Kilmarnock manager Tommy Wright is encouraged by his players’ positivity and resilience ahead of a huge week.

Killie dropped back into the Scottish Premiership bottom two after they lost 2-0 to Motherwell last time out.

After a 10-day interval, they get the chance to boost their survival hopes on Wednesday when they host St Mirren while relegation rivals Ross County and Hamilton face each other in Dingwall.

Killie could have guaranteed survival back in their own hands before facing Accies on Sunday and Wright’s players are staying upbeat.

“Since I’ve come in I don’t think anyone has ever heard me say I need to pick the players up, even after the early defeats, because we knew the performances were good,” Wright said.

“We were extremely disappointed after Motherwell because it meant it’s not really in our hands but we came in on Monday morning and they were flying and raring to go.

“That’s one thing I couldn’t criticise the group about, they have made sure they stay positive. We have stayed positive with them. You need to get the work in but we have tried to get them to train with a tempo and a smile on their face as well.

“It hasn’t been hard, that level of resilience that they have has been quite good since we’ve been in.

“When you look back at the (Motherwell) game after you have time to reflect on it, we had something like 18 shots. So we did get into good areas again.

“It wasn’t probably as bad a performance as I first thought after the game.”