Roy Hodgson's frustration was clear after England's incredible win at world champions Germany was followed by an underwhelming home defeat to the Netherlands.
Saturday's swashbuckling display in Berlin helped the Three Lions overcome a two-goal deficit and secure a 3-2 win that will live long in the memory. It was an impressive performance that England were unable to build on in front of a sell-out Wembley crowd, with Jamie Vardy's first-half goal cancelled out by Vincent Janssen's penalty.
Scorer turned provider in controversial fashion as Luciano Narsingh netted to secure the side that failed to make Euro 2016 a 2-1 success -- only England's second defeat since the World Cup.
"It was different games, different opponents, different teams, so who knows?'' Hodgson said when asked why his team failed to scale the heights reached in Germany. "To be honest, I gave a lot of different players a chance to play tonight. I've really aired the squad, if you like.
"Hopefully that might be to my advantage in the future, when I am thinking about players and thinking about making decisions.
"But at the moment I'm just bitterly disappointed that I am sitting here having lost a home game at Wembley in front of 82,000 people after such a good performance on Saturday night. It really is a high followed by a low.''
Hodgson's frustration was fuelled by Holland's second-half goals being allowed to stand. The England boss felt it was harsh to call handball against Danny Rose and that Janssen should have been punished for bundling over substitute Phil Jagielka before setting up the winner.
"I don't think the decisions were particularly favourable to us,'' Hodgson said. "The second one in particular was exceptionally harsh. The first one is a decision that is given these days, which I unfortunately I don't agree with.
"I really do believe to give handball it has got to be absolutely deliberate and not hit the hand when people are trying to block the ball.
"I am becoming a dinosaur if I keep saying that because I see these decisions being given every week. Whether I agree with it or not, it doesn't make a lot of difference and it was given.
"But I was more disappointed that we didn't reach the level of intensity or creativity that we did on Saturday night.
"And our domination of the ball and our domination of possession didn't lead to enough goal chances, so that disappointed me most.
"It would have been nice had the referee given the foul for the second goal and we'd have at least come in here not having lost, but I still wouldn't have come in feeling particularly happy because I was hoping for a better performance as were the players in such a fantastic crowd.''
Striker Vardy had mixed emotions after scoring in a second successive international but ending up on the losing side at Wembley.
"It's an unbelievable feeling but the result is disappointing,'' said the Leicester forward, who has scored 19 Premier League goals this season in firing his side to the brink of an unlikely title and boosting his own England chances.
Vardy told ITV: "I have to carry on playing how I have been playing in the league and we will see what happens.''
Captain for the night James Milner echoed his England teammate's frustration.
"We didn't hit the heights we did at the weekend,'' Milner said. "Two decisions could have gone the other way for the goals but we don't want to moan about the referee.
"We haven't played well enough to win the game. We had the majority of the possession and pressed well but we didn't do enough with it.''
Holland manager Danny Blind also praised the fans after standing to applaud the late Johan Cruyff in the 14th minute, in addition to observing a minute's silence before a match in which his side's attitude and aptitude impressed.
"Okay, England maybe were better and had more of the ball, and we had to defend,'' Blind said. "That's normal.
"We miss so many players, 14 players, and it was a very young team. They won in Berlin 3-2, a good result and had the confidence.
"So we knew it would be a difficult game against a better team, and they showed they had good positional players. But we didn't give away too many chances.''
