Saints skipper Joe Shaughnessy says the Buddies were fairly beaten in the end by Hearts as they were punished for a slow start.
Jim Goodwin’s men lost out to the Jambos after goals from Andy Halliday and Liam Boyce.
Shaughnessy got a goal back for St Mirren with five minutes remaining but a red card for striker Kristian Dennis immediately afterwards put an end to the game after he clashed into Peter Haring.
And the big defender admitted at full time that it was a frustrating day all round for the Paisley side.
He told Express Sport: “We were looking to win the game.
“In the first half we started off slow and we didn’t get to grips with their shape I don’t think.
“We were off it for 20 minutes or so and then we were alright.
“They never caused us too many problems but we didn’t do enough to win the game ourselves.
“We didn’t trouble their goalie too much either, so it was probably a fair result in the end.
“When we got ourselves back into the game I thought we had a chance to get a draw but then we killed ourselves with the red card.”
Saints were widely praised defensively last season, keeping a total of ten Premiership clean sheets, while not scoring enough goals for their liking.
This season, though early on, it seems to be the opposite problem with St Mirren having scored three times in their first two games but having conceded four.
And while he knows that it’s only small changes that they need to make, Shaughnessy insists they need to stop leaking goals.
He continued: ”We spoke about it in the dressing room that it is disappointing to lose two goals again.
“Last season we were a lot more solid and less of a threat up front.
“We are probably trying to shift the balance a little bit more to get a few more goals.
“It’s maybe leaving us a little bit more open at the back.
“I don’t like that we have lost two goals against Hearts and four in our first two games of the season.
“It’s something we need to change.
“We knew last year we didn’t get where we wanted as we didn’t score enough goals, so we are trying to get better at one end, but losing a few too many at the other now.
“We all want to improve on last season and see where it takes us.
“We should have maybe won against Dundee, especially when they were down to ten men.
“We could have snuck a draw if we had kept all our men on the pitch against Hearts.
“It’s not like we are getting played off the park and losing four goals.
“We aren’t miles away and it is early in the season so it is a case of ironing out a few things, stop losing stupid goals and getting back to clean sheets.”
