A losing streak the like of which St Johnstone are enduring just now is nothing new to Perth boss Tommy Wright.
And the Northern Irishman is confident he’ll guide his team out of it, just as he has done in the past. Saints suffered their fifth consecutive league defeat against Kilmarnock at the weekend.
But Wright knows from first-hand experience in management that a winning run could just be round the corner.
“I am doing my job the same as I did last season,” he pointed out.
“You can’t get too down when things are not going well, just like you don’t get carried away when it does.
“The most important thing for me is waking up in the morning and getting into work. You just have to get up, get on with it and work hard to come through it.
“I’m hurting and the players are hurting, but we can’t let what’s happened in the past affect us. If you start worrying about what’s happened then you’ll never come out of it.
“We just need to start doing the right things again and doing them for longer in our games. I have been here as a player and a manager before, plenty of times.
“I took over Distillery when they’d lost the first 10 games in the league. At St Johnstone we had runs like this before. A couple of years ago we picked up two points from the first seven games.
“It’s nothing new and I know how quickly it can turn.”
He added: “We had a bad start a few years ago and were 1-0 down to Celtic in our eighth game.
“But we came back and won 2-1 in the second half and that sparked us going on a run of wins. I know that it will turn and turn quickly and the players know that as well. We’ve all been here before.
“We’ve had spells like this before, it’s not nice at the minute but there’s no point being all doom and gloom about it.”
Wright knows that just believing there will be improvement won’t be enough to make it happen.
But the Perth palyers can’t do more to help themselves.
He said: “When you are in runs like this you need to keep brave, keep working hard and keep doing the things you know you’re good at.
“But you do need a little bit of luck as well and at the moment I feel we’re getting punished for every mistake we make. The problem is, though, that we’re making too many mistakes and we need to eradicate them.
“I feel for the players because they’re not getting a break of the ball at the moment. They’re good players, we have a good squad and the results will turn.
“But collectively, we’ve got to do more. I have been happy with the possession we’ve had in games but we have to do more with it.”
The greatest day in St Johnstone’s history – the Scottish Cup win – is of course still fresh in everybody’s mind.
But the reality of where the club is in the Premiership pecking order hasn’t changed.
Wright observed: “The expectation level here has grown, it has risen year on year. But we are still a small club on a small budget.
“We are still in the quarter-final of the cup and are only four points behind Dundee, who have had a good start to the season. So it’s not all doom and gloom.”
Wright doesn’t want to dwell on the players he has lost through injury or being sold.
He pointed out: “Injuries are part of the game. It is a big loss to lose the likes of Steven MacLean, Tam Scobbie and Chris Millar, on top of Stevie May leaving.
“Of course it’s a factor but we can’t look back all the time and use that as an excuse. You have to get out there and get on with it.
“The spirit is the same as it was last season, the lads are desperate to do well for the club. So it’s just a case of working hard to stamp out the mistakes and turn it around.”
Millar is expected to play against Partick Thistle at the weekend, while Scobbie should be back before the end of the year.