BOSS Oran Kearney is hoping his new signings get up to speed quickly after St Mirren exited the William Hill Scottish Cup at the last-16 stage on Saturday with a 2-1 defeat by Championship side Dundee United in Paisley.

The Buddies boss recruited a whole team of new players in the January transfer window and one of them, striker Duckens Nazon, the Haita forward who arrived on loan from Belgium club Sint-Truiden, notched his first goal against United with a deflected strike.

However, it merely reduced the lead given to the Terrors by Pavol Safranko and Nicky Clark and despite playing the last half-hour or so with 10 men, Robbie Neilson's side held out to go into the draw for the quarter-finals.

St Mirren are bottom of the Ladbrokes Premiership, trailing Dundee by three points, and Kearney is looking for his new boys to start making more of an impact.

He said: "I was happy enough with Duckens' contribution and it was better than it was during the week (in Motherwell defeat).

"What we have had to do obviously is go outside the league to bring in players because of our inability to attract players from inside the league due to financial constraints or whatever else.

"With that you are bringing in players of good quality but at the same stretch Duckens has sat on the bench for quite a bit of this season in Belgium and just looks rusty at this point in time.

The Gazette: Vaclav Hladky is one new signing who has impressed so far (photo: Allan Picken) Vaclav Hladky is one new signing who has impressed so far (photo: Allan Picken)

"We are in that scenario where me, the fans, everyone wants instant.... but at the same time there is a story with each of the players we have brought in with relation to that it will take a bit of time.

"Mihai Popescu is the best one for me because in the first couple of games I would have said the jury was still out possibly.

"He has had six performances and I look at the last two or three and they have gone up a notch.

"He has been exceptional and again you are hoping for that from the other guys as well who are slightly behind him in terms of when they arrived at the club."