Difficult situation: spot disheartened bridge partners (4)
I believe the answer is:
stew
'difficult situation' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'spot disheartened bridge partners' is the wordplay.
'disheartened' means to remove the middle letters.
'bridge partners' becomes 'EW' (East and West are partners in the card game bridge).
'spot' with its centre removed is 'st'.
'st'+'ew'='STEW'
(Other definitions for stew that I've seen before include "Cook by long slow simmering" , "what might be for dinner?" , "Dish cooked by simmering slowly" , "are nervous" , "Large watercourse" .)