Paul McGowan is determined the wounded Buddies will bounce back from their five-goal mauling at Parkhead to hit Inverness Caley on the rebound at Greenhill Road.

The defeat had Saints slip to sixth place in the SPL, and they have already crashed to Caley Thistle up north this season.

Despite languishing at the foot of the SPL, Terry Butcher's men are under-rated and dangerous, in McGowan's eyes.

The Paisley playmaker has no doubt that a show of character will be required if Saints are to stay in the top half of the SPL table.

He said: "Obviously we were disappointed about how the Celtic game went, but that is put to bed.

"All our focus moved to Inverness early on in the week and that is the way it should be.

"We have already found, when we played them up the road, that if we are not at our best they will give us more than enough trouble.

"They are bound to have targeted their trip to us as a game they can get success from.

"So we know that we are going to have to be right up for this from the first whistle.

"The other aspect of this one is that we owe both the supporters and the manager a response following the defeat at Parkhead. So this is a game for which we are not short of motivation

Former Celt McGowan also pointed to a past example as proof of the character that bristles in the Buddies' ranks.

He said: "When we lost to Ayr United in the Scottish Communities Cup, people said it could derail our season, but we came back from that one and went up to Perth and kept a clean sheet and beat St Johnstone.

"Then we followed that up with a point and a clean sheet at home against Hearts, and then turned in one of our best performances of the season to beat Dunfermline at home a fortnight back. That is all very positive for us going into the Caley Thistle game."

Meanwhile, Buddies boss Danny Lennon has underlined his belief that there will be no hangover from the pummelling in Paradise.

He said: "We focused in the aftermath of the Celtic defeat the importance of moving on and not dwelling on the negatives.

"I believe that we have managed to do that and that is no great surprise as we have shown already this season we have that type of character in the squad.

"There is no doubt it is a big plus to have the home game to come back with, and now it is up to us to get back on the horse against Inverness Caley Thistle tomorrow.

Lennon added: I still believe 100% in trying to play football the right way. We have suffered a setback but it's not our first and it won't be the last."

St Mirren will continue to miss midfielder Stevie Thomson who is still out with a calf injury.