St Johnstone’s Gregory Tade fears the Perth side are struggling to cope with the pressure of attaining a top-six finish.
Saints slumped to a disappointing defeat against struggling Hearts on Tuesday night when they were outplayed and out-muscled in almost every department, with only goalkeeper Alan Mannus deserving credit for his performance.
Indeed, boss Steve Lomas did not mince his words afterwards, branding the overall display one of the worst since he took over at McDiarmid Park.
Despite the loss, St Johnstone remain in fifth place in the SPL table on 41 points, but have now played one more game than the chasing pack, with Hibs just behind on 39 points, Kilmarnock and Dundee United on 38 and Aberdeen in ninth spot just still in with a shout on 37.
Lomas’s side have now only won one out of their last five league games and with just three matches left before the split, Tade insists they have to quickly dust themselves down if their dream of a top six finish and possible European qualification for the second year running is to be realised.
He said: “I think we were bullied in every part of the game against Hearts.
“When you don’t win your first battles, the second ones and so on you will not win games, so all credit to Hearts. It is not like us to be outmuscled but you cannot win all the time. We are only human and we were second best.”
If St Johnstone had won on Tuesday they would have climbed to third in the table, and Tade admitted it was a big blow that they had not taken the chance.
He said: “We are always disappointed when we miss an opportunity, but I do not really know what to say. We only have ourselves to blame.
“We have had opportunities from time to time and we always seem not to respond, or maybe we do not respond well to pressure.
“We have to put this behind us now but it is important we do not forget what happened and remember that we are not superhuman and can get turned over.”
He continued: “We lost another opportunity last week to get full points against Dundee and we have done the same again.”
He added: “If you think you are already there and don’t have to work anymore, you will see yourself playing in the bottom six.
“If we play like we did against Hearts, we could miss out (on a top six finish). We want to be there. I think the Dundee game was a warning to us, Ross County was. If you have high ambitions but don’t win those games
“We have to refocus and regroup to go again, but I don’t think the Hearts game was a warning, previous ones were. We need to win the next couple of games, otherwise we could end up in the bottom six and, as I said, we do not want that.
“It is up to us, nobody else. We are the ones on the park so we need to score more goals and stop them going in against us.
“Anyone watching the Hearts game would have thought that there was only one team going to be playing European football next season and it wasn’t us.
“But if we regroup, I honestly feel we have a good chance to finish in the top three.”