David Martindale has told his Livingston players they all are playing for Betfred Cup final places when they face St Mirren on Saturday.

The Livi boss had said during his side’s 14-game unbeaten run that a contrast in fortunes could leave his Hampden XI to face St Johnstone on Sunday week up for grabs.

And after Scottish Premiership losses to the McDiarmid Park side and Dundee United, Martindale said: “That is exactly where we are.

“The boys all know. We spoke about it after Saturday and I told them the team going into the St Mirren game can put a marker down for the cup final so that’s where we are and the boys are OK with that.

“They trained really well all week, they were extremely positive on Monday when they came in and everybody knows where they stand”.

The West Lothian side are in fifth place and five points ahead of St Mirren and Dundee United in the race for a top-six spot.

Martindale acknowledge the importance of the match in Paisley but will take nothing from the 1-0 Betfred Cup semi-final win over the Buddies at Hampden Park in January.

“A win for either team makes a wee bit of a statement,” said the Livingston boss, who said the club would “take on the chin” the SFA’s decision to uphold the red card given to defender Jack Fitzwater last week for denying a goal-scoring opportunity against United.

“It obviously gives St Mirren a great chance to catch us but if we can open up an eight-point gap it gives us a bit of security in the next four games after that (before the split).

“I think you could see from those two teams (at Hampden) that there was a lot of nerves in play, a lot at stake so I am not really reading too much into it.

“St Mirren are the only team we have not taken points from in the Premiership this season so we will be going out to try to rectify that.”