Dunfermline boss Allan Johnston admits the character of his side is really being put to the test after a run of five league defeats in a row.
The Pars manager insists the current poor sequence of Championship results is simply not good enough but in no way does it constitute a crisis at the club.
However, Johnston is looking for his players to return to winning ways as soon as possible, hopefully in tomorrow’s teatime home clash with St Mirren.
He said: “It’s always a test of character. When you go through a slump, that’s what it is.
“I don’t think we’ve been a million miles away, but we’re still being beaten and we need to address that. We need to get back to winning ways.
“We’re seven points away from third place and it’s September – so it’s not as if it’s a crisis, by any means.
“We’re well aware, though, that it’s not good enough. But I think, with the players we’ve got, we can definitely turn it around.
“Everybody always looks down the way, everybody always sees the negative side.
“But we’ve got good players. If you look in every position, the wide players, the strikers, we’ve got competition for places. We’ve got a really good squad, really good players, and we just need to get back to winning ways.”
Dunfermline will, of course, face a St Mirren side who parted company with their manager Alex Rae on Sunday after a similar disappointing start to the league campaign as the Pars.
However, Johnston insists that seeing what happened to the now former Buddies boss does not increase the pressure on him.
He said: “I don’t really think about that, it’s probably a question for everybody else.
“I just go about our business here, try to get results to work our way up the table.
“We’ve just got to concentrate on ourselves.You know what it’s like, after a few bad results everybody panics.
“That’s the last thing you can do. You’ve just got to get together and go out there and prove everybody wrong by getting the results we need.”
Johnston has a nice selection headache for the St Mirren game with injured players working their way back into his plans.
He said: “Nat (Wedderburn) trained on Thursday for the first time. He played for the under-20s last week and hurt his calf, so he’s been missing and this was his first day’s training.
“If you look at all the boys coming back, everybody’s fit. David Hopkirk’s been training, Sean Murdoch’s been training and played a 20s game, so we’re starting to get everybody back.
“It’s great. That’s what you want, especially when we’re in the position we’re in. You want to have as many options as possible.
“The good thing is, everybody wants to play.
“Sometimes when you have a couple of bad results, then players say, ‘I’m feeling this’ or ‘I’m feel that’, but everybody is desperate to play.
“That speaks volumes for the players – that they want to get back on track and they want to work their way up the table.”
Johnston admitted that he hopes the Pars faithful stay right behind the team even although they have not had much to cheer about in recent weeks.
He added: “Definitely. We’ve got a young team and, even for some of the experienced players, it’s not everybody that responds well to criticism.
“You’re looking for the fans to give you backing and to get behind the players, because we want to win and get back to winning ways.”
