Jason Naismith was pitched in for his Cove Rangers debut on Friday and it did not take long to realise they were not resilient enough.
Cove shipped five against Ayr United, taking their goals conceded tally to 19 since the start of the year.
From being a team that looked capable of pushing into the middle of the Championship pack, they now have the worst defensive record in the league and are nervously looking over their shoulder.
Naismith is the latest of six January signings and was thrown in at the deep end, as Cove’s defensive woes continued.
“It was a bit of a shock,” said Naismith. “It seemed there was a bit of an acceptance when the goal went in, which was disappointing from our point of view, as if we’d got beat when it went to two.
“It hurts quite a lot. Football is all about confidence and there’s a pride in not conceding goals.
‘It hurts’
“The longer you stay in games, especially in this league, anything can happen. We need to find that resilience to stay in games as long as we can.”
Naismith came from a Queen’s Park side who are looking every inch the promotion contenders, however he was a fringe figure in that.
He made just three league appearances after joining Queens in the summer and had not started a game since October.
“I want to play regularly and get up to full fitness again but it’s not really about myself,” he added. “It’s about the club and we want to do better than that.
“It doesn’t matter how well you’re doing personally – if you’re not doing well collectively, it reflects badly on yourself.
“It hurts coming into a game like that and the manner we got beat.”
In the wake of their latest hammering, manager Paul Hartley demanded more fight from his side and believed they were too nice.
“I’d probably agree with it,” added Naismith. “When it goes to two, there has to be a resilience and we didn’t have that.
“Maybe it is a bit of nastiness to say ‘no more goals’. The Championship is not always nice; you go through spells in games where the football isn’t always nice but if you stay in games, anything can happen.”