Motherwell boss Graham Alexander was happy to see his side learn on the job during a 1-0 Premier Sports Cup win over Queen's Park at Firhill.
Steven Lawless netted the only goal in the 15th minute after a good burst forward by Barry Maguire, but the Spiders were the better team for the first hour.
Former Fir Park youth player Liam Brown pulled the strings in midfield and Simon Murray came close on a number of occasions, while Tommy Robson and Callum Biggar also threatened.
But Motherwell managed the game better in the final half hour and both Tony Watt and Maguire came close.
Alexander, who handed new signing Darragh O'Connor a debut, told Premier Sports: "I'm delighted we won the game, got a clean sheet and got 90 minutes into a lot of boys for the first time in a long while. But we were made to work for it and it was a great game for us.
"We were too frantic in the first half and turned the ball over way too many times. Second half we adapted and kept the ball a lot better, were patient and found spaces to play.
"We are still looking for more efforts on goal but I thought we controlled more of the game than we did in the first half.
"That was a good improvement in-game and we will see if we can improve some other aspects in training.
"I think we were probably missing six players who would be competing for a starting berth. We didn't have a full bench, we only had three seniors on it. We are working hard to get players in and get players back from short-term injuries."
