Lennon hoping lessons have been learned St Mirren manager Danny Lennon hopes the painful lessons of Saturday's defeat against Kilmarnock can help drive his players into the quarter-finals of the Scottish Communities League Cup. Saints dominated the first half at Rugby Park but found themselves behind at half-time and ultimately only had a late Paul McGowan consolation to show for their efforts in a 3-1 defeat. Lennon welcomes Hamilton to Paisley in the third round and wants his players to unleash their frustrations on the Irn-Bru First Division side. "We're certainly hurting from the result on Saturday," the St Mirren manager said. "We felt we created enough chances to win the game but the ball didn't kindly for us in front of goal. "On another day we could have got three points but Kilmarnock took their chances and that's football. "You certainly learn more in defeat than victory and we feel there are things we have learnt that we can put into action in the weeks ahead. "We certainly want to heal that hurt from Saturday and we have an opportunity to do that against Hamilton. "I just feel we haven't really hit fifth gear yet but we are working hard on a few things. There is certainly great potential on our squad of players. "We are totally focused on fulfilling that potential." Hamilton proved stubborn opponents for St Mirren in the William Hill Scottish Cup last season with a solitary Graham Carey goal all that separated the teams over 180 minutes of football. But they showed improvement on their League Cup form in the last round when they avenged last season's defeat by Ayr with a 5-1 victory over the Honest Men. "We will approach the game in the same manner as we approached the Ayr United game," Lennon said. "Cup shocks happen in every round and we don't want to be on the end of one." Hamilton will be without four strikers. Jon McShane, Andy Ryan and Kieran Miller are all ruled out through injury and on-loan St Johnstone striker Stevie May has not been given clearance to play by the Perth club. On-loan Celtic striker James Keatings, who scored twice as a substitute to rescue a 3-3 draw with Dumbarton on Saturday looks set to start, with New Douglas Park manager Billy Reid looking for his youngsters to learn fast. Reid said: "If we are to do anything in this tie then we have to improve defensively. "Three of our back four are learning their trade on the job and it showed at the weekend. Hopefully they have learned and will be much stronger against a strong St Mirren outfit."
Source: PA
