Jim Goodwin has told his Dundee United players “to not feel sorry” for themselves ahead of the battle with relegation rivals Kilmarnock on Wednesday night.

The Terrors’ boss was dismayed by the goals conceded in the 2-1 defeat at Livingston on Saturday and their third successive loss after three straight wins kept them bottom of the cinch Premiership, two points behind Ross County and three behind Killie, with two fixtures remaining.

After the visit of Kilmarnock, the Tannadice side take on Motherwell at Fir Park in the final fixture of the season on Sunday and Goodwin, who was appointed United manager on a short-term contract in March, stressed positivity to his players at a meeting on Monday.

“The key message was to not feel sorry for ourselves,” said the Irishman, who will make a late decision on Steven Fletcher’s groin injury which kept him out the trip to West Lothian.

“I don’t want to see anyone mumping and moaning about the place.

“I want to see everyone nice and bright which I think I got at training this morning, there was a positive reaction.

“We are not brushing anything under the carpet.

“We have spoken about the mistakes we made on Saturday and we emphasised again the importance of Wednesday in terms of making better decisions in those key moments and if we do that then  we give ourselves a really good chance.

“I don’t think there is a great deal between the two teams.

“I think it will be a close affair again like most of the games in the league are but there is lot of stake for both teams.

“But we have some very good players in that dressing room who are more than capable of turning it on and hopefully we see that on Wednesday.

“Every game since I came through the door has been massively important  and the next one is the most important but Wednesday night is the biggest game of the season.

“We don’t need to over-emphasise what is at stake. We are still in the fight.”