Ross County midfielder Harry Paton says it is far too early to press the panic button on the Staggies’ bottom-of-the-table position ahead of today’s Premiership visit of Hamilton Accies.
County are without a win in nine league matches, which has seen them drop a point below today’s opponents into bottom spot.
The Staggies’ Betfred Cup hopes were also dashed when they exited the competition at the quarter-final stage in Wednesday’s 2-0 loss to Livingston.
Despite his side’s recent struggles, Paton says confidence remains high among the Dingwall squad ahead of today’s vital encounter.
Canadian Paton said: “There is good morale here and there is a long way to go, there’s a lot of football to be played.
“We don’t feel under too much pressure because we know we’ve got a talented team with good players.
“I’m confident that will come and we’re going to find ourselves in a more comfortable position in a few weeks.
“We are not too worried, a lot of teams have been bottom at this stage of the season and gone on to do well, so we just need to keep going and wins will come.
“Three points would be big for us because it’s still very tight in the table and it goes a long way.
“A couple of wins changes things a lot.
“We know we can do it, it just needs to click more often.”
Goals have been few and far between in recent weeks, with the Staggies finding the net just three times in their last nine league outings.
Paton takes encouragement from the chances County have been creating however, and he is confident they will be rewarded for their perseverance.
The 22-year-old added: “The amount of goals we have scored is hard to believe when you look at the chances we have, so it’s frustrating.
“We have to trust ourselves that we’re good players and that finishing touch will come.
“It’s about having that killer instinct to put in the net. Personally I have been working hard on training trying to improve my finishing and my composure.
“It’s about getting the end product and get goals from the chances we are creating.”
With the stakes so high for both teams at Victoria Park, Paton insists Stuart Kettlewell’s men must be prepared to show their battling qualities against their Lanarkshire opponents.
Paton will use last month’s cup victory against Celtic as inspiration, and he added: “It’s going to be an absolute battle out there, but we can do that side of it as well as play football.
“A lot of the games you have to play off second balls and there isn’t much football played.
“But hopefully we can break Hamilton down, get the ball into the box and score some goals this weekend.
“We have to start off strong, get in their faces and hopefully go on to win it.
“We know what Hamilton will bring, we managed to win down there earlier in the season so we can take confidence from that.
“We are at home so we need to make that count and it helps even having the small number of fans we have.
“Just hearing the crowd boosts the confidence and it should be helping us, we need to use it to our advantage.
“It’s been tough going from the high of the Celtic game to losing a few games, so that’s disappointing.
“But we can bounce back and that’s what we have to do.
“We have showed we can do it, at Celtic we did the basics really well and that’s what we have to get back to.”