Proud Dundee boss Mark McGhee insists his players were blameless as champions Rangers launched a late show to secure three points at Dens Park.
The Premiership 's bottom side were ahead for the most of the match through Christie Elliott but second half strikes from Aaron Ramsey and Connor Goldson earned the visitors the win.
McGhee's side are four points adrift of St Johnstone but he believes there was plenty to be encouraged about before Rangers' "inevitable" win.
The 64-year-old refused to rue his side's luck to stay firm in the closing stages and launched an impassioned defence of the tactical display against Gio van Bronckhorst's side.
Speaking to Sky Sports, the Dundee boss said: "It was tough to take but we are realistic as well.
"We put a lot of effort into the early part of the game, I thought we played pretty well, our tactics, our strategy nullified Rangers.
"You can say what you like, that they never played well, I heard the lads, we never let them play well.
"But, unfortunately, we go into the second half, a couple of injuries, we start to run out of energy, they pile on the subs, we don't have that strength in depth and can't maintain the level of performance.
"So we end up losing the game in the latter stages, there's nothing we can do about it.
"I don't think we can give an ounce more than we gave, we couldn't have done tactically, we couldn't have done in terms of effort, or concentration.
"In that last 20 minutes there was an inevitability about it that we can do nothing about."
