Davies: It was men against boys

And despite insisting he still believes Derby can avoid the drop, and that he is the man to help them do so, Davies pulled no punches in his assessment of his side's display.

From being 1-0 down at half-time to a Lee Bowyer goal, the game was over within nine minutes of the restart as Matthew Etherington, Jonathan Spector and Bowyer again made it 4-0, and Davies said: "A crazy 10-15 minutes cost us dearly and at the end it was men against boys."

Nolberto Solano completed the rout with a stunning free-kick, and while the Rams were without a number of key players through injury, Davies refused to make excuses for his side.

"That is not an excuse. The excuse is that in the first 20 minutes we had opportunities to take the lead," he said. "We still had enough quality on that pitch to pick up points but it wasn't to be."

Davies was unhappy with his side's response to going behind, saying: "They let their heads go down too easily, they stopped competing. The confidence drained out of us, the belief drained out of us. That's a disappointment."

Davies promised reinforcements in January, although on the evidence of this display major surgery is required to stem the flow of goals at one end and the lack of them at the other.

"They all know the next transfer window is going to be very important to us," Davies said. "We had to play a 35-year-old centre-back in Marc Edworthy today."

Despite hailing his side's performance, Hammers boss Alan Curbishley was equally concerned about the latest injury woe to hit the club. George McCartney was forced off before the quarter-hour mark with an ankle problem, while Bowyer was playing with a groin injury and Curbishley revealed he will have an operation on Tuesday.

"Lee Bowyer's got to have something done. He was playing with a groin strain. He's got to have an operation on Tuesday," Curbishley said. "We're hopeful Georgie isn't as bad as we think."