"We had chances to win it which makes it even the more disappointing. I've told the players to keep their heads up as we will play worse and win.
"I made a few changes to freshen things up and I thought we looked stronger as the game wore on. If we had got our noses in front I think the win would could have been ours as we stifled them for long periods. The goal was a killer for us as we had little time to press forward to level."
And on David McNamee's sending off
"It's a killer," said Sturrock, "absolutely soul-destroying for the boy, but that's football. He'll have to grin and bear it. He hasn't carried much luck so far in his career.
"I'd have much preferred it if he'd let the player run through to score, in the light of what's going to happen for next week, but there might have been be two or three minutes left, we might have managed to get an equaliser.
"I'm very comfortable with him. I think that he's going to be a quality player for us once he gets in the groove."