Captain David Beckham and striker Michael Owen said there were no excuses for England's 4-1 friendly rout by Denmark on Wednesday.
With two World Cup qualifiers scheduled next month, England's defence was ripped apart by a Danish side who scored three goals in the space of seven minutes.
"I don't know what went wrong," Beckham told reporters.
"There are no excuses... We should still be winning these games. The only positive thing we can take out of the game is that it was a friendly."
As for the manner of the defeat, he said: "It's always a slight embarrassment when a team scores three quick goals against you in front of five or six thousand fans that have travelled all the way from England to watch the team play.
"We've just got put that right and perform in the games that matter."
England are two points behind Group Six leaders Poland with a game in hand, before playing Wales and Northern Ireland away in September and Austria and the Poles at home in October.
"We have a lot of work to do before four tough games coming up," Beckham said. "Confidence-wise we just have to forget about this game."
Owen, who started the second half in place of Jermain Defoe up front, was on the same wavelength as his Real Madrid club team mate.
"It was a disappointing night and there's not really any excuses," Owen said. "It's the start of the season, everyone's fit and there are no injuries.
"Everybody knows that we are a better team than that," Owen added.
"Thank God it wasn't a qualifying game."
