Kilmarnock boss Derek McInnes insists his side deserve "massive credit" despite their 3-1 defeat to Rangers at Ibrox.
Two late first-half goals from Ross McCausland and Abdallah Sima took the shine off a positive performance in the opening stages from the visitors.
Danny Armstrong pulled one back from the penalty spot for the Rugby Park side but Todd Cantwell ended the game as contest just after the hour mark when he restored Philippe Clement's men's two-goal advantage.
And McInnes was proud of the effort his team put in, while also feeling they could have taken more from the match.
Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland, he said: "For 40 minutes a lot of what we asked for was there. You have to give up possession at times and we defended a bit deeper than we would normally like to do.
"They tried to get in behind us and we kept dealing with that and there was not too much to do, to be honest.
"We probably had the best chance of the first half when Kyle [Vassell] goes through and it is a good save from [Jack] Butland."
Kilmarnock go into the winter break in fourth place in the Scottish Premiership having taken 31 points from their first 22 games.
They have also recorded victories over both Celtic and Rangers at home in the league and McInnes is delighted with side's overall progress.
"We were pleased with a lot of these little things," he continued. "The second goal came from nowhere and regardless of the result today I have been really pleased with the first half of the campaign.
"I think we are getting better and clearly improving so I am not that despondent despite the fact you are never going to be happy when you lose a game of football.
"We are disappointed with one of two things from the game but massive credit to my team."
