Clark's side have now gone six games without a win
Huddersfield Town manager Lee Clark accused his side of "abysmal defending" as they went out of the JP Trophy on penalties to Chesterfield on Tuesday.
The Terriers lost 4-2 on spot-kicks after coming from 3-1 down to draw 3-3.
Clark told BBC Radio Leeds: "Forget about the penalties because that's just a lottery. I would never have a go at a player because they missed a penalty.
"The cup tie went to penalties because we defended absolutely abysmally for their second and third goals."
All six goals came in the second half as Huddersfield twice came from behind, including two goals in injury time from Anthony Pilkington - his second of the game - and Nathan Clarke, to force a shoot-out.
Pilkington and Jim Goodwin both missed penalties as Town crashed out, but Clark felt it should never have got to that stage.
"We shouldn't be in that position - we dominated proceedings for so long but there's got to be end product to all this good play," he said.
"We have to be football-intelligent for the second goal and take the foul, and for the third goal we gave away possession in our own box - it's football suicide.
"We can't be coming and dominating proceedings, certainly like we did in the early part of the game, and then giving goals away like we have - it's not conducive to winning football matches."
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