Livingston defender Declan Gallagher says his side are determined to work their way out of a run of five consecutive defeats and prove their bubble has not burst.

Gary Holt's men have been the Ladbrokes Premiership's surprise package this season following two successive promotions and spent most of the first half of the campaign in the top six.

But they slipped to eighth after Saturday's 3-0 defeat at Motherwell and have a tough fixture against Hearts at Tynecastle on Wednesday.

Gallagher said: "A lot of people are going to say our bubble has burst, but we are still sitting eighth in the league, we are still doing well.

"If people asked at the start of the season where we were going to be in the table, they would probably have said we'd be relegated.

"I don't think the bubble has burst at all. It comes down to a bad run of form and it's up to us to pick ourselves up from it.

"It's just by working hard, like we have done the whole season.

"If you asked us at the start of the season would we think we were going to go the full year without getting a sticky run of results, probably not.

"These things happen in football, it's just how you treat it basically.

"We have to get back to winning ways – scoring goals and keeping clean sheets – and it all comes down to hard work."