CRAIG CONWAY has tipped Kenny Miller to bounce back from his Carling Cup final dis-appointment and score the goals which fire Cardiff City into the Barclays Premier League.

The former Dundee United winger was an unused substitute at Wembley on Sunday evening, and watched on from the sidelines in anguish as the Scotland striker fired a glaring 88th-minute chance to win the match over the bar in normal time, then struck a post with the first spot kick of a seesawing shoot-out which Liverpool eventually won 3-2.

Miller, who reported to the Scotland camp today for the midweek inter-national friendly against Slovenia, has been through adversity many times in his career before and Conway feels his strength of character can help Malky Mackay's side achieve their goal of reaching the English top flight this summer.

Ahead of Sunday's meeting with npower Championship favourites West Ham, they currently sit in the play-off places and are in line for a return trip to Wembley in May at least.

"Kenny is a great pro-fessional," Conway said. "He has been in the game a while, scored a lot of important goals and won a lot of things in his career. A lot of players look up to him in that sense.

"He had a few chances but his work-rate, just like that of the whole team, was excellent. His movement was great, we created a few chances and were unlucky not to win it.

"This group of players has been here once, a lot of boys have got experience of it now, so hopefully we will be back here later in the season.

"I was disappointed not to get on," added Conway, who scored two as Dundee United won the Scottish Cup in 2010.

"Obviously everybody wants to play, but I just have to accept the manager's decision and that is it. We were right in the game, and had a couple of enforced changes as well.

"But it was a great effort from all the boys. To go and score in the last minute of extra time was unbelievable and I thought the boys were going to go on and win it. We were a bit hard done by, penalties are a horrible way to lose a cup but I think everybody can have their heads held high."

There were plenty of Scottish success stories even on the losing side, with Don Cowie inspired in midfield, Kevin McNaughton doing his bit against an in-form Stewart Downing, while the performance of his side was another feather in the cap of manager Malky Mackay.

"Malky has done really well," Conway said. "Since he has come here there are a lot of new faces and we have gelled really quickly. We have got to take heart out of the game. We gave as good as we got in all departments really.

"The positive thing is now that we go back to league business and we are still up there," he added.

"We have hit a wee dip in the league, but hope-fully with the cup final behind us now, we can kick on and play the way we can play.

"If we do that, I have no doubt we will be up there come the end of the season. We want to be playing against teams like Liverpool each week."