Craig Brown watched his side scrape past Ayr United on Saturday before declaring his team fit and ready for the visit of Breidablik.
Motherwell made it three wins on the bounce ahead of their European campaign thanks to a Ross Forbes free-kick and a late goal from Bob McHugh.
It was a lacklustre display from the Steelmen, watched by Breidablik manager Olafur Kristjansson at Somerset Park.
But it was their third game in five days and Brown believes his team now has the fitness levels to take on the Icelandic league leaders.
“The performance wasn’t great but the fitness levels are good.” he said. “The match was something of a fitness exercise and from that point of view it was satisfactory.
“We don’t want to use the fact they have already started their season as an excuse – we have now had 19 training sessions and three matches, and Archie Knox is one of the best in the business when it comes to pre-season fitness, so we should be fit now.”
Brown admits the performance was as much down to him as the players: “My instructions today were to avoid challenges which risked two things; a yellow card, or an injury.
“I said to the players: ‘don’t get into risky tackles because all that matters is next week.’ Our guys like Lasley, Jennings and Craigan snap into tackles, that’s what they do. They couldn’t play like that today.
“Perhaps that is a reason for that display, because we certainly did not look like a Premier Division team against a team from the Second Division. We have to admit that.”
The Motherwell boss admits that he is still working hard to add players to his squad ahead of the Europa League and SPL campaign.
“We are always on the phone,” added Brown. I’m expecting a couple of call backs from managers down in England on Monday morning, and we are hoping to use our contacts to secure a couple of loan signings. I am looking for an absolute minimum of three additions to the squad.
“I am happy with the players I have but I would like a bigger squad. The funds simply aren’t there. We have the funds to sign a striker, but that is all unless we sell somebody on first.
“We’re no different from anyone else – the St Mirren’s, the Kilmarnock’s, and the Aberdeen’s. Every manager I speak to say the budget is horrendous. We have to keep the wage bill down at a manageable level.”