RYAN McGowan is hoping City are over the worst of it as they bid to salvage their season.

Performances have picked up since the low point of their second-half collapse at Gillingham last month.

Saturday’s gritty display at high-flying Peterborough earned a first point in seven league games and tonight City are chasing a first win for seven weeks when they host Aldershot in an FA Cup first-round replay.

McGowan said: “We’re sick of sitting here every week and saying ‘we need to do this and that’.

“It could be me one week, Chicks (Adam Chicksen) the next or whoever all saying the same things.

“But until we start performing on the pitch, it’s just words. We’re at that stage where we need to start showing it.

“Saturday was a baby step towards that and we need to start putting a run together.

“It was very important we stopped the run of losses and we need to build on that result tonight.”

With Paul Caddis not eligible to feature because he had not signed in time for the original game, McGowan is expected to revert to right back against the National League side.

The Australian was part of a three-man central defence that kept a tight lid on free-scoring Peterborough at the weekend and he can sense the confidence slowly beginning to build again in the ranks after a torrid first third of the season.

He added: “We’ve been working hard in training and not doing what we’ve been working on in games.

“We’ve made mistakes at key moments or not taken our chances. But performances in the last month haven’t been as bad as the results have maybe shown, bar Gillingham.

“This is a welcome breather from the league but it’s extremely important. If we go out tonight then Saturday was irrelevant.

“The first game was obviously in difficult conditions. Hopefully the pitch will be a lot better and we’re at home, so the onus is on us to put on a good performance.

“Expectation from everyone is that we should be well up the league from where we are and be progressing through against Aldershot.

“But it’s not always like that. We all know exactly where we are and what we have to do to get out of it.”

The 1-1 draw in waterlogged Hampshire 10 days ago was McGowan’s debut in the FA Cup – and an occasion he is unlikely to forget in a hurry.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve played in conditions like that,” he admitted. “If they hadn’t scored early, I think it might have been called off.

“It was very difficult. I just think everyone was hoping it wasn’t a slip or mistake that would decide it.”