Skipper Dingwall admits it was a 'horrible night' for Saints against Tigers
Fraser Dingwall reflected on a 'horrible night' at the Gardens after Saints were held pointless by Leicester Tigers on Friday.
Dingwall returned from England duty to skipper Saints against their local rivals, but little went right for the hosts as Leicester marched to a 33-0 bonus-point win.
It all but ended Saints' Gallagher Premiership play-off hopes as their title defence continues to fall flat in a fragmented campaign.
And Dingwall said: "It was very disappointing and I'm a bit lost for words because it was so disappointing in that we didn't really get anything out of our performance.
"It was a really tough night.
"We just didn't really find any flow in anything.
"As the game went on, there seemed to be more errors that came about.
"I spoke to the boys and said that we’ve just got to be really honest and front all of it, accept that we didn’t perform and we were nowhere near good enough in so many areas and then you turn up and go to work and invest more.
"We’ve got something that works – we’ve just got to put it on the pitch.
“We didn’t get it on the pitch so we’ve got to go and find a way to do it.”
Dingwall admits it hurts more because of the feeling of letting the fans down on such a big occasion.
"It's one of the worst things, feeling like we've let a lot of people down, more than just the squad, there’s been a lot of fans let down who have come out,” he added.
“It's been a horrible night to be honest.
“The one thing I'll say is that the squad won't shy away from it, we won't just pretend it didn't happen.
“We’re going to front all of this and it’s something we have to do.”
Saints had gone into the game sitting nine points behind Leicester, who were fourth, with seven games to go.
But any chances of a play-off bid now appear to have gone ahead of Friday night’s tricky trip to Sale Sharks.
"(It leaves Saints) in a pretty tough spot,” Dingwall said.
“Ultimately, we're in a tough spot and I don't want to ever say we're done, but we're in a spot where we've got to go week to week.
“We've got to find some momentum but you only get that by winning the next game.
"Realistically, we need to get a performance first.”