Derry City manager Tiernan Lynch has insisted he "firmly believes" he can turn the team's fortunes around after a 2-1 defeat to Dundalk at Oriel Park extended their winless run in the League of Ireland Premier Division to seven matches.
The Candystripes currently sit sixth in the table, a staggering 18 points behind leaders Shamrock Rovers, despite preseason expectations that they would challenge for the title. Speaking after the loss, Lynch acknowledged the mounting pressure but remained defiant.
"I reflect every day. I don't need a break to reflect. As I said and continue to say, I look at everything that we do and the one thing I have to do is I have to keep believing that I can turn this around," Lynch told BBC Radio Foyle.
"I do firmly believe I can turn this around and I know, nobody wants to hear it right now, we've just lost. If it's a matter of me reflecting, I don't think anyone needs to worry about me reflecting.
"Straight away we need wins. Dominant performances and dominating possession, that's all definitely the way I want my team to play and definitely what I think the fans want to watch, but we've got to score goals. It's been hugely frustrating with lots of things going on, we've got to win games, that's the bottom line."
Derry fell behind on 20 minutes when Daryl Horgan fired past Eddie Beach. Cameron Dummigan leveled with a stunning volley in the 58th minute, but two minutes later Gbemi Arubi restored Dundalk's lead to condemn the visitors to their sixth defeat of the campaign.
Lynch described the loss as "really hard to take" and expressed his disappointment and frustration.
"The first half an hour of the game we were pinned back. I thought the second half we were much better, we changed our formation, we got a better handle of the game and we got ourselves back in the game," he said.
"Then we conceded again, so early and it was a game that we felt if we could get one to get ourselves back in, we really would have kicked on from there because, as I say, I thought we were a lot more dominant at that stage.
"We huffed and puffed but we didn't cause them enough problems. We had plenty of possession and got into good areas but we didn't work the goalkeeper enough and that's frustrating. The chances that they did create, they scored from. It's just really hard to swallow."