David Martindale blasted an “insipid” performance from his Livingston side after lowly Dunfermline ended their unbeaten start to the Championship campaign on Tuesday night.
The Lions went into the clash at East End Park looking to close the gap on leaders Falkirk at the summit, but they remain four points adrift in second place after lowly Pars inflicted a 3-0 defeat.
Dunfermline broke the deadlock after just eight minutes when Chris Kane fired home after Jerome Prior had saved his initial effort.
Kyle Benedictus headed home a David Wotherspoon cross early in the second half, before Kane grabbed his second of the night in 71 minutes from another Wotherspoon delivery.
And Martindale said: “It was terrible. I don’t think we’ve started the last couple of games well but that was probably the worst we’ve played all season. You are not going to win any games of football starting like that.
“We don’t defend two set-plays – we’ve been absolutely magnificent at that this season – and that is the first goals we’ve lost from set-plays.
“We get them in at half-time and we didn’t start the second half too badly, but then we give away a terrible corner, in terms of the passage of play that leads to it, and then we don’t defend it.
“I don’t want to be too harsh on the players because I think that is something we’ve done well on in previous games, but I think we got out-fought.
“We didn’t get enough first contacts and we definitely didn’t get enough second contacts so it was a passive and insipid performance.
“Our decision making all over the park was a bit off.
“If you don’t do the basics, you are going to lose games of football.
“There’s a way to lose a game of football and I think we felt a wee bit sorry for ourselves at 3-0 and just kind of petered away.”
The Lions now host fourth-place Queen’s Park on Saturday looking to get back to winning ways after a 10-game unbeaten streak.
Martindale added: “I knew we were going to lose games of football. Did I think it would take us until matchday 11 before we lost? No.
“We’ve got to find a way to win the next game. We’ve not got any divine right to do that, but hopefully the fans can appreciate the run up to now.”