Linfield boss David Healy insists the Blues will “stick together” and not press the panic button after being dumped out of the Irish Cup at Larne.
The holders exited the competition with a whimper on Friday night, Lee Bonis bagging a double to fire the Inver Park men into the quarter-finals.
Linfield are now three games without a win following their recent 2-2 draw with Cliftonville at Solitude and last Saturday’s 3-0 defeat to Coleraine at the Showgrounds.
And Healy accepts there’s no hiding place with crucial league games against Larne and league leaders Glentoran looming large on Tuesday and Friday.
“We’ve been in the mire before when I’ve been at Linfield and we’ve gone through poor runs and whatever else,” he said.
“I don’t think we’re in the mire now but I’ve been in it before when things go continually wrong no matter what you try and do.
“I still believe we have a great group of players at this club.
"We’ve had a couple of disappointing performances and results, which happens at any level.
“But we’ll stick together and we’ll come out fighting on Tuesday night for a positive performance and hopefully a positive result.”
Healy, who led Linfield to Irish Cup glory as part of a memorable domestic double last season, was frustrated to exit the last-16 with an off-colour display.
The former Northern Ireland striker was also disappointed that his players failed to find a response to their heavy loss at the Coleraine Showgrounds.
“I thought we would have got a response,” he said. “The players have been OK, they trained well all week, so we were hoping for and expecting a response performance wise and result.
“But we got neither. We got neither. It was a disappointing performance and a disappointing result and ultimately it puts Larne through to the next round.
"It’s never nice to go out of a competition like the Irish Cup and I just don’t think we were good enough the whole night. I don’t think we got to grips with the game.
“We were proud holders of the cup from last year and to give it up the way we did and in the manner we did was disappointing.”
Larne’s reward for Friday night’s win is a trip to either Ballymena United or Portstewart in the last-eight on the weekend of March 4 and 5.
Linfield lie two points below Big Two rivals Glentoran at the league summit heading into Tuesday's home clash with Larne.
