Conor McCarthy, the St Mirren defender, has insisted that there is no time for the Paisley side to feel sorry for themselves as they prepare to fight their way up the table.

Jim Goodwin was irked at the manner of the club’s midweek defeat to Livingston with the concession of two sloppy goals proving to be too much of an ask to overturn, despite a late rally in the game.

Saints host a Motherwell side who had to deal with a disappointing result of their own on Wednesday night and McCarthy is well aware of the necessity of taking something from the game.

“We showed character to come back into the game and it is vital that we bring that into the game at the weekend against Motherwell,” said the Irishman. “There is no time for doom and gloom. We have to pick ourselves up and get ready for Saturday.”

The result gave Livingston their sixth successive home win but McCarthy, who arrived at the club in the January transfer window, admitted that the physicality in the game lived up to the West Lothian side’s reputation.

“They are very good at the dirty side of the game,” he said. “I was told coming into the game that they are a nasty team to play against and they proved that on Wednesday night. They are good at that side of it but on reflection I still think a point could have been a fair result.”

Meanwhile, Livingston striker Lyndon Dykes denied that he was streetwise in the way he won the first-half penalty that so irked the St Mirren players. McCarthy insisted that it was a harsh call but the Australian striker was inevitably having none of it.

“I’m not sure if it was a penalty,” he said. “It happened that quickly, I felt contact and went down. When I went down I was still trying to header it as I didn’t know if the referee had called it or not and give the penalty.

“When teams come to play against us we make it tough. We are in for the battle, we want to play good football when we can and we are good at it. “It’s starting to get tight around where we are on the table and we have an aim now as personally we should be pushing for top six.”