Matt Prior has offered an honest assessment of England's performance in The Ashes, stating that they have been well beaten by Australia.

The Aussies officially regained the urn on Tuesday morning after beating England by 150 runs in Perth to take a 3-0 lead in the five-Test series, and Prior claimed that they "finished third in a two-horse race".

Prior wrote in his column in The Telegraph: "There are no excuses from us. We have not been good enough and finished third in a two-horse race. As a team, this is the lowest point and it is tough at the moment to stomach. We will be criticised of course and rightly so.

"We will fight back in this series and that will start in Melbourne. We cannot even look at Sydney yet. We go into the Boxing Day Test looking to win it and prepare for it as if it as any other match, forgetting the series has gone. We have taken a hammering.

"The players are obviously low. It is still very raw and a fresh wound. The guys are not in a great place right now and nor should they be. Losing hurts."

Sir Ian Botham recently slammed the performance from Alastair Cook's men as "unforgivable".