DECLAN GALLAGHER insists Livingston can get their mojo back by fighting for their Premiership lives again.
The Lions have suffered an alarming dip in form in recent weeks and have endured five straight defeats in a worrying run of seven games without a win.
Despite back-to-back 3-0 losses against Motherwell and Rangers, their stunning early-season record means they still sit eighth in the table ahead of Wednesday evening’s trip to face Hearts at Tynecastle.
They are a massive 18 points ahead of St Mirren at the bottom and 15 points above Hamilton Accies in 10th with almost two-thirds of the campaign over.
But Gallagher reckons the Almondvale men need to ignore any thoughts they are already safe in the top-flight and must keep attempts to avoid the drop as their number one goal this term.
He said: “Our mindset is still don’t go down.
“Obviously, people are saying it’s not possible but at the end of the day that’s the way you have to think at a club like this.
“We’re the smallest financed club in the league. Clubs like Dundee, St Mirren and Hamilton all recruited in January, with some big names and a lot of money spent.
“Yes, we recruited but it was more maybe loans or free transfers, and with the amount of signings they’ve made and the amount we’ve made we’re still a pretty small and young squad.
“I don’t think we’ve ever got it in our minds that we’re not going to get sucked into that fight.
“We have to keep thinking about doing the right things against the bigger teams and not thinking ‘they’re just a wee team and we’re a big team’. That won’t be the case this season for us.
“Teams are now starting to show us a bit of respect, in terms of the way they’re shaping up against us. They’re starting to shape up to nullify our strengths, which is massive respect to what all our boys have done this season.
“I think we’ve maybe taken our foot of the gas as well a wee bit, thinking that because we’re up so high we should be playing better stuff.
“Whereas, really, we should just be sticking to what we’re good at and trying to be a hard team to beat instead of going out there thinking we could maybe take three points from this game.
“We need to get back to basics and think we have to be hard to beat and then try to win the game.”
