Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson said he is not willing to let all his side's hard work this season be jeopardised by their current abysmal run of form.
City have plummeted from second to seventh in the Championship after just one victory from their last 11 league games.
That is in stark contrast to the side's run throughout January, which saw them win five on the bounce.
With just six games left and two points outside the play-offs, City face an extremely tough run-in, starting with today's trip to Brighton (3.0), followed by Birmingham, Bolton, Crystal Palace, Watford and Nottingham Forest.
A win this afternoon would see City leapfrog the Seagulls back into the top six, but Pearson admitted his side have left themselves an awful lot to do.
"We are at that stage in the season where we have worked so hard to get into a good position," he said.
"But during the last two months, not always through playing badly, we have had too many days where we have not done enough.
"Now whether that is through lacking confidence or being out of sorts, or a day like Barnsley where we were very poor, we have given ourselves an awful lot to do.
"We are much better than that, it's the same group of players who have put in some outstanding performances this season and yet, against Barnsley, for long periods, the performance was unacceptable.
"We have got a group of players who have shown a lot of quality throughout the season, but it's not happening for us at the moment.
"We have got to rectify it because I am not prepared to see the majority of the season's hard work continue to be put at risk through turning out performances like that."
The squad was treated to a visit from Aiyawatt 'Top' Srivaddhanaprabha yesterday.
City's vice-chairman wished the players and the staff well as they head into the final six games of the season.
Pearson said it is now all about getting back to winning ways in today's make-or-break clash at the Amex Stadium.
"It is really a case now of trying to get back to doing the basics better, and giving ourselves the best chance of getting a play-off place during the next six games," he said.
"The immediate need is to inject the belief back into the players but, to do that, you've got to be open and frank and honest about it.
"It is a bit of a conundrum that remains a difficult one to solve until we actually get back to winnings ways.
"The lack of confidence within the group is such that we look a fragile side at the moment.
"We have got to try to halt the slide we have been experiencing, and we all have the opportunity of achieving what we have set out to do.
"There is still an awful lot to play for, talk is one thing, but doing it is a completely different thing.
"If we continue to perform in the manner that we have done recently, then that will make it very difficult.
"We've got to get back to getting out on the pitch and doing it in a positive manner, and I know as soon as we do that we'll get back to winning games."
