Forfar boss Jim Weir insisted he had been under no illusions about the scale of the task facing him.
But a 5-0 defeat at the hands of Ayr United underlined the crisis gripping the Loons as they slumped three points adrift at the foot of League One.
A second-half capitulation didn’t really flatter Ayr, who were clinical in their execution of chances.
Forfar were also masters of their own downfall as they gifted goals to the Honest Men.
Eliminating those individual errors and players taking responsibility to improve their own performances is something Weir wants to see addressed.
“When you look at the games ahead of us, they don’t get any easier,” the Forfar manager said after his first home game in charge.
“There wasn’t much in it in the first half, but we did gift them the first goal and I felt we just had to focus more.
“But after we lost the second goal, I felt it was men against boys at times. Some of the defending decisions we made were just absolutely ridiculous.
“We looked as though we had given up in certain areas. That’s a thing we cannot accept.
“We have got to look at why that’s happening and we have got to look to change that mentality.”
Ayr took the lead on the quarter-hour mark through Michael Moffat.
Lawrence Shankland got the second in the 52nd minute before Moffat completed his hat-trick with strikes in 63 and 80 minutes.
Sub Craig Moore added the fifth five minutes from time.
