Allan Johnston believes Tuesday night’s 1-0 defeat to Hamilton was the “worst performance of the season” as the Doonhamers slipped to eighth in the table.
As he prepares to face his old club Kilmarnock tomorrow, the Queens boss is looking for a much-improved performance from his team.
And as the Palmerston side head to Rugby Park to face the Championship leaders, the gaffer is aware they have to do more than just turn up.
He said: “It was probably the worst performance of the season as we are miles better than that.
“Looking around, apart from Sol (Brynn), I would say nobody did as well as they should’ve.
“Kilmarnock have the strongest squad and should run away with the league. We will go there and be positive and try to get something from the game. We know it will be tough as they will come out all guns blazing being at home but we have to make sure it is an improved performance.”
He added: “It’s a hard league and we are playing top teams, Hamilton were in the Premiership last year, they’ve got Premiership players, you could see that and if you let them play they are good players. We have to be better, we have to be ruthless and do better at the ugly side of the game.”
Having been “unlucky” in previous matches, the manager found it hard to defend the performance of his side as Andy Ryan earned Accies a 1-0 win.
Johnston said: “I would say if we played well and were unlucky but we got what we deserved – nothing.
“We were second best all over the pitch and the goal summed up the night. We didn’t match the run, people running off people far too easy. We were really poor, and the goal kills us and we got what we deserved.
Queens will be without forward Innes Cameron for the game as he can’t play against his parent club.
