LIAM KELLY has issued a strong 'must improve' Motherwell rallying call after a nightmare October that saw the Steelmen pick up just one Premiership point.

Graham Alexander's side were thrashed 6-1 by Rangers on Sunday as an early Bevis Mugabi effort counted for little at Fir Park.

The champions produced an accomplished performance to ease to their biggest win of the season and leave Motherwell seventh in the standings on goal difference.

A draw against St Mirren was the only point Motherwell collected from a tricky run that also included fixtures against Hearts, Celtic and Dundee United over the last month.

Alexander now takes his side to Pittodrie this weekend aiming to put a difficult few weeks behind them heading into the next round of international fixtures.

And keeper Kelly will banish the memories of their home hammering against Rangers as he targets quickfire improvement ahead of the Dons clash.

Kelly said: "No positives at all. We have shown we can play against them before and the two games previously I have played we have drawn 1-1 in both.

"I am well aware that when they are at their best they are very difficult to stop. I get that, but from our point of view it wasn’t good enough.

"I think we need to get better. We need to improve, myself included.

"I am no different to anyone else. I need to get better.

"We all need to get better because every game is difficult in this league. It is a difficult league, results go either way and there is not anybody at the bottom.

"It is a really close league so we need to improve, we need to get better and give a better account of ourselves than that.

"[October was a] nightmare. That points total isn’t good enough. We need to stay positive.

"Nobody is going to help us out, we have to help ourselves and we need to stick together as a team. We have got Aberdeen before the international break then Hearts after the break.

"They are really difficult games. we can only help ourselves and we need to stick together as a group and hopefully we can turn it around."

Motherwell became the first side to take a point off Rangers at Ibrox earlier this term as they came from behind to earn a shock share of the spoils.

But the Steelmen couldn't follow that result up at Fir Park as Steven Gerrard's side extended their lead in the title race to four points.

James Tavernier cancelled out Mugabi's opener before Fashion Sakala netted either side of the break to clinch the victory for the champions.

A Stephen O'Donnell red card compounded Motherwell's misery as Sakala completed his hat-trick and Glen Kamara and Kemar Roofe also scored late on.

Kelly said: "Aye it is so hard to take, obviously for me as a goalkeeper to lose six goals. I can only focus on myself.

"It was not good enough. I would like to have effected the goals more but I don’t know if I could have done anything differently to stop them.

"We were in the game before half-time and then lost two quickfire goals and never really recovered.

"We were still in the game, got a man sent off and then it was game over. Game over.

"I think when the game finishes 6-1, then [the goal before half-time] obviously did [knock the stuffing out of us]. We need to try and stay in the game longer.

"We just got beat 6-1 so we can’t really say anything. It is easy to come out and talk and say this or that but it is not good enough.

"That is the bottom line. We need to try and improve."