STEPHEN McMANUS has faith in Motherwell's character to carry them through their rocky start to the season.

Six games in to their campaign and the Fir Park club have won just one game on SPFL Premiership duty and been dumped out of Europa League qualifying by Icelandic side Stjarnan.

Their latest loss came on Saturday in a 2-0 defeat at Rugby Park, despite Well enjoying a far improved showing than the previous week against Inverness.

The result in Ayrshire means Stuart McCall's side have lost three league games on the bounce for the first time in two years, with them keen to stop it reaching four against St Johnstone this Saturday.

And McManus believes the resolve within the Motherwell dressing room, especially among the more experienced members of the squad, will prove to be invaluable in steadying the Well ship.

He said: "Listen, these things happen in football. It's a test of character and we will see what we are made of.

"It's a good bunch we have here, a few strong characters in the dressing room.

"You get times like these when you lose a few games, confidence takes a wee bit of a dent and we're not creating a lot of chances and strikers and midfielders are not scoring.

"But we'll get through it. And the only way to do that is by working hard and grafting away.

"Hopefully we can get the boys who have been struggling with injuries back and fit as quickly as possible and we'll take it from there."

The former Scotland centre-half added: "Some of the boys have never experienced this in their career. And it feels like the end of the world at times.

"But it gets put into perspective by certain things that are going on outside of football.

"You need to go back to the drawing board, reassess and look to improve.

"The good thing is we have got belief. We've gained a lot of experience in the last few years.

"We performed really well last season so you can trust yourself to get back on the wagon and win matches."