Ross County boss Derek Adams declared himself "very proud" of his side's 40-match unbeaten run after it was ended by St Johnstone on Saturday.
Despite playing against 10 men for an hour and dominating most of the match, County lost out to a battling Saints' side who never threw the towel in.
Liam Craig gave Saints the lead against the run of play on the half hour mark and the Perth side went a player down a couple of minutes later when Rowan Vine was sent off for an off the ball incident with Richard Brittain.
County piled on the pressure in the second half and Sam Morrow hit a deserved equaliser in the 68th minute.
But with County pushing for a winner Saints grabbed a vital second in the 85th minute when Frazer Wright headed home following a corner.
Adams said: "I have told the lads to be very proud of what they have achieved. It was our best performance since coming into the SPL.
"We've lost two poor goals. The first was a long-range strike and the second was poor defensively.
"But other than that I didn't think we deserved to lose the game.
"I thought we deserved to win it hands-down with the chances and possession we had.
"When we got the goal back, I didn't see them scoring again.
"Fair play to St Johnstone - they've won the match but, overall, I thought we were the better team.
"We probably should have taken a lot of the chances we had today."
He added: "We are disappointed, obviously, that our long unbeaten league run has ended, particularly seeing it happen in the manner it did today.
"We were against 10 men and playing so well. The way we passed it and dominated made it our best SPL performance so far."
Saints manager Steve Lomas said: "It doesn't surprise me. The character of the squad is fantastic in adversity.
"The sending off was a shocker. The referee is honest, he sees what he sees but I hope he will have a look at it because I think it is a poor decision.
"But we won't appeal it, it will be down to the ref and how he sees it."
Lomas added: "Ross County kept coming at us and putting balls into the box and made our lads defend.
"We had a few hairy moments, but we also had a chance which might have been over the line and that would have put the game out of sight at 2-0.
"The character of the team can never be called into question but I wouldn't like it to be so difficult. I'll not make my 40th birthday at this rate. It was a great victory."
