James McPake admitted his Dundee side “looked like a Championship team” as they fell to a dismal 3-1 defeat at St Johnstone.
Two first-half goals from Chris Kane were added to by a Stevie May strike seconds after the restart to put Saints in cruise control at McDiarmid Park.
Ryan Sweeney would get a goal back to end the Dark Blues’ five-match goalscoring drought but it was too little too late.
‘Players need to look in the mirror’
Dens boss McPake was restricted to taking a place in the stand after picking up a red card last weekend after the 1-0 home defeat to Rangers.
He wasn’t at all happy with what he saw from there, however, as his team remain rooted to the bottom of the Premiership.
“I’m not throwing them under the bus because I made a stupid mistake last week, but the players need to look themselves in the mirror,” McPake said.
“Particularly tonight.
“It was down to whoever wanted it more, simple as that. St Johnstone rolled their sleeves up, they wanted it more and they cut us open at will.
“Our defence as a team was ridiculously poor.
“It doesn’t show any bravery when you are 3-0 down to go and play.
“We created chances and to be fair to Cillian Sheridan, he caused them bother when he came on.
“Other than that, I’m struggling to find positives if I’m honest.”
‘Fans have every right to be unhappy’
The travelling away support made their feelings clear at half-time and again as the game came to a close.
And McPake admits the fans deserve more from their team.
“The fans have every right to not be happy, if I was a fan in there I would be making my frustration clear because that is not good enough,” he added.
“If that is what they are paying for to come and watch then I would not be paying to come and watch, especially that first half.”
‘Championship team’
The reverse sees Dundee head into the second international break of the season still searching for their first league win of the season.
Next up is Aberdeen in a fortnight and McPake says there will be plenty of hard work done between now and then.
“These guys have given me everything but today is probably the first time since Ayr at Dens in March where I can say that was nowhere near good enough,” he said.
“It’s not the Championship, no disrespect, we were against much better opposition.
“And I backed them. I backed them to the hilt. Take Celtic away, but other than that today is the worst I have felt.
“Today we looked like a Championship team if I am being honest.
“The good thing is we have two weeks to work on things, and there’s a lot to work on.
“We have time to get a wee bit of freshness back.”
Dundee skipper Charlie Adam ruled out for St Johnstone clash – but has set return target