Dundee boss Paul Hartley has admitted the need for a win is now urgent.
The Dark Blues remain rooted at the bottom of the Premiership after losing 2-1 at St Johnstone.
It was a deserved success for Saints but the visitors did squander a golden chance to take the lead on 13 minutes when striker Yordi Tiejsse weakly shot into home keeper Zander Clark’s arms from a great position.
It was a costly miss as the hosts went on to take the lead through Steven Anderson on 62 minutes and then a Danny Swanson penalty, with sub Rory Loy getting one back for Dundee late on from the spot.
It was a fifth consecutive loss for the Dark Blues and they have now won just once in 10 league games – on the opening day up at Ross County on August 6 – and have secured only six points.
They meet second-bottom side Partick Thistle at Dens on Wednesday night and that fixture now takes on even greater significance following this latest loss.
Hartley said: “We are in a position where we don’t want to be and we have to turn it quickly.
“That has to start on Wednesday and Partick Thistle is a vital game for us now.
“We are 10 games in and it’s not been good enough.
“It has become a habit now. We can’t keep saying it’s going to turn next week – it has to turn now.
“We are in a fight already and we have to get ourselves out of it.
“I think we know and the players know that they can’t keep saying we’re good enough.
“It is about results now and that has to start on Wednesday.
“If you are on a losing run then you have to start getting worried so we have to make sure we fight on Wednesday.”
Hartley’s players were in contention against Saints in the first half but fell out of the game in the second until the last few minutes as they pushed for an equaliser.
It was too little, too late and that frustrated the manager.
“It was a disappointing second half performance,” added Hartley.
“I felt first half we were OK and had a really good opportunity that we probably should have scored but I feel when we lost that first goal it was a struggle to get back in the game.
“That (miss) probably summed up the last few weeks in terms of us not taking our opportunities.
“There is no use having a two-minute spell at the end of the game. We should be putting on more pressure and we just didn’t do that.”
