Ross County defender Keith Watson insists Saturday’s 6-1 loss at Hearts must serve as a wake-up call for the club.
The Staggies suffered their heaviest loss of the season at Tynecastle and the club is now four points adrift at the bottom of the Premiership after rivals Kilmarnock and Dundee United both won their respective matches.
With five games left to save themselves Watson knows he and his team-mates must bounce back immediately.
He said: “We have got to use this as a wake-up call.
“We can’t dwell on it too much. It has not been like us. We have been happy with the way we have been playing. Even when we go 1-0 down we have always got a chance of getting back into it because we have been solid.
“But on Saturday we were all over the place, chasing shadows. The boys know it is not good enough. We know ourselves.
“It is all about regrouping, sticking together and start off our last five games with a win.”
Senior players need to lead the way
Watson has been involved in relegation dogfights before and he believes it is incumbent the senior players in the County squad rally their younger team-mates for the post-split fixtures.
He said: “I have been down at this end of the table before with Ross County. It just takes a team to fight for everything, stick together.
“We will need the full squad to get out of this situation. It is going to be difficult, but I believe in the group and I believe in the squad. Everybody needs to be at it.
“We have got good experienced players in the team who have been there and done it before.
“It is up to us to get the rest of them through it as well, pick everyone up.
“The hunger is 100 per cent there. I see it every day in training, I have seen it for the majority of the season.
“We are where we are, bottom of the league. As a group, it is only us who can change it.”
‘Five cup finals after the split’
County boss Malky Mackay believes Saturday’s performance was the second time this season his players have had a collective off-day, the first coming in a 5-0 home loss to Motherwell in October.
The reaction to the Steelmen defeat was strong and Watson knows his side has to respond again to their Tynecastle loss.
He said: “We know it was not good enough. We let down the fans who came down.
“But we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We need to put it to bed because we have got five cup finals after the split.
“We need to get ourselves going and make sure we are ready to go for the last five games.
“We need to fight for each other. We know how difficult it is going to be. But it is about being consistent.
“The teams that are in the bottom half, Dundee United, Kilmarnock, St Johnstone, we have a decent record against and have had positive results against.
“We use that to take confidence into those games. We know we can get out of the situation we are in.”
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