No hiding place: Sheffield Steelers boss makes no excuses for loss at Glasgow Clan

He said his team had put on a "sloppy practice" on Tuesday and that excessively casual approach continued in a game they trailed 4-0, at one point.

Some time ago, Barrasso had set a target for winning half their games over a given period, and then improving on that ratio.

But he said: "As a group we need to determine what we want to be as a team. If winning some games and getting close to 500 is all we aspire to, I am not doing a very good job."

As Barrasso appears to spend every waking moment finding ways of improving the side, it's unusual to see him question his own contribution. But he insisted the lack of preparedness reflected on him as a coach.

"I obviously did not do a good enough job in preparing the team" he said. He added his players had "not been committed to the game plan that we try and put in place every night. Against good teams you are not going to get away with that."

He also accused the officials of mistaken calls and admitted his own team took penalties when they were chasing the game.

In the final five minutes, with Steelers having closed the gap to 2-4, Anthony DeLuca and Tanner Eberle both took slashing calls, within 43 seconds of each other.

Clan got their decisive fifth on that power play.

Interestingly, Barrasso did not seek to explore the absences of injured duo Davey Phillips and Eric Neiley, as well as Robert Dowd (paternity) as a reason for the slip in standards.

Sheffield's defeat meant they lost a chance to close the gap on Guildford Flames, who lost 4-3 at Cardiff Devils.

Barrasso's men are at Dundee Stars on Sunday - the Scots humbled league leading Belfast Giants 6-4 on Wednesday.

Sixth-place Steelers have not built just 24 points from 25 games.