Jim Goodwin has backed his St Mirren players to bounce back from their latest Hampden blow and finish the season strongly.

The Paisley side suffered a second semi-final defeat of the campaign when they went down 2-1 to St Johnstone in the Scottish Cup on Sunday.

They also suffered a major Scottish Premiership setback in between the last-four losses when Hamilton’s late equaliser denied them a top-six place.

But they still have seventh spot in their sights – a position which would give them their highest finish since 1989 – and are just one point behind current occupants Motherwell.

Speaking ahead of Wednesday’s trip to face relegation-threatened Kilmarnock, Goodwin said: “The last couple of days have been tough trying to pick the players up, as you can imagine, but we have a big, big game coming up.

“We have tried to emphasise how important these two games are.

“They are a very proud bunch and they wanted to finish the season in a positive manner.

“As much as Kilmarnock have a lot to play for, we do too. Motherwell are in the driving seat but we want to put pressure on them.

“We have to put the weekend behind us, we can’t do anything about it, and we just have to finish the season as well as we possibly can.

“In fairness to the players, whenever we have had any disappointment, we have always managed to bounce back in a positive manner and that’s what we will be asking for on Wednesday.”