Peterhead assistant manager Davie Nicholls insists the players need to put the work in to earn their change of fortune.
Nicholls said he saw “light at the end of the tunnel” last week after their defeat to Queen of the South but the Blue Toon are still to find a way of arresting their struggles.
They sit bottom of League One heading into this afternoon’s home game against Alloa Athletic, eight points adrift of eighth-placed Kelty Hearts.
Peterhead’s only win of the season so far came against Kelty and Nicholls feels a turnaround will come if they stick to their tasks.
“You can only get that from hard work,” said Nicholls. “That’s what I’ve been drumming home to them.
“You need to take care of the football when you’re playing and if you do that, you’ll get opportunities. If you’re slack and giving the ball back to the opposition, it’s a hard shift for yourself.
“You see it with the best teams in the world; they keep the ball, they don’t give it back needlessly. That’s what we’re trying to emphasise it to our boys.
“We’ve given teams an advantage through set-plays – we don’t seem to get free headers but when you’re given the responsibility of marking someone, just ensure that guy doesn’t score. That’s your job.
“Everybody contributes by doing that. If the opposition doesn’t score, you’ve always got a chance of playing well and getting a goal.
“Our guys need to show up, give it everything they’ve got and they’re more than capable of getting a result.”
Midfielder Andy McCarthy is closing on a return to action, although today’s game will come too soon for the former Partick Thistle midfielder.
“He’s been excellent this week and had a couple of really good training sessions,” said Nicholls. “Andy being Andy was wanting to be involved today but it’s too soon for him.
“We’re desperate to get him back in the side because you can see in training he’s an excellent player. But the last thing we want to do is to put him in tomorrow after two training sessions and him break down again.
“We’d rather let him see the physio, get another week’s training in and the likelihood is he’ll be involved next week at some point.”
Andy McDonald and Ola Adeyemo are definitely out while Ryan Strachan (calf) is a major doubt. Russell McLean continues his rehab from a knee injury.
