Liam Kelly admits it's been a nightmare month for Motherwell and he insists the whole squad has to improve if they are to compete in a tightly-contested Scottish Premiership.
While September had Motherwell looking towards the top of the Premiership and gaffer Graham Alexander picking up the manager of the month award, October has been a horrible few weeks for 'Well.
From disputed penalties, to calls for VAR and now a 6-1 Halloween hammering at the hands of Rangers to close out the month, Motherwell are on a run of four defeats in their last five outings.
With one point from a possible 15, the Steelmen will welcome November with open arms.
And Kelly says everyone at the club must step up their levels ahead of Saturday's trip to face a resurgent Aberdeen, who sit just above them on goal difference in sixth place in the Premiership.
Vice-captain Kelly, who will take the armband this weekend after Stephen O'Donnell's red card against Rangers, said: "It's been a nightmare. That points total isn't good enough.
"We need to stay positive, but nobody is going to help us out, we need to help ourselves.
"We need to stick together because there's some really big games coming up.
"We've got Aberdeen before the international break and then we've got Hearts after that, so they are difficult games and hopefully we can turn it around.
"I think we need to get better. We need to improve - myself included, I'm no different to anyone else.
"Every game is so difficult in this league. You see that results can go either way, there's not really anybody [stranded] at the bottom.
"It's a really close league, so we need to get better and give a better account of ourselves than that."
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