Christopher Schindler admitted he feels "empty" after Huddersfield's relegation to the Championship was confirmed on Saturday.
Huddersfield became only the second team of the Premier League era to have their relegation confirmed before the end of March, with wins for Burnley and Southampton ensuring Huddersfield's 2-0 defeat at Crystal Palace left them 19 points from safety with six games to go.
The chances came and went for Huddersfield in the first half as profligacy in front of goal once again cost them dear, with late goals from Luka Milivojevic and Patrick van Aanholt enough for Palace to earn all three points at Selhurst Park and seal Huddersfield's fate, much to Schindler's despair.
"I'm empty at the moment," Schindler said. "If we see the season retrospectively at the front and back, we were not good enough to stay in the best league in the world.
"It's very frustrating. It is hard to find the right words. I didn't know [that the relegation was official] until you just told me, but we have to be realistic. We knew from six or eight weeks ago it was going to be hard and we needed a miracle.
"Nobody wants to have this on their CV, but obviously we had some brilliant years with this club, we grew together, when nobody gave us a chance for promotion we did it."
With six games still to go, Schindler called on his team-mates to give fans something to shout about and restore some semblance of pride.
"We've got the task to end as best as possible to give our supporters the best time, to bring the season to an end in a good way," Schindler added.
"Sometimes we have to accept it was not good enough, we could not bring the quality in the pitch. It is really hard to accept at the minute. We have to work as hard as we can and make the last weeks as positive as possible as we can use this as preparation for next season."