St Kilda midfielder David Armitage has described Sunday night’s horror start against North Melbourne as the worst quarter of football he’s been involved in.

The Saints were left shattered after the Kangaroos peppered the scoreboard with nine unanswered goals.

Armitage said it left the Saints with nothing left to play for but personal pride as they sunk to their eighth loss of the year.

“We got blown out of the water,” Armitage said. “They turned up the play and we were still going through the motions.

“You want to keep teams to nine goals to the game and when they kick nine in the first quarter your tail’s up and you’re chasing the rest of the game.”

However, he said the Saints managed to contain the damage and refused to surrender.

“We could have just thrown in the towell and given up,” Armitage said.

“Some of our leaders got us together and said `you’ve got to stand for something’ and the personal pride came out.”

Armitage said he could not pinpoint the reason for the early collapse, but said training was a key.

“When you don’t train very well during the week it comes out in games. It starts on the training track,” he said.

“We’ve got to pretend mentally that it’s a game – that’s the only way you can do it.

“We certainly were flat and, even the week before (against the Western Bulldogs), we were flat as well.

“So it’s something we’ve got to fix pretty quickly otherwise teams are going to belt us in the first quarter.”

Armitage hinted that the players were desperately looking to re-ignite their spirit during the round 12 break – but first need to endure another potential beating from West Coast at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

“I think we’ll get four or five days off and blokes will get away, go to their families and really refresh mentally and physically,” he said.

“It’s probably come at a good time.

“We’ve got West Coast next week and obviously we’ll be trying to win that game, put everything into that knowing that we’ve got the bye and then have a big rest.”