Tuesday's Barclays Premier League trip to Bolton Wanderers is just what West Ham United need, according to Robert Green.
The England goalkeeper was powerless to prevent the Hammers being beaten 1-0 at Birmingham City on Saturday in a game the visitors were unfortunate to lose.
Having suffered both the frustration of a fourth away defeat of the season, as well as that of losing Mark Noble to a harsh sending-off, Green said it was time for he and his team-mates to roll their sleeves up and gain a positive result at the Reebok Stadium.
"I'm glad the game is coming," he said. "It's a game against another team that's down there. We've got to be looking at picking up points there.
"We've got to go there and grit our teeth and get through it, and come out with a positive result on the other side. It's a busy, important time for us and it is still so tight.
"If we'd won on Saturday, we'd have gone somewhere like 12th or something crazy like that. That's the way the league us at this moment in time, but we've got to start picking up points.
"You go on good runs and bad runs and we won one and drew a couple which got us by, but now we're looking at a couple of defeats in a row and to bounce back pretty quick. You don't get much bigger than Tuesday."
Reflecting further on Saturday's loss at St. Andrews, Green echoed manager Gianfranco Zola's feelings at the result.
The Hammers gave as good as they got in the Midlands, with Kieron Dyer hitting a post and Alessandro Diamanti shaving Joe Hart's woodwork on more than one occasion.
At the final whistle, though, West Ham had nothing to show for their considerable efforts, a fact lamented by the 29-year-old.
"It was a difficult defeat to take. We showed spirit after going down to ten men and a goal down. We showed the spirit to come back and fight and when you look at the chances we maybe could have got a point. We had a lot of pressure but missed that clinical finish.
"It was one of those games that was quite end to end, but the quality wasn't there at times. Neither team really controlled it. It was one of those games that was going to be decided by the odd goal and, unfortunately for us, while you're down there, you get kicked."