for two of the goals, parrying two efforts from distance into the path of Toffees front men, but Morley was keen to stress that it wasn't just down to him that Everton capitalised.
He said: "Shents has dropped two and put them on a plate for the lad but I think as defenders we have got to follow everything in and anticipate that Shents might make that mistake, which he did.
"As comfortable as it looked the centre forward has been ambitious to come in and get the ball, we've not, we've just stood still."
Morley was pleased with the contributions of both Livesey and Dudley, who impressed in the first half having only signed for the Blues on season-long loan deals from Salford City on Thursday.
Livesey looked strong playing in the centre of a back three of Simon Grand and Steve Howson in the first half while Dudley netted the opener and was industrious with his play up top.
"Danny's not played for 12 months, or I should say nine months, he has had his operation and didn't look out of place at all," said Morley.
"He looked confident, he got us playing, he won his individual battles and his headers.
"Anthony Dudley is someone we have been looking at closely for the last six or seven weeks. Did we think it was ever going to be doable? No. We're delighted we got the deal over the line but it is important that we get the right person to complement Anthony. One shot, one goal That is what we brought him in for.
"He's deadly in front of goal. I still feel at times he has got to be a lot more unselfish and gets shots off, but I'm probably nit picking at the wrong things here."
