Liam Kelly admits Motherwell should have played more matches in preparation for the start of the new season.
The Steelmen were caught cold by Sligo Rovers in the Europa Conference League and suffered an embarrassing 3-0 aggregate defeat over the two legs that led to manager Graham Alexander's departure.
The League of Ireland side are already well into their season, while Motherwell played just two friendlies before their clash - a 5-1 win in Austria over Vorwarts Steyr and a 1-0 victory over Championship side Partick Thistle.
Asked if their preparation could have been better Kelly, who captained the team in the Euro ties, admitted: "In hindsight, I think we could have played one or two more games.
"Sligo are in the middle of their season and you can see that in both games. Not so much late on, but early on in terms of their sharpness.
"I think they started both games better in comparison to us.
"But there's no excuse for us losing that game.
"I'm not going to say if we'd be in the middle of our season we would have beaten Sligo, there's no excuses.
"The players on the night were not good enough and we all know that."
Motherwell - now with just five wins in their last 23 competitive games - go into their first match of the Scottish Premiership season against St Mirren today with Academy chief Steven Hammell and under-18s coach Brian Kerr taking the team on an interim basis.
The Buddies, who have four matches in the Premier Sports Cup under their belt, are managed by former 'Well boss Stephen Robinson and he has been linked with a shock return to Fir Park.
While Kelly swerved the question on Robinson potentially returning, he wants 'Well to put in a performance for the highly respected caretaker coaches.
He said: "Stephen Robinson was obviously a very successful manager for Motherwell and I'm sure he won't be the last name to be linked with the job.
"The reason I came back to Motherwell was because it is such an attractive, massive club with so many pros.
"But I don't think it's right for me to be commenting on the opposition's manager in terms of coming here.
"I've not got any thoughts on it to be honest, I'm really focused on the match.
"Steven Hammell has massive respect amongst everyone in our changing room.
"He was the club captain here for a long time, he's seen everything here at Motherwell so anything we've experienced: manager changes, changes in the league, relegation fights, he's experienced every bit of it.
"So we'll lean on him and we'll give it our absolute best go for him as well.
"He's got a great relationship with us, he's in the building every single day so, as much as we don't have a permanent manger just now, we are really happy that Hammy is in charge and we want to do well for him.
"St Mirren have a really good manager with a lot of good players, many of whom used to be here, so we know how difficult the game is going to be.
"We can only deal with the game coming up and give our absolute maximum for the supporters, especially those who were over in Ireland paying good money to come and watch us.
"We want to get better and turn our form around."
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