ESCAPED CRUSADER
I saved my old club from going down and will do the same here vows Well boss Robinson
STEPHEN ROBINSON has already starred in The Great Escape and after being cast in the sequel he’s gearing up to guide Motherwell to Premiership safety. The Fir Park boss became a cult hero at Bournemouth by scoring twice against Shrewsbury on the final day of the 1994-95 season which not only saved the club from the drop but ensured it didn’t go to the wall. After admitting the plot’s not quite so sinister at Well, as they face a derby with fellow strugglers side Hamilton tomorrow, the Irishman insists it’s a horror movie he’s starred in before. He said: “When I was with Bournemouth we had to win on the last day of the season. People still talk about the Great Escape down there and there might not have been a football club and Bournemouth might not be in the Premier League had we not won. “I scored two goals that day, I like to remind people of that. “As a player you worry about yourself, you deal with your own situation. There’s nerves and you make decisions which you don’t normally make. “I learned from managers with vast experience like Davie Moyes, my manager in the play-offs at Preston. There have been good people I’ve learned from.
“Some handle it better than others but I’ve learned from everyone.
“We were just young boys at Bournemouth, we didn’t have a care in the world. We had a manager in Mel Machin who took the pressure off us and we had an inner belief. That’s what I’m trying to do with the boys here.
“We got the result we needed to keep the club in business as we had been in administration. The rest is history as the club has gone on to bigger and better things. You just deal with it. You do what you need to do.”
Inspirational leadership is the order of the day at New Douglas Park tomorrow but Robinson is adamant a balance of nerveless composure and accepting the challenge of the task ahead will be required to see off Accies who are above second-bottom Well on goal difference.
He said: “We need to stay calm but I can’t hide the fact there’s pressure on everyone at the club.
“We’ve had a good week and there’s a good feeling around the place. You can’t keep ramming it down their throats about pressure, pressure, pressure. My job is to lift a bit of that off of them and the players have responded.
“I was here when we beat Rangers in the play-offs a few seasons ago, I’ve seen that pressure cooker situation and how it affects people.
“You learn, you know how to deal with it a little better. That was the first time I’ve been involved in anything like that as a coach or a manager.
“It’s when you’re not winning and the pressure is on, then you learn how to take it off people and off yourself. Otherwise you would go mental.
“All the talking in the world means nothing, it’s now all about Saturday and who wants to win the game as much as possible. We aim to do that.
“It’s all about intensity. We train hard but we also try to do things with a smile. It’s not easy, we know the pressure cooker situation which we could be in. The incentive is to make sure we aren’t.”
The 42-year-old’s remit when he replaced Mark McGhee was to ensure safety before starting a rebuild – a challenge which is right up his street.
He said: “I’m a fighter, I inherited a team which was second bottom and had conceded 27 goals in recent games. I’d love to say everything was great, that we didn’t have an injury problem.
“But we deal with it, dig in and surround ourselves with people who will dig in. I have two tasks, to keep this club in the top division and get to the summer and rebuild again.”