Gus MacPherson has challenged his St Mirren side to turn their sparkling cup final performance into the results they need to stay in the Scottish Premier League. The Buddies boss saw his team go down 1-0 in the Co-operative Insurance Cup final to Rangers on Sunday, despite his team dominating throughout.

St Mirren occupy 11th spot in the Scottish Premier League table with nine games left to play. They are a precarious looking three points ahead of bottom club Falkirk and MacPherson knows his attentions have to switch immediately to keeping his team in the top flight.

“We've got massive games coming up in the SPL,” the Buddies boss warned. “That's now where the attention turns. I think if we play with that commitment, we've got to be confident that we can get results in the remaining SPL games.

“The players will be down, no doubt, but it is our job to get them back up again and refocused on the SPL.”

The Buddies controlled large spells of the cup final and looked certain to go on and claim the trophy when Rangers were reduced to nine men, with Kevin Thomson and Danny Wilson both sent off by referee Craig Thomson.

The Paisley club failed to take their chances though and were caught out by a Kenny Miller winner just seven minutes from time. That goal left MacPherson wondering what could have been and said his players were aware they had blown their big chance.

“It's really sore to take, being in control for a high percentage of the game and then getting caught by a sucker punch,” MacPherson said of the defeat. “Everybody will talk about Rangers being down to nine men but even with the full compliment, we were the better team.

“We started the game very well, created some opportunities and they were chances that you've got to take. That's been a frustration for us for most of this season.

“The players were outstanding and I am proud of them. They put so much in to the game. They will remember it for a long time and probably will take them a while to realise how close they were to winning a major trophy.”