St Johnstone skipper Dave Mackay admits his milestone 150th appearance for the club was one to forget.
The experienced defender led out Saints at Tynecastle on Tuesday night with hopes that a win against Hearts would propel the Perth side up to third in the SPL table.
Instead, their dreams were shattered as the Jambos took the game by the scruff of the neck and ran out 2-0 winners.
Mackay admitted he was bitterly disappointed by the performance and the result, especially after Saints dropped two points last week against 10-man Dundee.
And he insists the McDiarmid Park players cannot afford any more slip-ups against Kilmarnock as they look to secure a top six finish.
He said: “The performance against Hearts was one of the worst of the season, no doubt about it. We were way off the pace and never really got going.
“It was bitterly disappointing because it came on the back of dropping those two points at Dundee in a game we should have seen out.
“Every time we have a chance to go third or even second we seem to blow it. We knew where a win would take us but we let ourselves down badly.
“It is so frustrating. It was my 150th appearance for the club and not the way you would want to mark a milestone like that. It was a game to forget.
“We maybe have to go back to basics, concentrating winning individual battles and being solid as a unit defensively.”
“I hope we haven’t started thinking we can win games without grafting and getting in about teams. I don’t think that explains the last two games.”
St Johnstone enjoyed a European adventure at the start of this season when they played Turkish side Eskisehirspor in a Europa League qualifying round.
The Saints fans already have their sights set on another foreign adventure but Mackay insists the players simply have to focus on getting into the top six first.
“We know that after putting ourselves in such a strong position anything but qualifying for the top six will be seen as a failure. There are three games left before the split and we have played a game more than the other teams.
“We certainly can’t afford to lose to Kilmarnock at home this weekend. They would go level on points with us, and have a game up their sleeve.
“We have to react positively to the defeat against Hearts. We know we have to be so much better.”
Mackay’s manager Steve Lomas insists he has no fears that his side will bounce back strongly.
He said: “The boys have been good at that in the past when we haven’t played well so we are looking for that against Killie, who are a decent team with a lot of attacking threats.
“I think there will be a real determination to put things right. One thing we have is good honesty about our group. You don’t have to tell them at times when they haven’t performed and we didn’t.
“Paddy Cregg is suspended for the Kilmarnock game and Frazer Wright is touch and go with tendinitis. Mehdi Abeid came off early on against Hearts but it was a tactical change to get someone up front.”
Meanwhile, Lomas admitted he has his eye on Dundee defender Brian Easton, who will be out of contract at Dens this summer but he insisted that with doubts over next season’s budget, that is as far as his interest has extended.