Jim Gannon may look for reinforcements in January after his young Motherwell team struggled in their second match in four days against St Mirren.

Well crashed out of the Co-operative Insurance Cup with a 3-0 defeat in Paisley on Tuesday, four days after fighting back for a 3-3 Clydesdale Bank Premier League draw.

Gannon feels they lacked the energy required to repeat their comeback - but he does expect a rejuvenated display on Saturday against Hearts, who battled to victory at Celtic Park on Wednesday night.

"It was clear that we had several players who were a little bit jaded," Gannon said.

"You get that with young players who are not able to maintain a really strong performance from Saturday to Tuesday. And we don't have the squad to be able to rest players unfortunately.

"So the lads will learn from that experience of being able to manage themselves from game to game in such a tough period. But I expect them to respond well.

"There will be a lot more energy and enthusiasm on Saturday and hopefully we will give Hearts a good game."

Motherwell's only SPL defeat under Gannon, a 3-1 home loss to Hibernian, came after their extra-time midweek victory over Inverness in the previous round.

"Fortunately there are not too many midweek games, we don't have the squad to cover that," Gannon added.

"The depth of our squad has not been exposed too much in terms of injuries or suspensions, but we just need that little bit more quality in the squad so that at the right time we will be able to give some of the kids a good rest.

"We will just see how they respond over the next couple of months to training and playing, and maybe look to strengthen in January, if not with the quality then perhaps a bit more quantity."

Gannon's assessment of his squad strength will come as a blow to experienced players such as Keith Lasley and John Sutton, who were not even on the bench on Tuesday.

There are unlikely to be major changes for the visit of Hearts with Stevie Hammell expected to miss out again with a hamstring problem, although Ross Forbes should return to the starting line-up.

"The likes of Ross Forbes will be fresher, and other players," Gannon said.

"We've done things properly and professionally to make sure the players are fully recovered to train and be a lot sharper and more focused for Saturday.

"We haven't got the depth of quality to leave people out but we'll rejig things to freshen things and make us a bit more tactically adept."