Brian Easton admits Hamilton need to quickly learn to break teams down or they will struggle this season, after losing 1-0 to Ayr United in the Premier Sports Cup.
The Somerset Park club will be opponents in the Championship this season and Easton says getting used to teams sitting in against them needs to happen soon.
Tuesday night’s defeat, courtesy of Cameron Sakeld’s 27th-minute strike, means Accies must now beat Albion Rovers at New Douglas Park on Saturday to have any chance of progression to the knock-out stages.
And Easton expects a tough ride from Brian Reid’s League Two side.
He said: “We thought if we won this game we were probably through to the next round, and it’s something we’ve not really done enough of since the competition changed to this format.
“We still need to come here on Saturday and do a job against Albion Rovers.
“That won’t be easy, I’m sure they’re going to come looking to get points off of us, so we need to be at it.
“With the players we’ve got available, we should be capable of putting in performances and getting results against anyone in this wee group that we’ve got.
“We need to make sure we train right for the rest of the week and come Saturday we’ll be ready to get three points.”
Easton added: “Teams are going to sit in against us and we have to break them down, but we need to find ways to make sure we do that.
“That comes from working hard during the week and we will experience it as the season goes on, but it’s about learning quickly in this league because it’s going to be really tight.”
Easton says there are positives to take from the game, but Accies must improve.
He said: “It was a bit frustrating. Looking at the whole game there are probably some positives to take, but definitely stuff to work on.
“I think we need to be more clinical, even in terms of making chances, and obviously in taking them.
“I think over the last few games we’ve had chances to score plenty of goals and have not really done that.
“In our overall play there are some really good things, but there are some things we can work on.”
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