Stuart Taylor says his Hamilton Accies squad must show they have the mental strength to bounce back from adversity when they host Kilmarnock in the SPFL Trust Trophy quarter-finals tonight.
Accies are still smarting from Saturday's shock Scottish Cup exit at the hands of Auchinleck Talbot, which ended with fans letting their feelings clearly known to the manager and players.
But Accies can go some way to getting fans back on side by booking their place in a semi-final.
Taylor admitted the performance in Ayrshire wasn't acceptable and challenged them to make amends.
He said: "We will look at what we need to do better and change the team around for Tuesday.
"When you don't win games you want to play the next game so you can move on.
"It's about character and mental strength now and dealing with that in the next game."
Accies made five changes to face Talbot from the side that lost to Partick Thistle in the Championship the previous week, handing Matthew Shiels his debut and leaving a number of experienced players on the bench.
Taylor added: "The reasons for the changes were the players who were out there were good enough to win the game.
"We've got a quarter-final and we've got a massive league game on Saturday so we looked at the games coming up and put down a team that we believed was good enough to win the game.
"But that wasn't the case.
"It was great for Matty to go and get 90 minutes. We never expected it, we expected him to get 60 because it was Shielsy's first game in 11 months.
"Scott Martin has got 70 when we were only going to give him 60 so it's great they've got minutes under their belt going forward."
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