Dundee United skipper Sean Dillon was left to relate a depressingly familiar tale of woe following Saturday’s latest setback for his side against Hamilton.
However, the popular Irishman sees definite signs of improvement for the Tangerines under boss Mixu Paatelainen.
United lost their fourth game in a row, and their second in a week at home, against Accies despite once again taking the lead.
Dillon said: “It is just so frustrating. You are getting the same answers out of me all the time at the moment.
“But I think you can see there are improvements being made the way we played today. Second half, we didn’t get it down as much as we would have liked to but we still created a lot of chances.
“However, we have conceded another two bad goals. So, as much as it is disappointing that we didn’t take our opportunities up front, we have let in another two poor goals.
“Yes, I am repeating myself but we are still positive about things.”
Dillon added: “I am not sure how many times we have only conceded one this season.
“When we have conceded one we have generally let in a second and that has been the case in the last two weeks anyway.
“That is disappointing but it is just something we need to put right. It is probably a bit of both us not being strong enough after conceding a goal and then the other team getting their tails up it is just major disappointments at the moment.”
Dillon insisted that while results have been desperately disappointing, the players and their manager have been working tirelessly to put things right.
He said: “You have to be critical and you also have to be fair about things.
“You are never going to be able to put things right if you don’t look at the faults and the negatives.
“But he (Paatelainen) is also very positive about things as well.
“So when we need to go through all the video analysis and on the pitch in the build-up to a game during the week, he looks at all aspects of it and how to put things right, how to continue what has been going right.
“He works very hard on the training pitch and I think it is showing that he is definitely getting his message across to the boys in the way we are playing.
“But again, we have failed to take our chances and not gone two up on a couple of occasions against Hamilton.
“Like I said, the two we conceded are really bad goals.”
The Tannadice side have only won once in seven games since Paatelainen took over last month and, when asked if “crisis” was too strong a word to describe their situation, the manager admitted: “No, I don’t think it is.
“We are not winning matches, we are losing matches. Even draws are valuable where we are in the league table.
“But it looks as if as soon as the opponent scores one goal, we are an easy target after that.
“We need to have stronger characters and make sure everybody lifts each other and do things right as we did for most of the match.
“When you play like that, you must win the game. When you score an own goal, it was unbelievable. After that, one or two players got a bit shaky and confidence gets a hit.
“At the same time, we should have put this game to bed a long time before that.”