John Rankin insists no-one in the Dundee United dressing-room is kidding themselves that they are “too good to go down”.
In recent seasons, the Tangerines have known little but success, regularly finishing in the top six and making it through to cup finals.
Those highs are distant memories at the moment with Mixu Paatelainen’s side currently propping up the Premiership, eight points adrift.
And Rankin admits the desperate situation has been a jarring reality check to every player at Tannadice.
He said: “We’ve got a great bunch of boys and there’s a great spirit amongst us.
“In saying that, we need to start winning games. We’re under no illusions.
“I hear people saying we’re too good to go down.
“But we’re not. If we were too good to go down, then we would be too good to be bottom of the league.
“Right now, we find ourselves at the bottom.
“It’s that reality check we’ve had and now we need to pull together become stronger and get ourselves out of it.
“And we’re full of confidence that we will do that.
“I don’t think any of the boys believe we’re too good to go down,
“We find ourselves in this position now but we believe we will get out of it.”
This time last season, Ross County were in a similar fraught situation to the one United currently find themselves in but managed to turn things around to escape relegation.
Rankin insists his side need to pull off a similar great escape by putting together a run of wins for the first time this season.
He added: “Our target is not the play-offs. Our target is to get out of it altogether.
“The first thing is to get a win and once we do that you will probably see us going on a run.
“We believe we can go on a run of four, five or six wins in a row.
“Ross County did that last season.
“And when you get that buzz and feeling it’s a big thing.
“I can remember turning up at Tannadice at 1.30pm.
“And by the time you looked at the clock at 2.10pm, then you thought. ‘We’re winning today’.
“It’s not an arrogance, it’s just that confidence that you believe you’re winning when you turn up, before a ball is even kicked.
“We need to start turning up and believe we’re winning. We need to turn Tannadice into a fortress again.”
Rankin admitted that individual errors are costing United dear at the moment and he knows they need to eradicate the mistakes if they hope to return to winning ways.
The 32-year-old said: “People keep saying our confidence must be low but I genuinely don’t see it.
“Individual errors are costing us but the boys are coming into training buzzing.
“And the individual who has made that particular mistake is desperate to prove himself all over again the following week.
“I don’t think we’re far away. It’s just a case of getting over the line.
“We’re not feeling as though we’re in a rut, and neither are we playing as though we’re in a rut.
“We’re putting in some good performances but we’re not winning.
“That is the most disappointing thing just now.
“I think anyone of us in the dressing-room would swap a good performance for that elusive victory.”