South Africa celebrate one of eight wickets that fell on Sunday Photos from Lord's

"We never really got into the game," admitted a crestfallen Vaughan after seeing his side hammered by an innings and 92 runs on the fourth day.

"To lose five wickets on the first morning and be bowled out for 173 on that wicket - we were always going to be chasing the game."

England managed a far better display with the bat the second time around - their innings of 417 revolved around a brilliant 142 from Andrew Flintoff.

But they still lost by a big margin to trail 1-0 in the series with three Tests to come.

Vaughan said: "We need to pick ourselves up and produce a better display at Trent Bridge.

"Freddie's [Flintoff's] innings today probably spared us a few blushes but congratulations to Graeme Smith and South Africa for putting us under pressure all the way."

South African captain Smith shared the man of the match award with Makhaya Ntini.

Smith hit 259, the best individual score in a Lord's Test by an overseas player, while Ntini was the matchwinner taking half the England wickets in each innings.

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Smith said: "It was a fantastic team performance. I don't have many words for the feeling in the dressing-room at the moment."

Flintoff said his feelings were mixed after hitting his best ever score in Tests in a losing cause.

"As we started losing wickets I had to play some shots to see how many runs we could get," he revealed.