Waterford manager Keith Long has issued a rallying cry to his players after a 2-0 defeat at Shamrock Rovers on Friday continued a "bad run" that has taken a grip of their season in recent weeks.
The Blues had started the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division season in impressive fashion, winning three of their first four games to briefly lead the table.
However, since then, Waterford have been on the slide, losing five games on the trot, capped by the loss in Tallaght on Friday.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport's John Kenny, manager Long pinpointed a looseness in defence as a factor behind their poor results and called on his players to put the shoulder to the wheel, stating that it was "important to halt the slide" as they head into the next phase of the campaign.
"Our season certainly won't be defined by losing against Shamrock Rovers in Tallaght," he said.
"We've conceded a goal from not stopping a cross and not defending the box, an attacker arrives unmarked at the back post, basic defending.
"It's been our Achilles heel for some time now, not being able to keep clean sheets.
"Rovers dominated the possession first half but didn't really create a huge amount of clear-cut chances, so we're disappointed with the goal we coughed up.
"And then second half, we make a couple of changes, getting a little bit of momentum in the game, a little bit more possession and then we concede from a set play, free-kick, so it's disappointing.
"Yeah, we started the season brightly and we're on a bad run at the moment so the only way out of it is to stick together, to work harder, to double down in terms of what we're trying to do and we need to show our character.
"We've got to show what we're made of now. We've a big game at home next week in the RSC against Sligo, so we enter the second phase of games now, everybody's played each other, the table is very competitive.
"Obviously we've lost a little bit of ground over the last number of games, so we have to try and put that right and try to start picking up points."
Aaron McEneff scored Rovers' first goal of the game with a header just after the half-hour mark, with the Hoops continuing to tick along nicely over the recent round of fixtures.
Stephen Bradley's side are now five games unbeaten - four of those being victories - and have a game in hand on Monday against Cork City, which would put them one point off the summit if they were to grab all three points.
"Cork will bring a new challenge for us," Rovers midfielder McEneff said.
"But we'll recover well this weekend, lads will get the feet up and we'll come in Sunday, have a look at Cork and it's enjoyable as a footballer to have the games.
"When they come thick and fast, that's what you want."
