Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson believes that his side are currently having to learn lessons as they bid to put together a promotion drive.
Having hit the top of the Championship table last month, they slipped to fourth place after Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Watford, their second consecutive loss.
"It is a bit of a learning curve for the players," said Pearson. "But they are a tight group and good players.
"We have had spells this season where results didn't go our way and we were playing well. (Against Watford) it wasn't a good performance.
"But I've worked in football long enough to be able to deal with either the over-reaction of playing well and getting results, or the reaction to not getting results."
City fans felt their side had three valid penalty claims during the second half, involving David Nugent, Matty James and Liam Moore, but Pearson was not about to use any of those as the cause of his side's downfall.
"I've seen them given," was his assessment on reviewing the incidents. "Having said that, I'm not going to use it to mask the fact that we haven't played as well as we can, which is two games running now. That is something we need to rectify relatively quickly.
"As a group so far this season, we have been excellent. There have been a couple of tough games when we haven't performed well as a team.
"In the last two games, we had too many players not quite hitting the level of performance and high-standards they have been hitting previously."
At the heart of City's problem on Saturday was their inability to make the most of the possession they did enjoy.
"We didn't manage the ball particularly well," said Pearson said. "One of the reasons we did not play well is that, when we had the ball, we did not do enough with it."
City have an immediate chance to try to improve that aspect of their play at Bolton tomorrow night.
"This division is relentless," said Pearson. "You just have to try to keep your nerve in terms of how you approach the game yourself.
"In the last two games we haven't played particularly well. That is how it is. My job is to prepare the side for a tough away game at Bolton."
Pearson will have to make changes to tomorrow night's line-up at the Reebok Stadium. Defender Zak Whitbread will be serving a one-game suspension following his 84th-minute dismissal at Vicarage Road. However, Ritchie De Laet is available having sat out Saturday's defeat through a one-game ban.
Ben Marshall shows his frustration during City's
