Embarrassed club captain Russell Martin admitted Norwich City's players were so shellshocked by their Etihad massacre that they escaped an X-rated dressing room post mortem.

The Scottish international revealed that Chris Hughton didn't read the riot act immediately after the final whistle following the Canaries' 7-0 capitulation at Manchester City yesterday. But the right-back insisted there was no need as he and his team-mates struggled to come to terms with one of the Carrow Road outfit's worst defeats of all time – and because they knew they would be sifting through the wreckage of their horror show at training today.

Martin said: 'What was the point? (of Hughton reading the riot act). We'd have been there for an extremely long time. He could go through every single one of us and pick out things for the goals and in general play that we didn't do well enough.

'We didn't keep the ball nowhere near well enough and ultimately when you end up defending for long periods of the game against quality like that you can't do it. It's something we need to work on. I'm sure the gaffer will say what he wants to say but straight after the game in the heat of the moment, like I said, ultimately what's the point of lambasting a group of players who are totally dejected and know they haven't done well enough for him, for ourselves and the fans? It's up to us now to go and put that right.

'We are embarrassed. We're humiliated. As professionals, what is there to say about that performance really? You can say what you want about tactics and the way you approach a game and how you prepare and stuff, but the bottom line is from one through to 11 – probably with the exception of John (Ruddy) because he made some good saves – it was nowhere near good enough.'

While Norwich have lost six of their last nine matches – a spell which has seen them lose five times in Premier League action – they had at least forced some of the country's biggest clubs to earn their victories. However, that was not the case at the weekend and Martin conceded that made his team's latest defeat even harder to take.

'That's why it was disheartening as we've at least been in the game against Arsenal and Chelsea,' said the defender.

'I sat there and spoke about it on Thursday, about how we've still got confidence and belief in the squad – which we still have – and Saturday makes that look ridiculous really. That's the upsetting thing. Nothing went right for us. Their first goal was extremely lucky. A bit of fortune for their second as well. But after that we just totally capitulated and that's not like us at all.

'It hurts, and it really hurts right now, and no one is hurting more than myself and the other players and the management staff. We've spoken about needing to stick together as a football club and hopefully this is as bad as it ever gets.'