Ottawa Fury wanted desperately to give the home fans something to cheer about Sunday after a tough week in the capital.

While everyone's heart was in the right place, the product on the field was sorely lacking as Fury turned in one of its ugliest efforts of the season in a 2-1 loss to expansion cousins Indy Eleven.

Only Oliver, coming in as a second-half substitution, was able to beat Indy goalkeeper Kristian Nicht, but the score came in injury time and it was too little, too late for Ottawa.

Indy's Jhulliam pounced on an uncharacteristic Ryan Richter mistake and beat keeper Romuald Peiser in the 29th minute. Victor Pineda scored in the 89th minute for what would prove to be the winner.

While Ottawa has lost games this season where the effort level was commended by coach Marc Dos Santos, Sunday was not one of those games as Fury couldn't get anything going most of the night.

The display left Dos Santos fuming after the final whistle in a game that ended with captain Richie Ryan being sent off with tempers boiling over in the dying seconds.

"It was terrible," Dos Santos said, pointing out last weekend's 2-0 loss to Edmonton. "The last 180 minutes at TD Place were very bad."

While the coach acknowledged some players may have had a hard time getting up for what amounted to a meaningless game in the standings, he rejected that excuse and said there were other issues that needed fixing.

"I think there's a lack of culture and it's a lack of professionalism in my opinion," Dos Santos said. "We're going to have to make changes, that's for sure.

"We have fans, we have people that still buy tickets (if) you don't make it to the playoffs. (The fans) deserve that we don't come out and play like we've been playing."

While Dos Santos struggled to come up with even the smallest positive in his team's game, he also gave credit to Indy, a side that has been on fire with back-to-back wins against the NASL's two best teams in Minnesota and San Antonio.

"They improved a lot defensively," Dos Santos said.

As for his own side, Dos Santos shrugged.

"We felt in some moments we were able to have position in their half, but overall, it was bad," he said. "I can't be hear telling you (media) positives. I'm not a liar."

Defender Mason Trafford was at a loss to explain the performance and echoed Dos Santos' disappointment in the show they gave the fans.

"It just felt like we couldn't really connect today," he said. "We couldn't really get in behind or really penetrate with our passes. We were just a bit off, I don't know what it was."

Trafford pointed to Ryan's sending off at the end to illustrate the passion the players have playing at home, even though they had been previously eliminated from playoff contention.

"That means we care and that is because we care," he said. "It happens sometimes."

Following Sunday's match, the players remained on the pitch to greet fans. Of those, 18 people, including season ticket holders, were given the jerseys off the backs of the Fury players.

Fury closes out the regular season in Fort Lauderdale next week as they take on the Strikers.

Twitter: @chrishofley