Peterhead manager Jim McInally is determined to ensure nerves do not affect his players in their battle to beat the drop.
The Blue Toon are eighth in League One, just two points above the relegation play-off spot.
With 10 games left this season the tension is being ramped up with each passing week as it becomes tighter and tighter at the bottom of the division.
Balmoor boss McInally has experienced similar situations during his managerial career and believes one of the keys to avoiding relegation is making sure his players aren’t constricted by nerves.
Scotland’s longest-serving manager said: “Experience does help in these situations and I do have experience of these situations. But ultimately it’s about finding a way to get the players to express themselves and play with some freedom.
“You can’t be restricted by the situation, you need to want the ball and try to be positive.
“That was something we didn’t do enough of three years ago when we got relegated.
“You could see nerves coming through and it was the same last week against Forfar when it went to 1-1 we were nervous. But you can’t let that affect you, we have to be strong and try to get the points to keep us in the division.
“We have players who have experience of these situations and we need to make sure we encourage them and make sure they play their part in games.”
Peterhead return to action on Saturday against title challengers Falkirk at the Falkirk Stadium.
Next weekend table-toppers Raith Rovers visit Balmoor and, while the fixtures are far from easy for the Buchan outfit, McInally is relishing facing League One’s top two back-to-back.
He added: “It’s not the worse thing for us having Falkirk and Raith Rovers one after the other.
“They’re the top two and it means once we’ve got them played we don’t have to worry about playing them again.
“But we beat Raith in the last game at Balmoor (2-0 in November) and have drawn with Falkirk at home (0-0 in August).
“So we know we are capable of causing both of them problems. In our situation no game is a free hit – but playing Falkirk and Raith are as close as you get to free hits.
“We know what we’ve got to do to stay up. We have a points tally we feel we need to get to and it’s about trying to get there as quickly as possible.”
