St Mirren gaffer Stephen Robinson knows he needs his team to be ruthless when chances present themselves after a 2-0 defeat to Morton on Saturday.
Alex Gogic and Toysi Olusanya had guilt-edged first-half opportunities to open the scoring but both were well saved before two sloppy second-half goals earned Ton victory at Cappielow.
Robbie Muirhead’s penalty and Lewis McGrattan’s strike were enough to clinch the bragging rights for the Greenock side.
It was also far from the ideal preparation for the first Viaplay League Cup opening group stage game against Montrose at Links Park this weekend.
This was a competition that Saints failed to qualify for the latter stages of last season and that will be something they will be looking to rectify.
But Robinson was more concerned about the situations where his side didn’t hit the back of the net.
He said: “That was exactly what we needed. It was a local derby and there was a lot of desire. We controlled a large part of the game but didn’t take chances.
“That is something we are trying to correct with Conor [McMenamin] and Mikael [Mandron]. That is their first minutes of the season and they are playing catch up with the rest of the boys.
“They need to get up to speed, though. We just threw them in at the deep end to get game time. There were a lot of good things about the performances but strikers are judged by the goals they score.”
Both of the new Buddies signings – McMenamin and Mandron – started life for the Paisley side on the bench. Robinson explained afterwards that the former hasn’t trained for a month while the latter also lacks fitness.
Robinson also revealed that he would like to sign another centre forward before the transfer window slams shut.
He continued: “Conor has not trained for four weeks and Mikael has only trained one week in six. It is about getting them up to speed and I want to bring in one more striker so we have real options.
“I want to have real competition because we need to start scoring goals. We need to start being clinical and start taking our chances.
“The fans go home disappointed after the result and the players have been told that in no uncertain terms.”
Don't miss the latest Renfrewshire headlines – sign up to our free daily newsletter here
