Doug Russell is confident Aberdeen Grammar can work their way out of the Premiership danger zone.
The Rubislaw side sit bottom of the table after losing all three of their opening fixtures, including Saturday’s high-scoring 56-39 loss at home against Jed-Forest.
Grammar travel south to face Musselburgh this Saturday and Russell believes it is a good opportunity to chalk up a first league win of the campaign.
He said: “Our backs are against the wall after three losses in three games.
“It isn’t what we expect as we hold ourselves to a higher standard than that.
“There are no excuses for the position we are in. We just need to bounce back.
“I wouldn’t want to use the long lay-off without competitive games as a reason for our start to the season because every team is the same.
“It has been a frustrating start so we need to stick together and respond in the right way.
“We need to start winning games because we don’t want to start getting into a rut.
“This is a winnable game, although Musselburgh have already had a couple of good wins this season.
“We will definitely need to be at our best but it is a game that we can win.”
Russell accepts it is vital Grammar, who had German international Matthias Schosser red carded against Jed, maintain their discipline when they head to Musselburgh.
The back said: “It was a really high-scoring game.
“We had a very good 20 minutes but we lost our composure and discipline after that.
“Fitness probably played a big part in that.
“We had a couple of yellow cards and then Taz got a second one.
“You can’t win a game when you have 14 players on the park and we suffered for our ill-discipline.”
Despite their disappointing start to the season, Russell is confident Grammar have enough strength in depth to compete in the Premiership this term.
The 28-year-old added: “The frustrating thing is when you look at our squad it is as strong as it was when we were competing in the league in the 2019-20 season.
“We have lost some players but we have brought in some good players to replace them.
“We have had some injuries but we don’t use that as an excuse because this team is good enough to compete in this league.
“We just need to prove it.”
Elsewhere in the Premiership this weekend, GHA host Selkirk, Currie Chieftains face Edinburgh Accies, Hawick take on second-place Glasgow Hawks and Jed-Forest head to leaders Marr.