Albion Rovers boss Brian Reid has told his young side they must be harder to beat, after crashing to a 3-1 opening day defeat to Stenhousemuir in League Two.
Rovers were 3-0 down before sub Kyle Docherty grabbed a late consolation strike, but it was too little, too late for the Coatbridge side.
Reid says there were positives to take from the game, but said they need to tighten up at the back.
He said: "We had chances, which we were pleased about, but we're disappointed with the three goals we lost.
"Stenhousemuir were direct, they're big and strong and tried to turn us, caused us a few problems, and I don't think we defended areas well enough.
"Every goal you can look back at, they're so cheap, and they were disappointing, so that's something we need to rectify because we need to be harder to beat.
"We can't let teams come down here, or anywhere, and gift them goals like that, because goals change games.
"The first goal was just a punt, the boy gets the cross, plays it into the box and the boy gets in front of us, so it has to be stopped, that, and we need to defend far better than we did.
"It was encouraging that we created chances, and on another day it could have been 3-3, or 5-5, but we didn't take our chances.
"I was more concerned about the goals we lost and there are things that we can improve on. There are boys in there who are 18, 19, there are things they need to learn and of course they're young, but they need to learn fast, because they can't be gifting goals like that in every game or it will be a long, hard season, so that's something we will need to work on.
"In an attacking aspect I'm pleased, but disappointed to start the season off with a loss, because I was confident we could have got something today."
Rovers have a clear week before heading in to a clash with early-season title favourites Queen's Park, and Reid said there is a lot to work on.
He said: "I am looking for a reaction but it's the first game, so there's a long way to go.
"We have a clear week this week and in the two training sessions we've not had as much of a chance to work on things as we would maybe like with the games coming thick and fast, but there's a lot of work we need to do.
"There are a lot of young players in there who need maybe a little bit of guidance, and it's our job to give them that and hopefully we can tighten things up at the back and make ourselves harder to beat."
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