Frustrated Dundee boss Jim McIntyre insisted his side did not deserve to lose 1-0 at home to Motherwell as the Dark Blues missed the chance to clamber clear of the relegation spots.
The Dens Park side dominated Motherwell but paid the price when defender Ryan Inniss conceded a penalty after diving into a needless tackle on Elliott Frear.
David Turnbull tucked home the penalty on the hour to hand Stephen Robinson's side their third straight Ladbrokes Premiership win.
The victory moved the Fir Park side 14 points clear of second-bottom Dundee and the drop zone.
But while McIntyre saw plenty to be optimistic about, he admitted his side can no longer afford to pass up golden opportunities.
"To say it was frustrating is stating the obvious because we put so much into the game," said McIntyre.
"We didn't deserve to lose that game, in my opinion, we deserved to win it.
"But we didn't punish Motherwell in the first half when we were on top and paid the price for a bad decision in our own penalty box.
"The big man (Inniss) is honest enough to put his hands up because there was no need to go to ground.
"In our position, we need points so you have to make better decisions and convert the pressure into points.
"But that's the way I want my teams to play – we played with energy, we battled and we created chances. You have to take them though.
"So there are plenty of positives to take from the way we played. It's just about getting that decision-making a bit better."
Well remain in ninth and Robinson was delighted to see his side match Dundee's determination.
He said: "That's our third league win in a row which is great. It was a different performance to Wednesday night.
"We were very well organised defensively, we showed real discipline and defended when we needed to defend.
"We had a couple of chances that we should have made better decisions with higher up the pitch but I'm really pleased with the performance.
"Dundee are a tough team fighting for their lives. Jim has made a lot of changes and you can see his players running and scrapping, making things extraordinarily hard for us.
"I'm really pleased we stood up to that."
ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'});
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Andy Newport, Press Association Sport');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', 'e7b23c5d-e5d2-4833-9012-16e1f9c80f9d');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:club-news,paservice:sport:football,paservice:sport:match-reports');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'McIntyre frustrated after Dundee lose to Motherwell'});
