Jack Ross admitted last night's defeat to Morton at Cappielow last night wasn't good enough.
Saints fell to a 3-1 defeat in the Renfrewshire derby after first half goals from Thomas O'Ware and Ross Forbes were added to by a second half strike from Gary Oliver for the home team.
Defender Ben Gordon, recalled by Ross from his emergency loan at Alloa, got his first goal for St Mirren near the death but it wasn't enough to mount what would have been an unlikely comeback.
The manager believes that Saints failed to match Morton's desire to win the match and it is up to himself and the players to work on that.
Speaking after the match, Jack said: "We were not good enough, we deserved nothing from the game.
The first half in particular is nowhere near what it needs to be to, not only win a derby match, but to win a game at Championship level in terms of the energy and desire we showed. We failed to match the basic parts of the game that Morton did well, which was the intensity, desire and energy that they showed. If you do that you give yourself an opportunity to win the game and we didn't do that.
"I apologise to those who were in attendance," he continued. "It won't mean much to them but I understand what they are going through at the moment and it's my responsibility as much as anybody else to try and put that right. Whether I've been here three weeks or three years it continues to be my responsibility and the determination to put that right and the belief is not going to wane. But we need to be a lot better than we were."
"You can work on other aspects of the game and you can talk to the players and motivate them. I understand where they are at the moment with how the season has gone, there's a fragility about them. But they have two choices in it; they either buckle or they come out and they stand up to it."
The manager apologised again to the supporters who travelled in great numbers to Greenock last night. Over 1000 Saints made the journey and he said: "I want to apologise. And it's not done to patronise them in anyway, I wouldn't do that if it wasn't deserved. But they deserve an apology.
You have a derby defeat, these things will happen in football at times, but the manner of it was not acceptable. I will take any amount of criticism that will come my way because I want to be the best I can be at this job and right now I'm not doing that because we've not won any of these three games. But I want them to stick by us and I hope that during my tenure I can find ways of making up for disappointments.
"I know what they are capable of providing. Tonight was indicative of that because, despite how the season has gone, they still travelled in that group of numbers. I am apologising because it's not good enough and I want to provide something that is good enough for them.
"I understand my responsibility," he continued. "I want to put that right and I'll continue to engage with supporters whether it's through these difficult times or whether it's through better times."
One positive note from last night's match was the performance of Kyle Magennis, who replaced Kyle Hutton at half time.
The young midfielder, who has impressed with the U20s this season, came on for his debut against Hibernian on Saturday and put in another good showing last night in what the manager believes wasn't an easy environment.
I like him as a player," he said. "I like his attitude. I think he's came on in two difficult circumstances and he's done himself no harm."
