Where positives were overshadowed by last night’s 29 point loss to North Melbourne, Liam Picken found a small victory in holding All-Australian Lindsay Thomas goalless and to just four touches for the game.

Modest in his own assessment, Picken credited his teammates for their support across the four quarters and said the Bulldogs defence worked hard for each other against the fast finishing Roos.

“I had a lot of help from my teammates… but I thought the backline went well [and] worked well together tonight,” Picken said.

The Bulldogs remained in striking distance until halfway through the final quarter, in what Picken described as a tightly fought contest.

“The first three quarters was very low scoring, a lot of contested footy there,” Picken said.

“It was brutal but we sort of missed the opportunity in the last quarter to get the win.”

The 27-year-old said North Melbourne were able to score too freely in key moments throughout the game, and that will be an area of improvement for his team.

“They got a few easy goals and when we got momentum they kicked one straight out of the centre, so that was really disappointing,” he said.

“As soon as we fix that we will be a lot better side.”

The Bulldogs now look to their next opponent in Richmond on Saturday and Picken said his teammates will be eager to put in a better performance.  

“We’ve got Richmond in six days, [so] we’ve got to do everything right, train really well and go into the game with a positive mindset because we weren’t far off there tonight,” he said.