St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin has urged his team to "dig in" as they bid to navigate a heavy schedule without five key players.
Saints are in the midst of a run of eight games in 25 days and are still without forwards Eamonn Brophy, Kristian Dennis and Collin Quaner plus midfielders Jamie McGrath and Jake Doyle-Hayes for Saturday's Scottish Premiership clash with Livingston.
Only Quaner is close to a comeback and the Paisley side had two goalkeepers on their unfilled bench for Wednesday's 1-1 draw with Hamilton.
But Goodwin has his eyes on the prize of a top-six spot, with his side ahead of Dundee United on goal difference and with the chance to move two points off fifth-placed Livingston.
"We're in a little bit of a sticky patch when it comes to the personnel that's available," he told the club's SMTV.
"When you look at the quality of the five players who are missing at the moment, they could all arguably be in the starting 11.
"We are now at the stage where we have got a lot of kids involved. We brought Peter Urminsky into the squad last Saturday just to be a part of it, because he is working hard in training and if we can't fill the bench we might as well put the players who are registered in it.
"So we had two goalkeepers, two 18-year-olds, a 20-year-old in Daniel Finlayson, who is still to make his senior debut in the Premiership, and a couple of senior players.
"The options on the bench aren't what they were a few weeks ago, which is disappointing, especially going into this crucial period.
"But we can't feel sorry for ourselves, we had a strong starting 11 on Wednesday night, and we just have to make sure the boys recover really quickly for what will be another huge battle against Livingston."
There is no let-up in their fixture pile-up with a rearranged game against Motherwell to come next Wednesday.
"I'll be honest, we could really do without a midweek game at some period, just to allow the lads another couple of days to recover," he said.
"Recently I have been trying to rotate the squad to rest one or two to avoid injury, but the injuries we have been picking up are not muscle injuries due to fatigue. It's not down to the training regime or anything that we could have done differently.
"Eamonn Brophy has got a stress fracture in his foot, Jake Doyle-Hayes landed awkwardly, Collin Quaner came on 12 minutes into his debut and took a real sore one from Murray Davidson, Kristian Dennis tore an Achilles, James McGrath dislocated his shoulder.
"We just have to make the best of the situation we are in. We are in a fantastic position going into the business end of the season, five games to the split, sitting sixth in the table.
"It's a time now just to dig in, tiredness won't come into it.
"We will just need to dust ourselves down mentally, make sure we are strong enough to get through it and get the job done and make sure we have got top-six football to look forward to after the split."
