Dundee goal scorer David Clarkson had needed just one touch to light the Dark Blue touchpaper on his Dens career but still left Dingwall demoralised as Ross County picked up their first points of the season.
The former Motherwell, Bristol Rovers and Scotland frontman scooped a Martin Boyle cross in at the near post to cancel out former Dundee United player Michael Gardyne’s early opener for the struggling Staggies.
But in time added on, Darren Maatsen hammered home the winner after Joe Cardle and Liam Boyce linked up.
It was Paul Hartley’s side’s third successive defeat in the space of seven days, with the loss at the Global Energy Stadium coming on the back of derby defeats in both the Premiership and the League Cup.
Clarkson, who penned a Dens Park deal three weeks ago, said: “Obviously coming on and scoring with my first touch was great, especially to get us back into the game. But it all counts for nothing in the end.
“We thought that would maybe be the turning point for us to go and win it, and we possibly could have had we made the right decisions and kicked on from there.
“It was a slack goal to give away, but we will bounce back from this.
“We knew that we weren’t playing well, so to come away with a point we would have been delighted.
“With the standard we’ve set ourselves, we want to start games well and get three points.
“Unfortunately we didn’t do that. We started a bit sloppily and just couldn’t get going. We’ve got to learn from that and take that into the next game.”
County had made dominant starts in the previous two home games under new manager McIntyre, against Motherwell and Hibs, only to lose the first goal.
When an opener of their own finally materialised after 27 minutes, it seemed a corner had been turned.
Yoann Arquin’s deftly-glanced header freed Filip Kiss on the left and the Slovak drilled a low cross to the back post where Michael Gardyne slid in to score.
But there was a familiar sinking feeling around the Global Energy Stadium, against the run of play, after 69 minutes as David Clarkson slid in to score the equaliser from Martin Boyle’s cross ball.
From seeming thoroughly beaten, a revived Dundee might even have snatched a winner.
Instead, County struck in stoppage time to end a rotten run of luck with Joe Cardle finding Liam Boyce in the box.
The Irishman threaded a pass across to the back of the box where Dutchman Darren Maatsen was waiting to thrash home the winner.