Nigel Pearson said he was disappointed his Leicester City side couldn't come away from Chelsea with reward for their spirited performance.
For over an hour City gave title contenders Chelsea a stern test and created some great chances to open the scoring but goals from Diego Costa and Eden Hazard eventually meant they left Stamford Bridge empty handed.
David Nugent was twice denied by keeper Thibaut Courtois at the start of the second half before influential midfielder Dean Hammond limped off with cramp and City began to lose their impetus as a result.
Costa converted from close range in the 63rd minute before Hazard curled home the second from just inside the city box 14 minutes later to break City's resolve.
"I am disappointed," said Pearson.
"If you speak to the players they are also disappointed that we weren't able to convert what was an encouraging performance into points. Certainly there were a lot of positives from today.
"The good thing is we create chances throughout the game and made the goalkeeper work as well with a number of efforts.
"I thought in the first half in particular we didn't wait to see how Chelsea would approach the game. We wanted to be positive and for the most part we played very well today but as always it is about how efficient you are in both penalty boxes and we didn't quite find the right way today."
Pearson said losing Hammond was a big blow at the worst possible time in the game.
"He got severe cramp right through his leg which he has never experienced before," he said.
"It was frustrating for him because in the last two games he has performed exceptionally well. We certainly missed his organisation skills when he went off.
"We lost some of our rhythm somewhat. It was probably the worst time for that to happen.
"These things happen in football and you just have to get on with it.
"I thought we continued to put in a very honest performance but couldn't find enough quality later on in the game.
"But there were some really good aspects to our play today."
