Dagenham & Redbridge boss Daryl McMahon wants his inconsistent side to show more courage at Scunthorpe on Saturday.
Daggers head to Lincolnshire on the back of a disappointing 1-0 home defeat against Eastleigh in midweek.
And McMahon questioned the commitment of some of his players after that reverse, which left them down in 10th place in the National League table.
"I moved to England when I was 15 years old and I'm 39, 40 this year. I've worked in football since I was 15, to me it's my career, that I've committed to, my family has committed to," he told the club website.
"I love football, we've got some people in our changing room that see it as a job, not a career. They don't love it, they don't care about it as much as they should do.
"I've had to stay quiet on that probably for too long. I'm sick to death now of coming out and defending people and watching the performances I'm watching and we have to be honest and say it's not good enough.
"We're in a position now, still close to the play-offs but we're miles away from it in terms of our performance levels and need to improve quickly.
"It's how serious you take it. You have to be on it all the time.
"They're not empty words, they're not slogans. You have to be ready to play all the time, to work all the time. Not every now and then.
"I think we've had too many this season, that's every now and then. And it's not good enough."
Daggers had beaten Solihull Moors 2-1 last weekend, with two goals from recent signing Inih Effiong, but were brought back down to earth with a bump by the loss to the Spitfires.
"We've shown the ability to bounce back all season but it's about bouncing back and staying there, not going up and down like a yo-yo like we have been doing in the last month or so," added McMahon.
"We need to be more consistent, believe more in what we're doing, show more courage and enjoy it. Enjoy the challenge of every week that is this division.
"Saturday-Tuesday, it's relentless and you've got to be a resilient character to get through it and perform through it and we need to show that now."
Daggers sit two points off a play-off spot, having played a game more than seveth-placed Boreham Wood, but have just one win in their last five league outings.
And McMahon says he is up for the challenge of chasing promotion, but wants all of his players to think along the same lines.
"I'm the manager of the football club and the results fall on me. I accept that, I'll always accept that," he said.
"I've always been someone that has got courage and anyone who knows me will say that. I'm happy to take on any challenge put in front of me, I won't hide.
"But we just need some more. It's not the whole group, we've got some fantastic players and fantastic people, but we can't go from the performance Saturday to that [Tuesday night], because it's a million miles away from what we saw Saturday.
"We're disappointed with that performance, we're disappointed as a group.
"I need to see better performances and more commitment to what we're doing."
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