Jack Colback has admitted Nottingham Forest have "not been good enough" this season and says the players have to take responsibility for their struggles.
The former Newcastle midfielder made his long-awaited return from injury against Coventry in midweek coming on as a second half sub as the Reds sealed a 2-1 win.
That victory took them up to 19th in the table ahead of their trip to Wycombe in a campaign when they were expected to be challenging for promotion to the Premier League.
But despite a lavish spending spree last summer, which saw the Reds make a number of high-profile captures, they find themselves at the wrong end of the Championship table.
And Colback pulled no punches in his assessment of the problems at the City Ground this season which saw the club appoint Chris Hughton as Sabri Lamouchi's successor just four games into the campaign.
“We know this season we’ve not been good enough," he told BBC Radio Nottingham.
"We’re in an area of the table we shouldn’t be.
"After this amount of games, the table doesn’t lie, and we’ve got take responsibility as players and put in more good performances and pick up more points.
“There’s been a few times where we’ve made a little gap, and then two weeks later, you’re back amongst it.
"It’s just the way this league is, everyone can beat everyone, teams take points off each other.
“On the flip side, a couple of wins and all of a sudden you’re up to mid-table.
"Everyone’s disappointed with the way this season has gone, and we’re going to try and finish with a flourish and try and get as many points as we can."
The Reds can take another stride away from the dangerzone against Wycombe on Saturday when they face Gareth Ainsworth's strugglers.
Despite Wycombe winning three games in the league all season, Hughton's side will be in for a tremendous fight as the Chairboys try to engineer an unlikely escape.
On the challenge facing his side, Hughton said: "We've another tough game away from home at Wycombe. And we will have to show a lot of the qualities that we showed last night.
"Speaking to people after the game, and some of their players that I know after the game, I speak about this division and how demanding and tough this division is in every game.
"It will be no less than that at the weekend. And we'll have to be at the level that we were against Coventry."
