ST KILDA coach Alan Richardson has been left frustrated by his side's inaccurate second term against Port Adelaide, a period in which it controlled play but failed to apply any scoreboard pressure. 

The Saints had eight scoring shots to four in the quarter but could boot just two goals, while the Power slotted four straight. 

The margin was pushed to beyond four goals by half-time and continued to grow to 63 points by the final siren. 

Richardson said such inaccuracy and wasting of opportunities – particularly for a travelling team – made victory difficult.

Click here for Alan Richardson's full post-match media conference 

"That's really frustrating and it's important on the road to get bang for your buck," he said. 

"There were many indicators at half-time to suggest we were really in the contest, that was the disappointing thing about the second half. 

"Full credit to Port though … they got going in the midfield." 

Richardson said Port's pressure was just too intense for his young side. 

It surprised the coach, who had been happy with the club's improvement this year in handling such heat. 

"Their pressure was at a level that we just couldn't deal with, which is frustrating [because] that's really been a strength of ours," he said. 

"For them to have 70-odd more possessions but still out-tackle us by 16 is not where we've been. 

"We've been the team that's been really aggressive at getting after the opposition, so that's bemused me a little bit – I didn't see that coming." 

But Richardson believed Sunday's thrashing could offer a lesson for a number of the side's young players. 

Although he was happy St Kilda was able to generate enough forward entries, he said there were plenty of elements to work on for the rest of the season. 

"We have to [learn]… there were many facets of what we did today that suggests we're headed in the right direction," he said. 

"We got beaten really badly at clearance, not only the numbers but the quality – we'll learn from that. 

"We need to learn how to work harder on the outside. We fumbled way too often, we've got to get better with the way we kick the ball to our forwards, our forwards have got to get better at getting off their men."