It would be stretching the point to claim St Mirren are suffering their first mini-crisis since winning promotion last season, but three defeats in the space of a seven-day period will test the character of the Love Street squad.
Gus MacPherson will draw comfort from the fact that, while recent results have not been to his liking, the application and commitment from his side hasn't been in question.
The Saints performed well in last week's CIS Insurance Cup tie at Parkhead, holding out until the latter stages of the game. And against Dunfermline on Saturday they really did enough to earn a point from their trip to Fife.
However, it was a sloppy mistake from a throw-in that led to Dunfermline's winner, a blunder that left goalkeeper Tony Bullock fuming with his defence.
"We conceded possession from our own throw-in and it's another individual error, " he sighed. "We have already had a few of those this season but in this league you just cannot afford to do that.
"We have to start learning because it is aharsh lesson to take. You can't gift players at this level any extra opportunities because they will put them in the back of the net.
"We have to learn." St Mirren host Hibs this weekend in a game that will probably be the most testing MacPherson's side have had at Love Street this season.
And, despite the fact the Saints go into the game on the back of their worst run of results this season, Bullock is confident they will be ready for the demands of the Hibees.
"But we have dusted ourselves down. We came back in yesterday determined to get back into things and we have a good game to look forward to this weekend against Hibs.
"They also lost at the weekend, but they are a great team with loads of talented young lads who have plenty of energy and plenty of running in them. We will have to be at the top of our game."
STMIRREN'S failure to take anything from the weekend's game against Jim Leishman's Pars was down to their lack of cutting edge when it came to the kill.
Instead, the slight nature of their advantage meant the Pars were able to turn the game around, and it is composure in such situations that the Saints can improve upon.
"John Sutton was outstanding for us in the first half and so was Stewart Kean before he had to go off injured. We should have had more to show, though. To then concede a goal within seconds of the game restarting was hard to take.
"The manager had spent almost the whole 15 minutes stressing to us how important it was we kept the scoreline intact for as long as we could - only for us to go out and let them draw level immediately. We simply have to start being more aware."
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