Dumbarton fell to the foot of the League One table after defeat to Queen of the South.
Goals from Lewis O’Donnell and Michael Hewitt early in each half consigned the Sons to a second straight loss, with skipper Mark Durnan’s red card compounding a bad day at the office.
And boss Stevie Farrell admitted his side have to sharpen up in both boxes – after again having more attempts than their opponents, but failing to find the net for the third time in four games.
He said: “We had a really honest chat with the players. A lot of things we are doing are good. But ultimately it’s not good enough. In both boxes we have got to be better.
“In two weeks we’ve created a frightening number of chances. But we’ve not scored any. We’ve got to take ownership of that collectively. It’s not good enough.
“Defensively we’ve lost a goal in the first 15 minutes of the first-half and another within five minutes of the second.
“We’ve not shown any composure and we’ve lost two really poor goals.”
Farrell made just one change to the side which had lost to Montrose a week earlier, despite dominating, as Kalvin Orsi replaced Jinky Hilton.
The opening 20 minutes saw Queens control the game, with Kai Kennedy sclaffing wide, before the former Rangers youngster saw his inviting cross headed high over the bar by Matty Douglas.
Queens then almost gifted Sons an opening goal as keeper Ross Stewart blasted a clearance straight off Craig McGuffie, but the stopper reacted well to scamper back to his line and deny the Dumbarton attacker from a narrow angle.
Two minutes later the hosts were ahead.
After Sons had failed on a handful of occasions to clear their box, the ball dropped to Lewis O’Donnell on the edge of the area – and he curled a perfect strike beyond Brett Long and into the top corner.
That looked to spark Sons into life, with former Queens man Michael Ruth twice going close after sharp breaks.
The home dugout was then left fuming as Finlay Gray appeared to be brought down after a surging run from his own half into the penalty box – only for referee Gary Hanvidge to wave away the appeals.
As the game moved towards half-time Sons set up camp in the Queens half.
Matty Shiels fired straight at Ross Stewart after opening up space on the edge of the area, before Ruth fired wide of the keeper’s far post.
A surging Kalvin Orsi run ended with the winger blazing over, before Stewart saved smartly from Craig McGuffie.
Then came the chance Sons had been waiting for.
Tenacious play from Shiels saw him cross for Ruth, but from point-blank range the forward missed the target with a header.
After an extended half-time following an injury to referee Hanvidge, Queens then hit Sons with a sucker punch,
A patient move down their left saw the ball eventually worked to the opposite side full-back Mikey Hewitt by Kai Kennedy, and he slotted beyond Long.
Finlay Gray should’ve cut the deficit shortly after as he met Shiels’ at the far post, but hit the side netting – before Queens’ Leighton McIntosh blazed over a great chance to seal the points on the break.
On 72 minutes Sons found themselves down to 10 men as skipper Mark Durnan tripped McIntosh as he burst in on goal. Despite furious claims for an offside aimed at the Queens supporter who had taken over as an assistant. Kai Kennedy cracked the bar from the resulting free-kick.
A bad day almost got even worse when Ethan Brown was adjudged to have fouled McIntosh in the box, but the forward elected to go straight down the middle with his penalty and Brett Long blocked it.
And McIntosh was again left cursing Long in injury time as the keeper denied the veteran one-on-one.