Dundee manager Mark McGhee admits his side are all but down as the Dark Blues' battle to beat the drop.
One more point for St Johnstone in the final two games will doom the Dens side to the drop and after they lost 2-0 to St Mirren in Paisley.
The Dees only saving grace this afternoon was a late Livingston equaliser against the Perth men.
It has been a chastening experience for the manager who is yet to get a win after replacing James McPake in February.
And while miracles can and do happen in football, McGhee admitted that could be it.
But before he did, he hit out on BBC Sportsound when asked if he'd seen enough from his side to indicate there had been improvements.
"What do you think?" he shot back. "It's a ridiculous question.
"Of course we didn't. It was nothing like I imagined it would be.
"There have been incremental improvements up until last week and today was a step back.
"The first half was as bad as we've played in half a dozen games."
McGhee says his side will fight to the end but admits they are right up against it.
He said: "As long as it's mathematically possible we won't concede but it's nigh impossible.
"You've got to give St Johnstone respect, they only need one point and I think they will get that point.
"We have to go into the last two games trying to keep our pride, trying to make sure our fans understanding we're still trying, put on a couple of performances that get a result better than today.
"It will feel to them (the players) that they've been relegated.
"We've got to convince them that miracles are possible – we watched Real Madrid the other night get out of jail with the game done.
"So who knows? But it will be our job to pick 11 guys that we feel are prepared to roll up their sleeves and give it another go."
A bizarre mistake from captain Charlie Adam saw the midfield veteran pass straight to St Mirren's Alex Grieve just yards out to score the opener.
But McGhee won't blame him for the result.
He added: "The nature of it was disappointing, it was a huge error and Charlie will take responsibility for that.
"He's done great things for us in the last few years and there comes a point you've got to forgive him.
"We had loads of time to recover from it and weren't able to. That's more disappointing from the fact we lost that goal."
