DANNY LENNON admits St Mirren have got a lot of hard work ahead of them to be ready for the start of the new campaign.

The Buddies suffered their third defeat of pre-season as they went down 4-2 to Queen of the South at Palmerston on Wednesday night, a result that comes on the back of a 4-0 loss to Charlton in Spain and their Renfrewshire Cup final reverse to rivals Morton last weekend.

Lennon's side have a chance to get back on track when they face Stockport this weekend, and the Paisley gaffer is eager to see a marked improvement from their Dumfries defeat.

He said: "It was another great workout for us in terms of where we are. It was a difficult surface. There's no doubt they settled in a lot better in the first half than we did and looked hungrier than us.

"It was a big concern and a big talking point for us at half-time. We came out and got more of what we're looking for in terms of intensity in and out of possession.

"We got ourselves back in with a very good goal and then seemed to take our foot back off it. Once again there's a wee pattern emerging there. They're things we have addressed and will continue to address until we get it right.

"The most important thing for us (on Wednesday) was to get a lot of the boys minutes. David van Zanten, Kealan Dillon and Lee Mair got valuable minutes.

"We're a little bit stretched but we're limited in what we could do prior to the game. We seem to be blessed with a few defenders at this present time.

"Pluses for us was I thought young Thomas Reilly getting 90 minutes, between the two roles he did very well, and Gary Teale looked very effective when he came on."