Ross County manager Jim McIntyre believes supporters must be prepared to wait before seeing the best of his recent flurry of signings.
Former Motherwell, Cardiff City and Doncaster Rovers defender Paul Quinn, 29, last week became McIntyre’s fifth signing since replacing Derek Adams in charge of the Dingwall club, joining Lewis Toshney, Martin Woods, Terry Dunfield and Jamie Reckord.
Although pleased with Quinn’s debut in the second-half of Saturday’s 5-0 defeat to Celtic, McIntyre called for patience as his recruits work their way towards full match fitness.
McIntyre said: “Paul’s got great experience and I thought he did very well in the second-half considering he hadn’t played for four months.
“He’s a talker, an organiser and he demands standards. He’s played at a very good level here and down in England and Wales. He’s at a good age and we’re confident he’ll do well for us.
“The thing about all signings outwith the window is they lack game time, and that’s the frustrating side of it.
“We’re signing good players, but they will take a number of weeks to get up to speed. That’s where we’re at with signings at that time in the year.
“There’s no getting away from that, but we’re confident given a few weeks they’ll be very good additions.”
After the heavy reverse against the Premiership champions, McIntyre is looking for a response from his side on Saturday when they travel to Paisley to face St Mirren.
With the Buddies just three points ahead of County, McIntyre realises the extent of the game’s importance as they aim to go level with Tommy Craig’s side.
McIntyre added: “I think any team struggling at home, you want to start the game well and put them under pressure. We did in the last game at Inverness, and we managed to get ourselves into the lead.
“We’ll try and do the same again, but St Mirren have got good players.
“I watched them at St Johnstone when they scored in the last minute to get the victory there. Although St Johnstone were probably on top for most of the second half, it just shows the threat of St Mirren as they broke away to score a very good goal.
“They’ll be seeing this as a cup final as they try to make sure they put more points between us and them. Likewise we view it as a chance to go level.
“Last weekend has been consigned to the waste bucket, we move on and it’s all about our reaction in this game.
“It’s important we stay in reach of other teams by picking up points.”