Dundee boss Jim McIntyre rued the glorious chance missed by Ethan Robson as his team lost 2-0 to St Johnstone.
McIntyre felt the Dark Blues at least showed some fight last night, even though goals from Callum Hendry and Matty Kennedy kept the three points at McDiarmid Park.
They did have chances – Robson’s was the pick of the bunch – and didn’t lose any ground on Hamilton Accies or St Mirren, as both of their relegation rivals also lost.
McIntyre said: “We wanted to show a reaction and I felt we did that in terms of how we approached the game.
“Right now we’re not getting both sides right. We need to be better in both boxes.
“For the first goal there was a simple cross to the back post and Hors (James Horsfield) switched off.
“When you are on a run like this it can kill the confidence.
“The players kept at it second half and we got a brilliant chance through Robson.
“He knows he should score and it was one of the better moves of the match.
“Then we lost another goal.
“It was great individual play from Kennedy but that was the story of the match – they took their chances at key times and we didn’t.
“I can’t fault their effort and endeavour but the quality to put the ball in the net and keep it out the net is where we’ve let ourselves down and it’s sore.
“I’ve still got faith and we’ve not lost any ground.”
Victorious Saints boss Tommy Wright was delighted that his men gave him a response after their weekend loss at Motherwell.
He said: “They’ve had a tough time and it was a perfect response.
“I asked for energy and tempo.
“I knew it would be an open game because with the situation they’re in we knew they wanted to win.
“There could have been a lot more goals at both ends but fortunately we got the first goal.
“Once the first five minutes of the second were over and we got the second goal the game was over.
“We’re now sitting on 13 wins, we only had 12 last year.
“We’re on 44 points when we only had 38 at this stage last year.
“So even in this ‘terrible’ season there are some positives to take.”