Derby boss Billy Davies offered no excuses for his players after their 5-0 thrashing by West Ham United.

Despite insisting he still believes Derby can avoid the drop and that he is the man to help them do so, Davies pulled no punches in his assessment of his side's display.

From being 1-0 down at half-time to a Lee Bowyer goal, the game was over within nine minutes of the restart as Matthew Etherington, Jonathan Spector and Bowyer's second made it 4-0.

Nolberto Solano completed the rout with a stunning free-kick.

"A crazy 10-15 minutes cost us dearly and at the end it was men against boys," Davies said.

The Rams boss refused to make an excuses for his side, who were without a number of key players through injury.

"That is not an excuse. The excuse is that in the first 20 minutes we had opportunities to take the lead," he said.

"We still had enough quality on that pitch to pick up points but it wasn't to be."

Davies was unhappy with his side's response to going behind, saying: "They let their heads go down too easily, they stopped competing.

"The confidence drained out of us, the belief drained out of us.

"That's a disappointment."

Of the international break, he said: "There's a fortnight now to do what we can.

"I have lost no belief, I have lost no confidence.

"I know exactly where we are and what we have to do."