Ross County defender Callum Morris insists his club must find a solution to the deficiencies in either penalty area if they want to avoid dropping back to the Championship.
The Staggies slipped to the bottom of the Scottish Premiership following a 2-0 loss to Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Saturday.
County had chances, but failed to take them, while manager Stuart Kettlewell was left frustrated at the poor defending which gave Dons striker Curtis Main his goals – and Morris agrees his side needs to sharpen up.
He said: “We’re doing a lot of things right, but we’re letting ourselves down in both boxes which everyone knows is key in football.
“It’s so frustrating as the boys have given everything. There have been changes of personnel and formation.
“Players are playing who haven’t played much this season but on the balance of play we created chances and dominated the second half. But we’re letting ourselves down in both boxes.
“Losing the goal early on was not great and neither was losing two players to injury, but on the back of that we bounced back and we changed the shape, penned them in and created some chances towards the end.
“I’m not worried about being bottom at the minute, I’m worried about the way we are playing and the performances.
“We can’t look at the table and think we’re suddenly going to jump up the table without doing anything.
“It’s the games coming up we have to take care of and that’s what we are focused on rather than the league table.
“It’s only December and there are a lot of games to play. We’ve got a massive week coming up, both winnable games, and if we can put in a performance like we did here but be more clinical in one box and more decisive in the other then we can win those games.”
Morris has experienced life at both ends of the Premiership, having been part of a Dons squad which pushed Celtic at the top of the table, and has also suffered the anguish of relegation while at Dundee United.
He believes the experience gained will be vital as he tried to get his club’s season going again, starting with Wednesday’s Betfred Cup quarter-final at Livingston.
He said: “I’ve been here before. I’ve been relegated from this league and I’ve been at Aberdeen before when they were in cup finals and flying at the top of the league. You take it all on merit.
“We’ve got a big squad and the Celtic game in the Betfred Cup proved we can beat the best team in the league, so we have to take confidence from that and what we did here and put it into Wednesday.
“We’ve got to keep it in-house and go about our business the way we normally do.
“We had bad spells last season and turned it round with back to back wins and we can do it again.
“It’s nothing to get carried away with. We’ve got good heads, a mixture of youth and experience, and we’ll have to use each and every ounce of that to get ourselves out of this and I think we will.
“Any experience is key. It’s not great to have on your CV, but when you look back now it can be vital.
“Coll Donaldson was there at (United) the same time and it’s horrific.
“It’s about stopping that rot and we have opportunities to do that and I know we will do that.
“It’s fine margins but it is not going our way at the minute. Every game is a good game on the back of a defeat as you just want to play and put it right and we’ll look to put it right on Wednesday.”