Bohemians manager Alan Reynolds blamed a lack of quality in front of goal for his side's 1-0 defeat at home to Drogheda United on Friday night.
Substitute Josh Thomas struck four minutes from time to gave Drogheda a third consecutive 1-0 league victory over Bohemians.
It’s a result that leaves Bohs seven points behind league leaders Shamrock Rovers, having now played a game more, and Reynolds admitted to frustration at his side’s inability to really work Drogs goalkeeper Luke Dennison.
"We dominated the whole 90 minutes of the game," Reynolds said afterwards. "But I always felt although we were dominating, we needed to be more clinical up in the final third where we lacked quality.
"I don't think we worked their keeper enough, that's for sure.
"But they defended well, they get 11 men behind the ball and make it hard for you, they’ve done it all season. It works for them and it worked for them tonight."
Bohs' best chance came early in the game when captain Dawson Devoy picked out the run of Ross Tierney in the box and he looked poised to score only for Dennison to pull off a fine point-blank save.
Reynolds was frustrated that his men weren’t able to break down Drogheda after that and as the game wore on, the visitors looked more and more comfortable at the back.
"We just have to look at ourselves and in the final third we didn’t do enough and we didn’t work their goalkeeper enough," added Reynolds.
"The game was stop-start but that's part and parcel, that's the way it goes.
"We needed to keep it solid, keep the door closed at the back and you're hoping that the front players - we had a lot of attacking players on the pitch today - and we were hoping that they could create something and score.
" They have their game plan and way of playing, it's disrupt, defend well and catch you on the counterattack or score a set piece.
"So credit to them, they came and done a job on us tonight."
Drogheda boss Kevin Doherty meanwhile was full of praise for his side, insisting that they executed their gameplan exactly how they wanted to.
"It’s a really good result," he said. "It's the fourth time we've beaten Bohs in a row, which is massive.
"They are an excellent side and everybody had to be really, really good to get anything here, let alone win."
