Jack Baldwin insists Ross County can be under no illusions about the position they find themselves in following their Scottish Cup exit to Hamilton Accies.
County were defeated on penalties by Accies, who are bottom of the Championship, following a 0-0 draw at New Douglas Park.
It continues a bitterly disappointing run of form for County, who have not won any of their last eight games.
The Staggies have scored just three goals during that period and find themselves three points adrift at the foot of the Premiership.
County host Kilmarnock next weekend in a crucial bottom-of-the-table encounter.
With 16 matches remaining, defender Baldwin says they must dig deep to turn their fortunes around.
Baldwin said: “We have said the same at a lot of low points throughout the season already.
“The season doesn’t go on forever. There comes a point when we’ve got to take a look at ourselves and see we are in an absolute scrap.
“We have got to train like our lives depend on it, and do everything we can around the training ground as if our lives depend on it – because it does at the end of the day.
“We find ourselves in the position we are. It’s probably the lowest point of the season so far.
“Hopefully, we can use it as a bounceball to get the lads together, get our heads together and really understand the position we are in.”
Breaks not falling for Staggies
A lack of clinical edge in front of goal proved to be County’s undoing against Hamilton, with Malky Mackay’s side spurning a number of gilt-edged chances.
Baldwin says the Staggies must continue to work hard to earn a breakthrough.
He added: “We understood the challenge coming into the game. It was going to be a scrappy game at times.
“Playing against a team from a division below, they were going to make it as hard as they possibly could.
“We dominated the ball in large spells of the game, but it’s just that clinical edge again. We can’t seem to put the ball in the net.
“We created chances, and the Hamilton goalkeeper made a couple of great saves. We had a couple of goalmouth scrambles, but that little break is just not falling for us at the moment.
“That’s the situation we are in – and we’ve just got to keep working to do our best to get out of it.”
County need reaction in vital Killie clash
Englishman Baldwin is determined to use the hurt of the Hamilton defeat as fuel to return to winning ways, when Derek McInnes’ Killie side makes the trip north.
The 29-year-old said: “We have a process we go through every week. We watch the game back, we have honest conversations and watch parts of the game we did well, and parts we need to do better.
“This week will be no different. It will just be a case of us more experienced lads getting around the younger boys and trying to keep everybody as upbeat as possible, given how this game went.
“We have all got to go and spend the next couple of days to reflect on what has happened.
“Once that is done, we will watch the video but the manager likes to park that and move on to the next game and forget about it.
“It’s sore at the moment, but we will have to do all we can because Saturday is absolutely huge for us in the context of things.”
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