St Kilda coach Alan Richardson denies the pressure has gone up a notch as his team prepares to face AFL battlers Carlton on Sunday.
After a promising start the Saints have lost their past four and face a litmus test at Marvel Stadium against the Blues, who have managed just one win for the season.
The coach is off contract at the end of the year with another poor season likely to spell his demise.
While the Saints will start favourites, Richardson said his team wouldn't treat the match differently to any other and he didn't expect the outcome to affect his coaching future.
"What will be will be," Richardson said on Thursday.
"We just focus on what we can control.
"We focus on how we're going, what's working, what's not working, what do we need to fix.
"Then you get in to the opposition - what does their best look like, how can we control that, where do we get an advantage."
The Blues suffered a 93-point humiliation at the hands of GWS last round, while the Saints were competitive for three quarters against Collingwood before being over-run in a 41-point defeat.
Richardson said he expected Carlton to rebound and his team needed to "stick it out".
"We're keen to play four quarters of footy because last week, not unlike previous weeks against really good teams, we've been in the game. There's things that we can control that we've let ourselves down on and that's our focus."
The side will be without defender Jimmy Webster, who has undergone surgery to remove a plate from his right hand.
Webster had a plate inserted in 2017 but knocked it during the Saints' round seven match against GWS two weeks ago.
"There has been a fair bit of pain and he will miss a bit of footy - probably be two or three games given we have the bye," Richardson said.