STUART McCALL had no case for the defence after his Motherwell side shipped another three goals in their home defeat to Dundee.

One down after just two minutes through a David Clarkson volley, the Steelmen also let in efforts from Gary Harkins and Greg Stewart in their second 3-1 loss on the bounce, with Henrik Ojamaa grabbing the consolation.

Their latest blank in the SPFL Premiership keeps the Fir Park club anchored in second bottom, just four points ahead of Ross County. But equally worrying is their trend of leaking goals from a usually more robust defence.

Last month the Well played 310 minutes of football and only let in one goal - which came from the penalty spot at Parkhead - but they have now gone on to concede 10 strikes in their last three games against Hamilton Accies, Thistle and now Dundee.

It's a concerning trend for McCall, who admitted Paul Hartley's side cut through his team's backline on Saturday 'like a knife through butter'.

"When you have got two teams playing with a lack of confidence based on results, you want to get a foothold in the game and get a good start," said the Motherwell manager.

"Then, within two minutes, we've lost a goal and almost automatically you can see confidence almost drain out of players. There's no magic formula that cures that.

"I am obviously desperately disappointed with the result, but more so with the way we defended.

"At times they went through us like a knife through butter and when you are not creating a great deal of chances, albeit on Saturday I thought we were far better in that area, it's difficult.

"That's the biggest disappointment as much as anything, how easy at times we were to cut through."

While the international break offered Motherwell the opportunity to regroup and take stock following a disappointing run, their preparation for Saturday's game was badly hampered by the news first-team players Stevie Hammell, Lee Erwin and Craig Reid would all be missing through injury and illness.

Ojamaa was by far the most creative force for the Steelmen during a frustrating 90 minutes with two efforts in the first half being smothered by stand-in Dee keeper Scott Bain before he managed to scramble the ball over the line on 62 minutes with Well already 3-0 down.

But, in truth, the hosts never really recovered from the setback of going behind just two minutes into the game via ex-Well favourite Clarkson's speculative volley.

Motherwell's defenders claimed in vain that Dundee's first was offside, a bad slip from Stephen McManus allowed the visitors in for their second and dreadful marking at the third gave Stewart plenty time to pick his spot.

"When it gets to 2-0 at half-time you come in and change things around and you look for a real go in the second half, then we lose another really soft goal," McCall told MFC TV.

"From everybody we need more. You have to be focused all the time and we weren't against Dundee."