Stephen Robinson has admitted St Mirren were always going to be in for a long night after conceding in the first minute against Celtic.
A nightmare start for the hosts - as Daizen Maeda fired home within 60 seconds - was worsened as Matt O'Riley doubled on six minutes before Toyosi Olusanya was sent off in the final seconds of the first half.
For Robinson, the match was all but over before the red card call - after a VAR check - due to the shocking start.
"We didn't make life easy for ourselves," said Robinson on Sky Sports. "It was a long night. We knew they would come out bright which they done.
"We started poorly and it was compounded by the red card.If you are going to give yourself an uphill task like that against a team of Celtic's quality then you don't have any chance of winning the game."
"They were controllable as well as there was some good quality involved in it which is frustrating," said Robinson of the goals conceded. "Then, obviously the red card takes the game away but we didn't lose the game because of the red card, we lost the game because of our start."
The St Mirren boss admitted he was understanding of the involvement of VAR in the red card for Olusanya but has sympathy with his player over the nature of the challenge as he caught Joe Hart with an outstretched leg while attempting to score in the Celtic six-yard box.
"Yeah," said Robinson when asked if he could understand the reasoning for the yellow card being upgraded to a red after a VAR review. "But I'm not sure what he is meant to do...is he meant to pull out, is he meant to not try and score?
"I've not seen it back on TV but when somebody ducks their head for a challenge I don't know if it's classed as dangerous play.
"Obviously, if he catches him then it is dangerous play.
"But that's not the reason we lost the game so it doesn't really matter either way."
