David Martindale admits Livingston are now under mounting pressure in their bid to land a top-six finish this season.
Saturday’s 3-0 defeat to St Mirren left the Lions languishing in seventh place with just three games to go to the split.
Martindale was worried by a ‘horrendous’ performance from his side in what he knows was a potentially pivotal encounter.
A victory would have pulled them four points clear of the Buddies with just nine points at stake before the split.
Instead, they are now a point adrift of Hibernian and two away from St Mirren, with Aberdeen another three points ahead.
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The Almondvale boss remains confident the West Lothian men can avoid a repeat of last year’s disappointment, when they were dramatically denied a top-half finish by an injury-time Motherwell equaliser.
But he accepts that the weekend loss in Paisley ramps up the tension in the race to avoid being stuck in the bottom half of the table.
He said: “It puts a wee bit more pressure on the staff and a wee bit more pressure on the players to pick points up.
“If we had won we would probably have eased that pressure on ourselves slightly.
“It puts demands on us more and intensifies the pressure within the group.
“So, we’ve got three huge games [left]. It’s gong to be an interesting two or three weeks.
“But this has probably added a wee bit more pressure to ourselves. Where would you rather be? With three games to go you would rather be in front.”
