Player manager Wullie Gibson admitted he has been too full of praise for his Queens team.
He heaped credit on the players after a bright start to his tenure in charge, but after two defeats on the trot to Partick Thistle and Raith Rovers, Gibson was stinging in his criticism.
He said: “I said to the boys that I had maybe been too positive.
“I have been praising them since I came in with the way they have got behind me and for their attitude and the way they’ve been in training and obviously the results have come with it.
“But maybe a few of them expected to just turn up (against Raith) and win which is disappointing because that’s not going to happen in this league, or any other league.
“I don’t think we deserved much out of the game to be honest. So we dust ourselves down and look forward to next weekend at Kilmarnock which is another hard test for us.”
Gibson was bitterly disappointed at Raith’s winner and insisted: “We can do better,
“In terms of their goal, we didn’t stop the cross which is knocked down in the middle of the box to the boy for the first shot then they score.”
The team chief came close to levelling in the second half with a curling free-kick which produced a flying, one-handed save from ex-Queens shot stopper Jamie MacDonald.
Gibson said: “Jamie has been doing that for years,
“He did it when he was here at Queens and he is an excellent goalie. I used the wall to curl it around and hoping he wouldn’t see it and it would creep in.
“But Jamie’s got a hand to it and it is one of them, it’s a good save and is almost expected of him.
Queens now sit second bottom of the table ahead of Dunfermline and now face the daunting prospect of tackling Kilmarnock at Rugby Park after they surged top following their Friday night win at Ayr.