Scott Martin admits the manner of Hamilton Accies' defeat to Queen's Park on Saturday was the toughest thing to take as their five-game unbeaten run ground to a halt.
A Connor Shields double plus strikes from Jack Thomson and Aaron Healy gave the Spiders a comfortable 4-1 victory, with Dario Zanatta getting a mere consolation for the hosts.
But having won four of their last five games in the division with some impressive displays, Martin was left gutted by a meek performance from John Rankin's men that saw the lead they worked so hard to earn over bottom side Arbroath reduced to just one point ahead of the sides meeting in South Lanarkshire on Friday night.
The midfielder said: "The disappointment is the manner of the defeat. We had put a good run together and felt we had taken a lot of steps forward, but this was disappointing.
“The preparation was good even though we had a game against Inverness in midweek, that’s not an excuse because everyone was looking forward to the game.
“It’s going to hurt for a couple of days but we need to put it to bed because Friday is absolutely massive for us.
“Hopefully this is just a blip for us.
"I don’t take any positives from the game, I’m gutted at the way we got beat. We just need to put it out of our minds.”
Accies' cause wasn't helped by an injury to skipper Dylan McGowan, who hobbled off with a calf strain after 37 minutes.
And Martin has his fingers crossed the Australian centre-back will be fit for Friday, having played such an integral part in their recent run.
The 25-year-old added: "Big Dylan coming off didn’t help us but we should be clever enough and wise enough to deal with situations like that.
“He’s brought a lot of calmness to the defence with his leadership and he has been brilliant since he came in, so that didn't help the two other boys at the back [Fergus Owens and Dan O'Reilly].
"You miss him when he's not on the park but someone else has to take on the leadership role when he’s not there. Hopefully he is okay for Friday."
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