Ross County manager Owen Coyle described ending the year bottom of the Premiership as a “horrible” feeling.
County fell three points adrift of Partick Thistle following their 2-0 defeat against the Jags at Firhill on Saturday, with their next league match away to Motherwell on January 24.
Coyle says he understands the frustrations of supporters, following a run of nine matches without a victory, and he added: “What was disappointing was to lose the first goal the way we did.
“We were in control of the first half and looked comfortable and then our skipper makes a mess of his pass back towards Scott Fox.
“He had a great chance to make amends and he misses a sitter and he is hurting right now.
“The disappointing thing for me was that we never got to the level of the first half when we came out in the second-half. It was nowhere near good enough from us.
“We huffed and puffed a bit, we still had 45 minutes to get back in the game. But we tried to force the issue and we got caught with the second one.
“It is a disappointing day – a horrible day, especially when we had a lot of fans down here.”
Thistle manager Alan Archibald was delighted with the psychological boost of moving off bottom spot just before the winter break, and he said: “There wasn’t a lot in the first half and it took a silly mistake to get us in front. The first goal is always vital so we were delighted with that and a professional second-half performance.
“We wanted to get off the bottom and it’s important we regroup after the break. We have six players missing and we’ve had assurances that at least two or three of them will be back for the Scottish Cup game against Queen of the South.”