It was D for dismal against Dundee United, according to St Johnstone defender Ryan McGowan.
And now it needs to be A for aggressive against Aberdeen.
The former Hearts man made no attempt to sugar-coat his team’s performance in the 1-0 defeat that started 2023 with a McDiarmid Park whimper.
McGowan believes Saints need to remember what took them into fifth in the table recently.
Sticking close to that rulebook will give them a strong chance of ending a three-game losing streak at Pittodrie and making their stay in the bottom six of the Premiership a fleeting one.
“We just need to be better, snap into tackles, be hard to play against,” he said. “All the basics.
“Pass the ball better, create chances, the things we were doing in that middle part of the season.
“The last couple of weeks we have moved away from that and the results show it.
“It’s not up to the manager. It’s us as players that have to take that responsibility.
“We are not performing on the pitch, which is making it difficult for ourselves.
“In games like Monday’s, you just have to make sure that if you’re not going to win it, you don’t concede late on and lose it.
“Being physically stronger in all aspects of the game – strikers holding it up, defenders winning first balls, midfielders winning second balls – if you get on top of that, it tends to mean that you are on top of the game.
“We have been struggling with that in the first 20 minutes and on Monday probably the whole game. So that’s definitely something we need to get better at.
“It’s disappointing from us. As a collective group we need to be better in every aspect of the game.”
Saints not stuck in a rut
McGowan doesn’t fear that losing will become a habit for Saints.
“I don’t think so,” said the Australian international.
“If we don’t improve then that could be the case but we have shown throughout the season that we are a match for any team.
“There are probably only a couple of games we have lost by more than one goal. So we know we are a competitive team, we know we are a good team.”
The United match was the first since mid-October that Saints have failed to score in.
“We were dismal on Monday and we still had a couple of half-chances at the end,” said McGowan.
75'| Saints 0-0 Dundee United
James Brown is left frustrated as his header drifts wide#SJFC | #spfl| #cinchPremiership
— St. Johnstone FC (@StJohnstone) January 2, 2023
“We are definitely more of a goal threat.
“Teams that come up against us know we are dangerous going forward.
“We have been reasonably good defensively. We conceded on Monday but I don’t think they created huge amounts of chances, although they were on top of us in midfield.
“We just need to work on getting better at all aspects of the game and making sure we go back to being hard to beat.”
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