Soccer:Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson apologised to fans for the club's Carling Cup exit at the hands of League Two Northampton, admitting he and the players had to accept responsibility for the defeat.
Hodgson fielded an under strength side which still included first-team regulars like Daniel Agger, David Ngog, Ryan Babel and Lucas Leiva and went ahead when Milan Jovanovic scored his first goal for the club in the ninth minute.
However, the Cobblers hit back 10 minutes into the second half through Billy McKay and Michael Jacobs' goal in extra-time appeared to have done enough until Ngog spared Liverpool's blushes four minutes from the end.
But it was only a temporary reprieve as Ngog and Nathan Eccleston missed their spot-kicks, allowing Abdul Osman to net the decisive penalty.
"I don't think we came anywhere near what I hoped to see apart from in the last 15 minutes of extra-time when we made a superb effort after going 2-1 down," he said.
"When it goes to penalties and you are at home and in front of the Kop your hope is that at least the players will have the composure and confidence to win the penalty shoot-out but we didn't.
"All I can do is congratulate Northampton and apologise to everyone; the fans came expecting to see us win and I expected us to win but it wasn't to be.
"These players have to accept responsibility. I accept responsibility for changing a lot of players in the team, I did it because I honestly thought the players I put on the field were good enough to win the game and they weren't.
"The obvious conclusion to that was I shouldn't have changed that many players but we should have been strong enough to get a result.
"We must all take our responsibility. I am just bitterly disappointed that the team I had so much faith in did not repay that faith this evening with the exception of one or two performances."