"We started brightly and I thought we were in the ascendency at that time," McLeish said after the match.
"The long ball caused us problems and I'm disappointed we didn't handle it better.
"We've now got to pick a team for the Derby game and get everybody picked up again for Tuesday night.
"More importantly we've got to pick the Blues fans up because they've travelled in their numbers again today and we appreciate their tremendous support.
"I'm very disappointed because we lost an opportunity today.
"There are plenty games to go but we know that the kind of form shown today isn't good enough.
"As a team with our aspirations, the players know they have to do much better than that."