JONATAN JOHANSSON admits his Motherwell kids must man up quickly after they suffered a second straight Under-20 defeat.

A fortnight after losing their opening Development League clash against Hamilton Accies, the Steelmen went down 3-1 to Aberdeen on Tuesday.

Despite midfielder Jack Leitch cancelling out Lawrence Shankland's opener for Johansson's side, two goals from defender Joe Shaughnessy, both from corner kicks, eased the Dons over the line.

A trip to face Hearts next month will give Motherwell a chance to bounce back and get their first league points on the board.

But boss Johansson admits he has plenty of work to do with his young stars to get them into shape after another disappointing performance, and result.

The former Finnish international said: "There are certain areas that we have problems with and that we need to work on.

"Without naming anybody, there are certain areas we are quite poor at the moment so we need to improve.

"We need to work hard. The young players need to learn quickly.

"The physical side of the game was lacking again.

"When teams come here and play and they are physical and are pressing us, we get scared to get on the ball.

"As I said before the game, that is the biggest problem for me, if you don't want the ball.

"When you work for each other and give each other options - you go beyond, you run that extra yard, you win the tackle - the game opens up for you in a different way.

"If you don't do that, opponents can just stand in their position and win the ball and go on attack after attack.

"We make it way to easy for opponents to play against us."