The St Johnstone players have dug their own hole, according to Remi Matthews.
And now they’ll need to get themselves out of it.
The on-loan goalkeeper wasn’t part of the Saints squad that narrowly avoided the drop from the Premiership a year ago.
But he knows an ominous predicament when he sees one.
“The realisation is we’ve now got a relegation battle,” said Matthews.
“We went from competing for the top six to now being in a dogfight.
“As players, we’ve got to make a difference.
“We can’t concede goals like that, can’t play like that as a team.
“The bottom line is we’re in it together and have to stick together.
“We’ve got to get a team spirit back, remember what we did well, remember why we won games before Christmas.
“We know what we’ve got to do. We’ve now got to work hard on the training pitch and put things right.
“We’ve got to be ready for it. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves.
“We’ve got to realise what we need to put right and do it quick.
“Before we know it time will be running out and the bottom line is we’ve got to stay in the league.
“It would be a disaster if we were to be relegated, simple as that.”
Play to your strengths
Matthews believes the team that beat Saints on Saturday were a shining example of what can happen if you devise a game plan that fits the circumstances and make it work.
“We have to get some kind of consistency, a way of playing that suits us now,” he said.
“Ross County played to their strengths and they won 2-0.
“It’s not a coincidence that our form is better away from home.
“We have very good ball players – Dan (Phillips) and Cammy (MacPherson) are perfect examples.
“No matter who plays on this pitch it’s hard. The opposition has to play on it as well. Everyone can see it’s not great.
“Did they try play out from the back? Absolutely not.
“Did they go long every time? Yep. They went to their strengths – got the ball down, played it long, won the flick-ons and scored.
“Then set play, we didn’t pick our man up, goal.
“Obviously when we were chasing 2-0 that’s when we conceded more chances than we normally would.
“We weren’t good enough and we’ve got to realise quickly we are in a relegation battle.”
Experience will help
They might be off-form but Matthews is confident that the character in the Saints dressing room will prove its worth over the next few weeks.
“I’ve been in the game long enough to realise what we need to do,” he said.
“We’re a very experienced squad.
“The senior players now need to step up and make everyone else realise what it’s going to come down to.
“We are in a dogfight and there are four or five teams exactly the same position.”
Conversation