'Confused' selection and controversy over disallowed catches unsettled England at Headingley - but Michael Vaughan insists neither factor could be blamed for defeat against South Africa.
England's 10-wicket humbling followed untypical last-minute rethinks on the morning of the second Test which resulted in a shock debut for seamer Darren Pattinson.
But after his team had been bowled out for 327 - to add to a paltry 203 on day one - to go 1-0 down in this four-match series, Vaughan stressed the bottom line was simply that 11 men did not reach their potential.
"It does look a confused selection - but the selection of one person does not lose you a Test match," he said.
"We lost a Test match because we didn't play well enough."
An unbeaten half-century at No.9 from Stuart Broad (67 not out) spared England only the embarrassment of a first innings defeat since these same opponents last toured five years ago - and Vaughan did not seek to pretend this was anything other than a comprehensive loss.
He did, however, cite the mitigation of injury to Ryan Sidebottom - which led to a call-up for Pattinson who at almost 30 had only 11 first-class matches behind him.
"The whole Friday morning unsettled the team," he said.
"You change the team by two players, have players moving out of position and leave someone like Paul Collingwood out ... of course it has an effect."
Middle-order batsman Collingwood knew he was under pressure for his place, because of the return of all-rounder Andrew Flintoff after 18 months out injured.
"You could see he (Collingwood) was very disappointed, and people were disappointed for him," said Vaughan
"I always have a huge belief in being a unit, having togetherness in Test match cricket - and we didn't feel as much of a unit this week."
"But a lot of us are experienced and we still should and could have coped with it better."
Vaughan was at pains to stop Pattinson, who took 2-95 in South Africa's first-innings 522, from becoming a scapegoat.
"Darren has taken a lot of criticism," he said of the Grimsby-born, Australian-raised bowler.
"It's not his fault; he got selected and he turned up and tried his guts out - and at times he bowled some good spells."
"I felt sorry for him, because he'd obviously not been in the set-up, around the environment - and didn't know anyone."
"That makes it very, very difficult for him to play."
Pattinson's mere presence could hardly explain England's shortcomings as a team.
"One man didn't lose us the Test match; the collective unit lost us the Test match," said Vaughan, who identified first-innings batting as the biggest problem.
"We got ourselves in a half-decent position, 110 for three - and then played like millionaires in the afternoon," he recalled.
"We are a better batting unit than 203. I think 300 or 350 on that wicket was very much par and would have put us in the game."
"As a batting unit, certainly the top five, we didn't bat well enough."
Vaughan's infamous lunchtime spat with AB de Villiers overshadowed the early part of the match.
The South African mistakenly claimed a slip catch, had it disallowed by the third umpire ... and then responded to the boos of the Headingley crowd with a painstaking 174.
Vaughan, who himself also had a catch referred and ruled out at mid-off on day one, took