Kaiyne Woolery admits Airdrie caught Motherwell by surprise in midweek, but says it might be a kick up the backside that the Steelmen need as they prepare for their Premiership kick-off.
The Diamonds ran out comfortable 2-0 winners at New Broomfield on Wednesday evening, leaving Motherwell needing a win over Annan Athletic today to have any hope of progressing to the knock-out stages; they have to better Airdrie's result at Queen of the South, possibly by a couple of goals.
But Woolery, 26, admits he was surprised by the intensity of competition while it's still technically pre-season.
The English striker said: "You saw them, they were very good.
"They took us by surprise, they scored two very good goals and credit where credit's due, they were the better team on the day.
"The whole team was missing something all game. We shouldn't be losing to them, ideally.
"Maybe us winning on Saturday, coming back to win 3-2 [against Queen of the South], I think maybe we thought we'd arrived.
"I don't know, but it just brought everything back to reality for us and showed that we have a lot to work on.
"It was a very disappointing result, but we spoke about it yesterday and we all agreed that we've got to stick together.
"Saturday's another big game for us to go through.
"We've got a good group of boys here, and we just need to pick ourselves back up and go again, because getting through this group is the main thing."
Woolery says this has been the hardest pre-season he's encountered so far, but says it will hopefully benefit everybody come the league kick-off at home to Hibs on August 1.
He said: "It's very different. In England I think you get six weeks pre-season but here it was only three weeks, and even for me, all the boys are still trying to find their fitness and stuff like that.
"Normally in the games there's no pressure on it, so it is very different up here.
"It's probably the hardest pre-season I've done, including the games, because we've had a lot of games from early.
"Hopefully by the start of the season everyone's 100 per cent fit.
"It's getting you ready for the season, and it's always better to play for something than just to play for nothing.
"It's better than the manager having us running up and down a park - you'd rather be playing than running.
"The gaffer likes running, put it that way!
"It has been very hard, obviously there have been a lot of games, and normally there's not as much pressure, that takes it out of you as well, but all the boys are getting there.
"Hopefully we're all going to be 100 per cent for the start of the season."
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