An inability to stop the bleeding after they suffered some autumnal wounds cost Livingston their place in the Premiership, according to St Johnstone midfielder, Jason Holt.
And the snowball effect at his old club last season of unbroken draws and losses should serve as a warning to his current one.
Saints, who haven’t put three points on the board since early August, need to get winning again, and fast.
“When you’re not winning games of football it’s easy to get stuck into a rut,” said Holt.
“The most important thing is to not let it fester for too long.
“You need to snap out of it as soon as you can and put points on the board.
“You can’t let it get to seven or eight games.
“We found out last season that things can spiral pretty quickly then, before you know it, things are going against you.
“It’s important that you keep a positive head on and create your own luck.
“I’m confident this squad will be able to do that.”
Dingwall pain lingers
Saints face Ross County at McDiarmid Park on Saturday, determined to seize their opportunity of banishing the pain of snatching a draw from the jaws of victory in Dingwall last month.
“When you throw a lead away in the way we did, you hold on to that feeling,” said Holt.
“We fully expected to come down the road with three points after getting ourselves 3-1 in front with not long left in the game.
“We obviously know their threats – they will cause us problems
“But we need to be confident and focus on what we can do to hurt them.
“It’s our home game this time and we’re really looking forward to it.
“I was involved in a game up in Dingwall with Livingston when we were 2-0 down, came back to 2-2 in the last minute, were looking to get a winner, but ended up losing it in stoppage time.
“That was a similar feeling to our game a month ago.
“The good thing here is it’s far earlier in the season and there’s more time on our side.
“There are loads of games to play and points to play for.”
Holt, who returned to training at the end of last week after being sidelined with “a slight calf issue” insisted that the dugout absence of new head coach, Simo Valakari, won’t have an adverse impact on their performance.
“It’s not something that’s in our control,” he said.
“As players, we’ve been working hard on the training pitch.
“There has been communication from the manager to the coaching staff, with messages he wants to get across.
“We’ll try an implement them on the pitch and won’t let our focus drop.”
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