Greg Kiltie admits off-form St Mirren must quickly find a way to stop their cinch Premiership campaign unravelling.
The Buddies asserted themselves in third place in the early months of the season after going unbeaten through their opening seven cinch Premiership matches.
However, Stephen Robinson’s side have slipped to fifth – behind Hearts and Kilmarnock – after losing four of their last six games and winning just two of their last 10.
Hibernian, Dundee and Aberdeen are all lurking just beneath them with games in hand and Kiltie is mindful of the need to avoid dropping further down the league.
“It’s important we don’t nosedive,” said winger Kiltie. “We won a lot of games at the start of the season, but if you’re not going to be doing that, it’s important you keep picking points up along the way.”
Saints were leapfrogged by Kilmarnock at the weekend, but they have the chance to go back above Derek McInnes’ side and into fourth place if they beat them in Paisley on Wednesday night.
“It is important that we get back to winning ways,” said former Killie player Kiltie. “Our home form’s been pivotal not only this season but last season as well so we definitely need it.
“We’ve got three hard games coming up so we need to take care of the Kilmarnock game and then see what happens after that.”
After the Killie match, St Mirren face two testing fixtures away to Aberdeen and then at home to Celtic. Kiltie dismissed any notion that his side need the winter break to come in order to rediscover their form.
“We still want to do well before the break,” he said. “You never know, if we get a few good results then suddenly we’re saying the winter break is not coming at a good time for us. It’s swings and roundabouts in this league.”
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