Motherwell manager Jim Gannon hopes a "stronger mentality" will help his players go one better on their swift return to St Mirren Park.

Motherwell needed a late double by Lukas Jutkiewicz to rescue a Clydesdale Bank Premier League point in Paisley on Saturday against their Co-operative Cup opponents.

Gannon kept his players in the dressing room for close to an hour after the 3-3 draw for a measured discussion on how they can improve for the quarter-final.

And he expects them to retain that focus until the end of Tuesday night's game.

"We're constantly trying to change the culture of the club for self-improvement," Gannon told Press Association Sport.

"I think the way we approached the whole week wasn't great.

"There have been players who have been distracting other players and what we wanted to do was talk about what lessons we can learn from last week and the game.

"I wanted to do that straight after the game so the players were reflecting on it over the weekend.

"Hopefully we will see a stronger mentality and a stronger spirit in preparation for this game."

Gannon was dissatisfied with his own approach but has already shown a flair for quickly correcting a tactical problem.

Well were vastly improved in each of their Europa League second legs this summer as they comprehensively overturned deficits against Llanelli and Flamurtari and gave Steaua Bucharest a fright following a heavy defeat.

"There are things about the way St Mirren played that caught us by surprise or the players hadn't experienced - two centre-halves playing apart, the runs from midfield," Gannon said.

"The individual players will hopefully learn from that experience and hopefully play better against their immediate opponent. We'll also learn a little bit more studying the set-plays.

"There are large areas to improve and I would expect us to improve on our performance on Saturday anyway, but certainly having a better understanding of the opposition helps.

"It helped in Europe and I think it will help over the course of the season, and hopefully it will help us on Tuesday."

One problem Motherwell experienced was St Mirren's success in disrupting their attempts to build play from the back.

Well consistently lost possession during the first half but Gannon will urge his players to execute his tactics more successfully, rather than change them.

"We expect that because once we get known as a team that plays out from the back, the opposition are going to find strategies to stop that," he said.

"They are going to have centre-forwards on top of our centre-halves, they are going to send midfielders in, they are going to invite you to have the ball and press you.

"This is where the players and management get to a point where your principles are challenged.

"Do you not play out from the back or do you work really hard to create the openings?

"If a team puts you under pressure then you have to be better on the ball.

"I think individual players could have been better, sharper, quicker in terms of getting on the ball and turning, playing forward and playing sharply.

"If we can improve that, then we should be able to still play out despite the pressure we were put under."