Despite St Mirren’s Scottish Cup exit at the weekend, Jim Goodwin insists his players will go into tonight’s league encounter against St Johnstone full of confidence.

Much-improved form has seen Goodwin’s side lose just one of their last five league outings, with battling draws against Aberdeen and Hibernian reinforced by a 2-1 win away to third-placed Motherwell.

Having created a gap on basement club Hearts, the Buddies are now looking above them as they welcome St Johnstone.

“Our league form has been good,” said Goodwin. “I think our form in the last 10 games would put us in the top half of the table.

“The St Johnstone match will look after itself. The players know how big this game is.

“We’re out of the cup now, so all the focus is on the league. I said before the game against Aberdeen that the league is our main priority. It’s imperative that we maintain our Premiership status next season.

READ MORE: Scottish Cup reminds Goodwin of 2013 League Cup glory

“We’ve been playing well and we’ll be going into the game on the back of a good win against Motherwell in the league. Taking the Aberdeen cup game out of it, we’re in a good place.

“St Johnstone are a decent team and are on a good run of form at the moment but we’ve beaten them already. We beat them 2-0 here earlier this season, so we’ve got to believe we can do the same again.”

Looking back to the cup exit, Goodwin is certain it was a golden opportunity missed.

He added: “I felt like it was an opportunity. Aberdeen are a good team but I felt they were in a fragile place. They weren’t coming into the game on a great run of form and I felt they were there for the taking.

“That will take a lot of getting over as I genuinely feel we had a real opportunity to get a wee trip to Hampden.

“Overall, I felt we played the better football from back to middle, we just lacked that little bit of creativity and cutting edge that you need.”

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