Derek McInnes insists he wants his players to thrive under the pressure of trying to lead Kilmarnock straight back to the Premiership.
The experienced former Aberdeen boss accepts that there is now little margin for error as the Championship enters the final straight.
Killie, who have played an extra game, are two points adrift of leaders Arbroath at the summit ahead of Saturday’ s visit of promotion rivals Raith Rovers.
And McInnes insists there is no point in trying to play down the fact that his team are having to deal with high expectation levels.
McInes, who watched Kille come from behind to beat Dunfermline last weekend courtesy of a Kyle Lafferty brace, said: “Every player here has to accept there is a pressure to get back up.
“They had 28 years as a Premiership club for a reason.
“We feel we are an established top flight club but we have found ourselves out of it.
“It is now up to us to do something about it.
“With that comes pressure but it helps to have players with a certain level of experience.
“That mentality and nous and inner confidence to deal with things when the game doesn't go to plan.
“The bigger the game the bigger the performance is what we are aiming for. I thought our experienced players came to the fore last Saturday.”
Despite admitting all eyes are on Kilmarnock in the second tier, McInnes does not agree with his team having the favourites tag.
He added: “I have never really bought into the whole 'favourites' thing, the league table doesn't lie.
“There's nothing between the top teams, and even the teams who are at the bottom can become rejuvenated and they've hit form at different times.
"The league table suggests we aren't favourites, the best team has been Arbroath up until now, everyone is trying to challenge that including us.
"Hopefully come the end of the season when you can properly reflect, we can worry if we're the best.
"I am really pleased with how receptive the players have been, I can see how honest they are.
"We now have to bring a consistency of results to make each game bigger than the next, that's what we want.
"We want the drama, we want the excitement of a strong finish.
"We don't want to be on the outside looking at other people lifting the trophy, we want to push ourselves forward and win these games coming up.”
