North Queensland Cowboys coach Todd Payten has declared that the club “got what we deserved” after an embarrassing and lacklustre showing against the Manly Sea Eagles.

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After the side completed less than 60% of their sets (held a 42% completion rate at the half-time break) and made 17 errors, Payten conceded that the club were well short of standards as they lost by 32 points.

Completely outplayed across the park, the Cowboys looked nowhere near the standard that saw them win their four previous matches against the Titans, Storm, Dragons and Broncos.

Failing to find any rhythm, they were beaten in the fundamentals of the match, particularly early in the contest, when they conceded four tries in 35 minutes.

“I thought they were harder at the contest with more energy,” Payten said following the 38-6 loss.

“Pretty flat performance, I thought early on for me and then compounded that with 42 per cent completion in the first half.

“We made 16 errors through the whole game… we got what we deserved. Made 80 more tackles so the score could have been bigger to be fair.

“But we tried pretty hard in that second half. We made them kick from inside their own half four sets in a row but in the end we had a couple of big momentum swings.

“Thomas Mikaele gets one disallowed and they go down the other end…Braidon Burns should have scored in this corner and they go down the next set too.”

Soni Luke of the Cowboys looks dejected. (Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

Echoing Payten’s comments, Cowboys skipper Reuben Cotter stated that they didn’t give themselves a chance to win the match due to them continually dropping the ball and making simple handling errors.

“We just couldn’t give ourselves a chance. You can’t give yourself a chance when you’re dropping that much ball,” Cotter added.

“You put yourself under pressure and that sort of zaps your energy. We showed when we put a couple of sets together we found points.

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“But with 42 per cent completion rate in the first-half, it catches up in the second half. I wouldn’t say we were complacent. We just got to get on with the job and stay positive.

“We know our footy, we know what works. It’s about biting down on the mouth guard this week, going back to training and looking forward to Friday.”