Bristol City defender Rob Atkinson says the squad need to "take a good look" at themselves as they battle to keep their Championship promotion push alive.
City who were inside the top six on Boxing Day have slipped to 12th, four points off the play-off places, following a run of two wins in seven matches.
Atkinson told BBC Bristol: "If we really want to mount the sort of promotion push that we keep talking about, then we really need to look at ourselves and get those fine margins in our favour.
"It's back to the drawing board in that sense. We need to get points from games like Saturday's defeat [at Swansea] where there's not much between the two teams."
The Robins have drawn eight and lost 12 of their 33 league matches so far, with six of those defeats being by a one-goal margin.
"We're playing well, but its not enough if we want to do something this season," added 27-year-old Atkinson. "We need to get a cut-throat ability to really punish teams and get those extra points.
"There's plenty of games in the season where you can look at moments which we haven't really capitalised on.
"Because it's getting towards the end of the season, it hurts a bit more now.
"It's not just the attackers, it's the midfielders, defenders - we all need to be more ruthless."
City are back in action on Tuesday night (19:45 GMT) with a trip to relegation-threatened Blackburn Rovers who are 20th, five points clear of the bottom three.
Rovers won their first home match under new manager Michael O'Neill with a stoppage-time winner over Preston North End.
"There's no easy games in this league, unfortunately," Atkinson continued. "Especially this time of the season when those sides battling with relegation turn into different animals.
"Another really difficult game, but one that we're another one we are going to relish, and go there with a positive mind set."
Tuesday will be City's third game in eight days, with two more in the following week due to their FA Cup fourth-round tie at Port Vale having to be rescheduled for 3 March.
"Normally you associate such a tough period with Christmas and when you get through it, it's usually plain sailing. The cup tie has killed us a little bit, to create mayhem in the fixture list."
Atkinson is asking fans to keep believing in the side that reached the play-offs last season, before losing in the semi-finals.
"Twelve games to go - fans can think what they want but our job as a squad is to take what we can from each game - whether positive or negative - work on stuff and focus on the next game.
"We can't change the past, we just need to get on with it."