Painful memories of yet another crushing defeat will steel England as they look to bounce back against Australia in the second Ashes Test in Adelaide.
But it remains to be seen what will be able to motivate rattled No.3 Jonathan Trott before his next round against bogey man Mitchell Johnson.
England captain Alastair Cook tried to cut a stoic figure after Australia sealed victory by 381 runs at the Gabba on Sunday.
“It’s one loss isn’t it? You’ve got to look at it like that, it’s only one loss in a five match Test series, plenty of time to fight back,” he said.
One of the few positives Cook could find was that they had fought back from a similar, seemingly hopeless position in India last year and won their first Test series on the subcontinent in 27 years.
England looked clueless against spin when they were thrashed by nine wickets in the first Test at Ahmedabad.
Yet they dug deep to inflict India’s first series loss on home soil since the legendary likes of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Ricky Ponting led Australia to victory in 2004.
“At Ahmedabad everyone was looking at us wondering how we could play cricket and we bounced back and won an amazing series in India,” Cook said.
“The first thing we have to do is remember we have a very good side and there’s some very good players in this dressing room.
“We’ll stay strong as a unit and come back fighting.”
But England arguably face a tougher assignment reversing their fortunes Down Under and sealing a fourth straight Ashes series based on their Gabba capitulation.
Left arm quick Mitchell Johnson took nine wickets for the match to help rout England for 136 and 179 in Brisbane.
In the first innings they lost 6-9 – their worst Test collapse since 1990 – and 4-9 in the second dig on the bouncy Gabba deck.
All will walk away from Brisbane with scars – but it seems Trott appears to require the most healing ahead of Adelaide.
Twice Trott fell victim to a Johnson short ball in Brisbane, prompting Australian opener David Warner to describe him as “weak” with “scared eyes”.
He was the shell of a man who stood tall to help seal their historic win in India.
If Cook was worried about his No.3 batsman, he hid it well on Sunday.
“He’s had a tough game he knows that,” he said.
“You have to remember the guy is class though. A very good player, had a blip but he’s a class player and class players bounce back.
“I think we all need to be honest with each other as a group … all 11 need to improve.”
Asked if he thought Trott was scared of him, Johnson said: “He’s been thinking about the short ball from what I have seen in the nets.
“I don’t know.
“There were a couple of nice ones that were zinging past his nose and as a fast bowler you give a bit of a stare and a look in the eyes.
“I don’t know, there might have been a little bit of fear there maybe – but you would have to ask him that.
“I will keep doing it, it’s working.”