Australia captain Michael Clarke has admitted that his side have been "outplayed" by England this summer.
England ensured that they retained the Ashes during the third Test last week before going on to win the series outright with a dramatic 74-run victory at Chester-le-Street this evening.
It is the third consecutive Ashes series win for England, and Clarke believes that their "excellent" preparation makes the defeat even harder to take.
"It's extremely disappointing - I guess I know now what it feels like to lose an Ashes series as a captain," he told reporters.
"The most difficult thing to take is that our preparation and training has been excellent - I can't ask for anything more from our players in regards to preparation. At the moment, we are being outplayed."
England took nine wickets in the evening session on day four of the fourth Test to move into an unassailable 3-0 series lead with one match still to play.
