There were few positives for the Saints in what was one of their worst losses in 2018.

After a promising start, Alan Richardson’s side started to fall away in the second term, and despite taking a lead into half-time, the Saints’ insipid third-quarter meltdown gifted the Dogs the game.

Senior coach Alan Richardson was seething at his side’s lack of competitiveness on one of the most disappointing nights of the year for the football club.

“That was a really weak performance by our team and by our footy club today,” the coach said post-match.

“We lacked any sort of response, the sort of response you need when another team ramps it up.

“When the Dogs ramped it up, we just didn’t respond in the way that we needed to, and that’s unacceptable.”

WATCH: Post-match: Richardson (Rd20)

Richardson rued his side’s lack of accountability, hinting that a selfish style of football had hurt the Saints’ chances most.

“We’ve had a reasonable build post-bye, but today was a big slip,” he said.

“Our attitude of just worrying about ourselves when things go against us and not looking to support our mates is not going to get it done, so that was incredibly disappointing.

“We’ll do whatever we can and continue to work as hard as we can to make sure we turn that around.”

Almost the singular upside for St Kilda was the performance of midfield stalwart Seb Ross, who willed his side on all night when seemingly no-one else would stand up in the fight.

“It’s pretty hard to be competitive when you only have one strong, consistent midfielder in Seb Ross, who I thought battled hard all game, but he just didn’t have enough mates come with him,” Richardson said.

“Sebby was a lone hand, really. You're not going to win any game of footy when you’ve got one midfielder playing.”

Seb Ross was the solitary shining light on a gloomy night for the Saints

The 25-year-old played like a man possessed, amassing a career-high 40 disposals as well as booting a career-high three goals, but he was unwilling to rest on the laurels of his individual game.

“I won’t look into that too much, I’m just too disappointed with how we played tonight,” Ross told saints.com.au.

The star midfielder echoed his coach’s frustrations after the game and gave a brutally honest assessment of what went wrong.

“It’s a hugely disappointing night,” he said.

“We started the game really well to be up by 20-odd points at quarter-time, and then I think the Doggies dug in in that second quarter and really responded.”

READ: Richo: That's just unacceptable

Ross was visibly dissatisfied with his team’s lack of ability to fight back when under duress in the third term.

“We just completely stopped competing all over the ground,” he said.

“The ball was streaming out of the midfield, and they were kicking goals from left, right and centre … they were coming from everywhere.

“That was probably the most disappointing thing – we saw early in the game the Doggies were able to respond after being down, but we completely let ourselves down.”

READ: Dogs down Saints

The Saints’ structures suffered after ruckman Tom Hickey went down early in the match with a hamstring complaint, but again, Ross was reluctant to make excuses.

“That was probably the last of our issues, really. if you stop competing, you’re no chance,” said the midfielder.

St Kilda returns to Etihad Stadium on Friday night to face a Bombers outfit desperate to stay in the finals race, a prospect that Ross said should excite his teammates.

“The boys will be able to show a bit of character next week,” he said.

“That’s probably more what the opportunity is about against the Bombers, to see who really cares for their mates, and who really wants to respond.”