Dundee United boss Jackie McNamara insists everyone connected with the club has to stick together to help the team get out of their recent rut.
Wednesday night’s derby defeat at Dens extended the Tangerines’ run without a win to 10 games, albeit four of them came against Celtic.
McNamara insists this is not his toughest challenge yet as a manager but he did concede that the recent spell has been a big learning curve for him.
However, he believes that one win could change everything, hopefully coming this afternoon against Hamilton.
The manager said: “It’s about sticking together.
“We went on a bad run last year. I think it was six or seven games without a win so it’s football.
“It doesn’t always go the way you want it to go.
“The pleasing thing is we’re still in a good position because of the start we had.
“We’ve got to make sure we carry on now.
“Everybody goes through a little spell in the season and ours has been disappointing because of the number of games we’ve had in the cups and then on the back of that by losing the game last weekend.
“Everything gets escalated.
“But it doesn’t change my approach and the way I want to win the match.”
When asked if he felt this was his toughest test of his managerial career so far, he said: “Not really.
“We went through a spell last year but I think the circumstances with everything this time round, the League Cup Final and the games with Celtic, and then everything is pushed on top of things.
“But it’s things I’ll learn from.
“I am learning so it’s been good in that sense.
“I’ve learned different things, reasons for things and different scenarios recently.
“I think that will stand me in good stead. I’ve been in football a long time but management is different.
“You learn things about the players and as individuals.
“It’s my job to get results and make sure we do that.
“But one win changes everything.
“We want that to start on Saturday so we have to make sure we win it.”
Dundee’s first goal on Wednesday came thanks in no small part to a howler from goalie Rado Cierzniak.
However, McNamara would not be drawn on whether the Polish keeper’s place in the team was under threat following the mistake.
He said: “There are decisions to make for a lot of positions.
“We’ll decide that and go through some stuff. There are a lot of things to consider.
“Players have made individual mistakes which cost us the other night.
“It was the same last weekend too so we have to make sure we get over that and give ourselves a chance of winning matches.
“It’s not intentional but it needs to be stamped out. It comes down to concentration.
“Individual errors are not something you can work on, because it’s an individual making a bad error in the game.
“You can’t work on that. There were mistakes all over the game and unfortunately they were a wee bit costly for us.”
Ryan Dow and Callum Morris remain out injured while Jarek Fojut and John Rankin are both rated doubtful.