Dylan McGowan hopes Hamilton can beat Raith Rovers to win the SPFL Trust Trophy on Sunday, and use it as a spur to survive the Championship drop.
The on-loan Kilmarnock defender returned to the team as captain in the 2-0 defeat to promotion-chasing Ayr United on Saturday, and admits they didn’t get anything right.
But Australian McGowan hopes a win at the Falkirk Stadium against Rovers can send them on a winning run that can take them off the foot of the table.
McGowan, 31, said: “I think the cup final could be a welcome distraction, but that’s only if we have the confidence to go and win.
“We’ve got eight games to go and a cup final, and you could say it’s nine ‘cup finals’ for us now.
“I don’t think in any of the games we can afford to play as poorly as we did on Saturday and expect to end up where we want to be, and that’s with a winners’ medal in the cup and still in the Championship.
“Hopefully we can win the cup. I think once we start winning again we’ve shown that we can go on a run.
“Hopefully Hamilton take a big support with us, back us, and give the boys a lot of confidence, so that we can pick up a few more good results before the end of the season.”
Ben Dempsey’s 12th-minute penalty, after Dan O’Reilly handled in the box during a tussle with Ayr’s Sam Ashford, was added to by a strike from Ashford in 27 minutes, latching onto a Dipo Akinyemi through-ball before slamming the ball into the bottom right corner.
McGowan admits there was a lot wrong with Hamilton’s performance, but says they have to put it behind them.
He said: “Goals change games and I think we made a couple of mistakes in the build-up to the penalty getting given, and once it is, we’re battling uphill against a side that has been quite good defensively this season.
“You can’t then go on and concede another, and expect to win a game of football.
“There weren’t a lot of chances, I don’t think we played well in any aspect of the game.
“I think, defensively, we were poor, and from back to front I don’t think we were great.
“We got what we deserved, and for us it’s a tough pill to take, but with the run-in of games we’ve got, we have to be a hell of a lot better, to start climbing the table.
“But we still have a long way to go in the league and a lot to play for, so we’re looking forward to that.
“We’ve got a massive game to pick ourselves up for, a cup final, and that’s our focus now.”
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