Angry Keith Lasley admits Motherwell's derby day horror show has done him no favours in a bid to become permanent manager.
And he insisted there will be changes on the field in January no matter what after their heaviest defeat to Hamilton for six years.
Lasley stepped up to take the reins after Stephen Robinson's shock resignation in midweek, but any hopes of a fresh start in the new year were shot down by Hamilton's best display of the season in a 3-0 win.
Goals from Lee Hodson, Ross Callachan and Callum Smith made it 10 games without a win for the Steelmen, sending them to the bottom of the table alongside Ross County.
And for Lasley, who has spent the vast majority of his career at the club as a player and coach, couldn't hide his pain after a bruising defeat that could scupper his hopes of succeeding Robinson.
Asked what the result means for his chances, he said: "I don't think it helps, I'm going to be honest about that.
"But I hope it's not the defining factor.
"I don't want to speak too much about the longer term because my thoughts really are on the short-term to be honest, but I'm more gutted for the fans and everyone connected with the club.
"It's been a difficult week.
"I've been here a long time, my feeling for the club is so strong and I'm really angry and gutted about that today.
"Things that are going to happen further down the line will happen.
"My main concern is turning this round in the short term and giving our fans something to be proud of.
"But that wasn't good enough and that's the bottom line.
"I've had a couple of days to work with the players and pick them up, it's been a difficult week, but we need to be better than that.
"We felt today was a chance to change that narrative, try and come out of of it with a positivity but it wasn't to be.
"I think we had a couple of chances, particularly Tony Watt's chance early in the game where, if you take that, things could be different.
"But it's something we've struggled with all reason to be honest.
"In terms of going behind and not punching back - that gets to me.
"Since I've been at the football club something we've always had the ability to do is fight and overcome adversity, but that's not quite happening at the moment."
Motherwell's last win came in October with a 2-0 win away to Livingston and Lasley says both he and Robinson had already been working hard behind the scene to recruit new players in the transfer window.
And the caretaker boss says he will be making moves to bolster the squad ahead of a run of fixtures that sees 'Well travel to St Mirren next weekend before hosting runway league leaders Rangers on January 17.
He added: "There needs to be changes there - there's no doubt about that - and January will give us the opportunity to do that.
"At the same time, there's still boys in there that I really believe in and really know that they have this club at heart.
"There's still good players in there, but we are on the run we are on at the moemnt and it's up to me and the staff to drive things forward and get the best out of them starting next week at St Mirren.
"I was already in the process of looking at targets with Stephen because there was a need there to freshen things up.
"It is an ongoing process and we'll see what happens with that."
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