Hamilton Accies boss John Rankin says his side lacked the energy and enthusiasm that had made them the form team in the Championship until leaders Queen's Park ended their five-game unbeaten streak.
Connor Shields bagged a brace after Jack Thomson and Aaron Healy had already fired past Accies, who grabbed a consolation through substitute Dario Zanatta in the 4-1 defeat.
And Rankin reckoned the drive and determination that had got them off the bottom of the Championship with victory over Inverness in midweek was sorely lacking as they were brushed aside on their home patch.
The gap at the bottom from Arbroath has been cut to just a point ahead of the sides meet at New Douglas Park on Friday night and Rankin sighed: "I'm disappointed with the result but I am disappointed more so with the overall performance.
"We lacked energy, we lacked enthusiasm at times, we looked leggy, which I'm disappointed in.
"It was a hard week being asked to go Tuesday-Saturday with the amount of energy we put into both games but I still felt we could have had more in the tank that that today.
"I thought in the first half we didn't look like we had any attacking belief or willingness to get forward, which is disappointing.
"We defended reasonably well in the first half and then the goal comes from us letting them inside, letting them into the danger area, which we had been working really hard on stopping them from doing that of late.
"In the second half I thought we could have attacked and caused problems with the system we were in at that time, but the second goal kills the game.
"At that point the heads went down but we came back to 3-1 and at that point JP has a really good chance, and if he scores that it would have been game on.
"So I'm disappointed by that aspect.
"But the spirit that has been there the last seven or eight weeks was lacking when we went a goal down."
Rankin also took aim at his substitutes - goalscorer Zanatta excluded - for their failure to positively impact the game.
He added: "We were looking for a spark today.
"Our subs have made a massive impact in games recently and today they didn't do it, other than Dario who came on and scored.
"I felt the subs let us down in terms of making an impact.
"They need to be ready to go on, whether it is the 10th minute or later in the game they need to make an impact for us."
Accies were forced to go to their bench early on when captain Dylan McGowan hobbled off after just 37 minutes with a calf problem.
He could be a doubt with his injury being assessed over the weekend and Rankin says he will wrap the Australian defender in cotton wool ahead of Friday's huge clash with bottom of the table Arbroath.
"I think it was more precautionary him coming off," Rankin revealed.
"It was a pass he received and he felt a wee twinge. I don't think he wanted to take any risks.
"Dylan hadn't played a lot of minutes in the first part of the season so his minutes we need to manage as well. Asking him to go Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday - and what I think has been seven games in the last 28 days - takes its toll.
"It [him coming off] impacted us because he has been our leader for the last seven or eight games and been a hugely influential figure, but when you look at others around him, he's led them for a long time so now they need to take responsibility and stand up.
"That's how I look at it.
"But when he came off I found the pitch quiet. Not only did we lose his voice, I felt we lost a number of voices.
"And at that stage in the game, we need characters. We need people to stand up.
"A few of us looked leggy but we need to ready to go again.
"We'll wrap a few of them up in cotton wool and be ready to go fight our corner on Friday."
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