Eight games into the Premiership season and still chasing their first victory.
For six of the first seven matches, Dundee had come away from defeats or draws feeling they deserved more for their efforts.
The eighth contest, however, there was no more of that rueful disappointment from the Dark Blues.
Second-best for much of the contest at McDiarmid Park, a poor Dundee showing was swept aside by St Johnstone in a 3-1 victory.
With a two-week international break ahead, that has left some soul searching to be done at Dens Park.
The league’s bottom-placed side need to be woken from their slumber before their predicament becomes critical.
“Up until Saturday we’ve been playing well, creating lots of chances, limiting the chances of other teams and coming away from games feeling hard done by,” said striker Cillian Sheridan, who came off the bench at half-time.
“Saturday was the first day where we really have to wake up.
“This isn’t like the games before. We have to come away and really look at ourselves.
“Saturday was the worst we’ve been this season. We didn’t do anything we had been doing in the games beforehand.
“We have to take what’s coming our way now in terms of analysis of the game and what we didn’t do.
“It’s definitely the first time we can’t say anything positive about a game.”
‘We shot ourselves in the foot’
Sheridan has made just one league start since signing in the summer and watched on again from the bench as Dundee fell 2-0 behind in the first half.
He made his seventh appearance of the season at the break and made an impact in the second period, earning the only sliver of praise for the team performance from boss James McPake.
The contest, however, was ended just 30 seconds after the restart as Stevie May made it 3-0.
“We shot ourselves in the foot to really give ourselves decent chance to get back into it,” Sheridan added.
“Fair enough we finished the game with a little bit of pressure on their goal but it was too little, too late at that stage.
“We have to be ready for the analysis of the game because there will be a lot of things to pick out.
“We definitely have to make things harder for teams. In this league you can’t give teams head starts.”
3 talking points from Dundee’s dispiriting defeat at St Johnstone