Steven Schumacher admitted Wanderers must see games out better after conceding two late goals to drop more home points.
The Whites looked set for a third success of the season at the Toughsheet Community Stadium when they led Bristol City 2-1 go into the final stages of a ding-dong encounter.
But failing to kill off the game became doubly damaging when Wanderers conceded two goals in 10 minutes – including an injury-time strike – to register a fifth home loss of the campaign and slip to 19th in the table.
“I’m disappointed because we played well enough to win that game. We should definitely not have lost it,” said Whites' boss Schumacher. “We should have taken a point if you can't win it, but we've been punished again, which is what this Championship does to you if you don't do all elements of the game properly for the whole game and unfortunately we haven't managed to do that.
“We come off very disappointed because it's a game that we should have taken something from. I felt we were really solid and in complete control of the game probably until Chris (Forino) went off. It’s not easy when you take your centre-backs off because the ones who come on have got to get up to the speed of the game.
“Just before that Ruben had a big chance to make it 3-1 but we didn't take it and they go down the other end and score, which was a bit of a blow. We felt we had to take Ben Davies off as well, which is not ideal, again, making a substitute in your back line.
“When the game got stretched we made one or two little mistakes and any team with as much quality as Bristol City have got will punish you.”
Wanderers went into the game without six players due to injury and then lost Forino following six games on the sidelines with a bout of cramp with 12 minutes to go when Wanderers led thanks to goals from Josh Sheehan and Sam Dalby.
Davies’ own return was curtailed with the defender feeling a tight hamstring after City had levelled and with Scott Twine then going on to win it in the 93rd-minute, Schumacher’s men must quickly re-group with away games to come at Charlton and Derby – two sides below them in the table – before the next international break.
“It's punishing this division, as I say,” added the Wanderers’ boss. “It's not easy, but there's loads of good things that we did in the game, so we'll try not to look at the negatives because we've got a game in 72 hours or whenever and we've got to go again.
“For 85 minutes we were excellent, in complete control of the game and we looked like we were the fully established Championship team compared to them.
“There was loads of good things, regardless of the changes, but we've got to see the game out and do better, and obviously learn from their mistakes because that's happened a few times now where we've just run out of gas.
“You can't sulk and, most importantly, you can't start feeling negative or pointing fingers at each other. We're doing a lot of good things with what we've got. We're competing, we're doing well and we've managed to score goals, but obviously we need to stop conceding three and four goals in a game because it's going to give you no chance to win.”
Watch the full interview with the boss on Wanderers TV