Ross County manager Jim McIntyre says the Staggies’ recent sticky spell is easier to take given the progress his side has made since he took over at Dingwall.
After a fine start to the season County have lost four of their last five league matches, albeit they have faced the Premiership’s current top three – Celtic, Aberdeen and Hearts – during that sequence.
McIntyre inherited a side sitting bottom of the table, which had yet to register a point, when he replaced Derek Adams at Victoria Park last September.
After guiding the Staggies to safety last season, the former Dunfermline and Queen of the South manager has overseen a strong start to the current campaign, with County sitting sixth.
McIntyre says the overall improvement County have shown makes him confident they will regain their stride, with St Johnstone the next visitors to the Highlands on Saturday.
He said: “It’s important everyone remembers we’re trying to build something here. We’re trying to create a winning environment but it’s not always going to go our way.
“Looking at the team from a year ago, it’s night and day. We’ve been in the top six since day one this season and we’re in a cup semi-final.
“That’s real progress but the real challenge for me is whether we stay there.
“There will be periods in the season like just now when we need to pick up more points. But the players are giving everything, they’re doing the right things.
“We just need to produce better consistency because we’re certainly getting into the right areas. For me, that’s key.”
McIntyre is not concerned by his side’s recent sequence of results and has been encouraged by areas of the Staggies’ performances, adding: “We’ve certainly got the quality. It’s about bringing it to the table on a more regular basis, when we get into key positions, and hurting teams.
“We were certainly doing that a bit better earlier in the season than what we’ve done in the last five or six weeks.
“I’d be worried if the quality wasn’t there – but it is there. It’s just about getting back to doing it on a more consistent basis.
“How do we work on that? It’s just repetition. We’ve got to make sure we keep encouraging players to get into the right areas and it’ll happen.”