St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright had been wanting his players to lay down a marker for the rest of the campaign.
With three home games and a trip to face Rangers in Glasgow teed-up in the wake of an international break, he was eager to build on solid early season foundations against a Kilmarnock side that posed problems last term, along with other bottom-six opposition.
But hopes that Saints would take care of a club lurking in the lower half of the table evaporated due to decent goalkeeping, wayward finishing, and a lacklustre second-half performance (click here for full match report).
Killie proved resilient and rode their luck before the break.
They then cashed in from their solitary corner 14 minutes from the end, when Jordan Jones’ delivery evaded a posse of players at the front post and early substitute Scott Boyd bundled the loose ball into the net from close range.
The defender replaced broken-nose victim Jonathan Burn and made an impact to end Killie’s six-game run without a win dating back to mid-August.
It was a setback for Saints, who had been overtaken by Rangers following the Ibrox club’s Friday night win in Inverness, and all the more frustrating as they created by far the best openings in a largely scrappy encounter.
It was particularly irritating for captain Steven Anderson, who was denied a first-half penalty when he seemed to be illegally bumped to the ground by Boyd while contesting a corner kick.
The Perth defender said: “My initial reaction was that he barged me. But I spoke to the ref and he said there wasn’t much in it.
“But why would I go down when I had the run on him? To be fair, Boydie did smile. But that’s by the by. We got beaten and that is the most frustrating thing.
“We looked at how many points we dropped last year playing the so-called bottom six but every game is difficult in this league, home or away.
“I thought we were the better team overall. We just didn’t have that cutting edge in front of goal. If we had got a draw it would have been disappointing.
“They got lucky with one cleared off the line, and keeper Jamie MacDonald had a few good saves as well.
“They only had one corner and the goal came from my man. Boydie said it just hit off him and went in.”
In the closing minutes Perth substitute Graham Cummins raised home hopes of salvaging a point but pulled his shot, allowing a stretched defence to mop up the danger.
That was a rare second-half opening as neither side posed a serious threat in the final third.
But while dominating the first period, Saints should have tested the resolve of a side that leaked 10 goals in games against Celtic and Aberdeen before the international break.
The closest they came was in the 37th minute when Steven MacLean latched on to Anderson’s deft touch to scramble a close-range touch beyond the reach of Killie’s keeper. But Perth celebrations were quickly stifled by an assistant’s offside flag. It was a close call.
Earlier, MacDonald had kept the scoreline blank. In the 19th minute Richard Foster’s driven cross picked out Liam Craig, and the midfielder’s downward header from 16 yards looked destined for the net before the keeper flung himself full-length to touch it around the post.
Within 60 seconds winger Danny Swanson triggered a flowing move which resulted in the keeper getting a vital touch to prevent Blair Alston’s shot finding the far corner from Chris Kane’s lay-off.
The Ayrshire side only occasionally threatened on the counter, seeking to exploit the pace of winger Jones. But twice there were no takers after he had dashed to the byline.
Before the interval Murray Davidson squeezed a shot wide from a promising position after a neat interchange with Alston.
But apart from the late Cummins miscue, Saints were unable to breach the resolute Killie defence.
Manager Wright said: “We had chances in the first half but didn’t take them. Then we played into their hands in the second half in terms of the tempo the game was played at.
“With the amount of possession we had, we are disappointed to lose the game.
“Keeper Zander Clark didn’t have a save to make, but we’ve done that plenty of times to teams so we will take it on the chin and bounce back.
“It was a barge on Steven Anderson but you get some and others you don’t.
“We’ve got to look at ourselves and we have to be better than we were second half. We have only ourselves to blame.”