"We were second best all over the pitch," says McGrath after National League Cup defeat

Town still finished top of their group despite the defeat, which saw Forest win it with the last kick of the game after Halifax had battled back to level from being 3-1 down.

"We were second best all over the pitch, we were poor, we were weak, we were defensively not sound, we lacked intensity," McGrath said.

"I thought we were really, really poor and we got exploited by a young side.

"There's a lot of those boys for Forest who are 17, 18, 19 and what it does do is answer a few questions for me moving forwards regards certain players."

When asked why his side was second best, McGrath said: "It doesn't help when your centre-half doesn't get off the ground to head balls, it doesn't help when a recovering full-back lets the kid slip through, it doesn't help for the penalty we're two v one on the halfway line and they're not two v one, there's not one in-front, one behind, it doesn't help that we didn't win a first contact, second contact in midfield.

"That being said, we created enough chances to probably win two games of football.

"You want your centre-forwards, your wingers and your tens to get you out of trouble and unfortunately, they didn't with some really clear cut opportunities.

"Young Luke Brooks, who comes on for his debut, could have nicked it late on.

"Very few postives to take from that. Getting Zak Gilsenan through on his return from his hamstring was a real positive.

"We really didn't want to give Granty 90 minutes, we wanted to give Kobe his debut, but with how tight the game was, we couldn't risk it.

"Shaun Hobson's played a lot of minutes but felt his knee after the game on Saturday, so we were taking care of him.

"Cody Johnson's played a lot of minutes, we tried to take care of hime.

"There's been people knocking on my door, wanting to play National League games of football.

"Well, if you're going to come and knock on my door then at least perform.

"The most disappointing thing for me is it's on the cusp of our FA Cup game against Cheltenham Town, so I should be waking up tomorrow morning with a real headache for who I pick on Saturday, and at the moment, it's pretty set in stone who the starting 11 is."

The main positive for Town on the night was finishing top of their group, but for McGrath, that was overshadowed by his team's poor display.

"The implications of it for the football club is we've got a home tie quarter-final, by hook or by crook," he said.

"But for me, that's secondary to the performance.

"For me, application tonight wasn't quite there in terms of intensity, how our centre-halves Flinty and Hobbo come through and win headers, and Cody and Tayt or Huges, whoever plays, pick up second balls.

"I should be allowed to make a substitution or two and keep the same quality but it just dipped.

"We thought against a Forest under 21s team it'd be a great run-out for the boys and it turned out to be a very, very good exercise indeed."