Motherwell caretaker manager Keith Lasley vowed to make changes to his squad after his reign started with a 3-0 defeat at Hamilton.
Lasley admitted there was a lack of fight about the team after they went a 10th game without victory in the wake of Stephen Robinson’s resignation.
The writing was on the wall from the 10th minute when Lee Hodson fired home inside the near post – Motherwell have not scored an equaliser all season.
They created some decent first-half chances but Ross Callachan doubled the lead early in the second half before crossing for Callum Smith to head home his first Accies goal.
With Callum Lang recalled by Wigan and short-term deals for Stephen O’Donnell and Robbie Crawford expiring this month, there is scope for Lasley to make changes despite the interim nature of his role.
“I was already in the process of looking at targets with Stephen because there was a need to freshen things up,” Lasley said. “So, yeah, that is certainly an ongoing process and let’s see what happens with that.
“There needs to be changes, there’s no doubt about that. January will obviously give us the opportunity to do that.
“At the same time, there’s still boys in there that I really believe in and really know that they’ve got this club at heart, and still some good players in there.
“But we are on the run we are on at the moment and it’s up to me and the staff to drive that forward and get the best out of them, starting next week at St Mirren.”
Lasley was not helped by Trevor Carson’s absence, with the club set to discover more about the extent of the Northern Ireland goalkeeper’s setback following a knee injury in the early stages of next week. His replacement, Aaron Chapman, made poor attempts to stop the first two goals.
The former Motherwell skipper will have Mark O’Hara back from suspension and probably Christopher Long back from injury for next Saturday’s trip to Paisley.
“When there’s a change of manager it’s always a difficult time as a football club, particularly when we never had a lot of time to turn things round, a couple of days to process that information,” Lasley said.
“We have not been able to do that but next week is a new week, it gives us a full week to prepare the players and come Saturday provide a different performance.”
Hamilton moved off the bottom of the Scottish Premiership as they recorded their fourth clean sheet in seven matches.
Brian Rice was without eight players through injury and lost skipper Brian Easton in the first half, but his young players did him proud.
Accies featured eight players aged 22 and under, including three teenagers.
The Hamilton head coach said: “I’ve got a group of young players who played for the badge. They don’t play for the name on the back of the jersey, they play for the name on the front of the jersey. And as long as they do that, I can’t have any complaints.
“There is a bit of inexperience in there and there will be days they get it badly wrong, and I get it badly wrong, and I hold my hands up – but days like that, where we do everything properly, we’re not that bad a team.”
