Ross County forward Craig Curran insists the Staggies are ready for their big test of character.
County were defeated 2-1 by St Mirren on Saturday, leaving them three points adrift of the Paisley side at the foot of the Scottish Premiership.
Jim McIntyre’s players have 17 matches left to recover their season or face relegation to the Championship and Curran knows a swift response is needed.
Curran said: “There’s no doubt about it – it’s a blow for us. We’ve got to pick ourselves up. We’ve still got three or four months left and we’ve got to show our character and bounce back.
“When we scored the equaliser with eight minutes to go, we were thinking we were going to go on and nick it. We’re disappointed but we weren’t good enough from the start. It’s as simple as that.
“We’re still trying to figure out what went wrong. It’s tough to take.
“It’s very disappointing, it didn’t go as planned at all. We have to pick ourselves up and go again. The mood’s not great as we know we weren’t good enough.”
County’s home record this season makes for grim reading, with 10 losses from 11 matches at Victoria Park.
It does not get any easier for the Staggies, with champions Celtic the next visitors to Dingwall on Saturday.
The defeat by the Buddies was only Curran’s second game for the club after joining from Nuneaton Town at the start of the month and the 25-year-old is looking for a far more spirited performance against the Hoops.
Curran added: “I can’t put my finger on why the home record is so poor but I do know we’ve got to turn it around quickly. All we can do is make sure we put it right in the next home game.
“We’ve got to be able to deal with pressure in every game regardless of who we’re playing. It doesn’t really matter how we do it but we have to find a way of coping with it.”