St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin hopes their luck will change quickly but is confident his players have the ability to turn around their form.

The Buddies slumped to the bottom of the Scottish Premiership after a 1-0 home defeat by Kilmarnock made it five losses on the trot.

Nicke Kabamba slotted home Chris Burke's cross during a game lacking in goalmouth action.

Killie dominated possession in the first half although St Mirren had more chances with Lee Erwin heading against the bar. But the Paisley side struggled to carve out meaningful openings after the break.

Goodwin said: "We are not getting any kind of breaks at the moment. I hope that the luck will change.

"Sometimes in games like that there is not a great deal between the teams and you just need that little half-chance, and we just don't seem to be getting them at the moment."

St Mirren were on course for a third win and clean sheet in four games until centre-back Joe Shaughnessy was sent off against Ross County for a challenge that saw their promising start to the campaign begin to crumble.

The Dingwall side levelled and St Mirren have lost every game since after being further affected by Shaughnessy's suspension, the temporary loss of three goalkeepers to Covid-19 and then a red card and suspension for another defender, Richard Tait.

Tait will also be suspended for Friday's trip to Aberdeen but Goodwin sees light at the end of the tunnel with Kyle Magennis, Ryan Flynn and Kristian Dennis due back from injury at different stages next month.

Goodwin said: "I think we have had a lot of disruption over the last few weeks. I don't think there is any getting away from that.

"I know people shoot me down for mentioning it because they think you are looking for excuses, but I can't get away from the facts that we haven't been able to get our best 11 out there.

"When we did manage to do that at the start of the season that's when we picked up results. I don't think there's any coincidence when you start getting suspensions to key players and lose your number-one goalkeeper, then unfortunately it impacts on the pitch.

"Kristian Dennis, a striker we brought to the club with a great goalscoring record, unfortunately picks up a serious injury. Sam Foley has picked up an injury.

"We are desperate to get our full squad back together. There is no getting away from the poor run we are on but I have great belief in the group that we can turn it around.

"Every club throughout the season will go through the kind of run we are on and it's just our turn."

Killie have now won three of their last four matches and manager Alex Dyer hopes they can build on their form when they complete their first round of fixtures against Motherwell and Livingston.

"We have had three wins now and a couple of draws so everything is OK," Dyer said. "We want to keep improving on it.

"We have two games coming up now that are of winnable games, but at the same time the opposition will think the same about us. Hopefully we at least give ourselves a good chance of getting another six points."