Las livid as Steelmen slip up at set-pieces
TALKING WELL
KEITH LASLEY was left cursing Motherwell’s guilty defending as they slumped to their second defeat on the bounce.
The Fir Park club found themselves three goals down at half-time i n Dingwall on Saturday as they were left with a mountain to climb to bounce back from last weekend’s 1-0 loss to Hibs.
Goals from Ryan Bowman and Louis Moult cut the deficit leading to a late siege on the Ross County goal which failed to offer up the precious equaliser they craved.
And Well No.2 Lasley was clear in where it had all gone wrong for Motherwell in the Highlands.
“We knew that threat and we didn’t deal with it, found ourselves 3-0 down at the break and if you do that anywhere in this division, it’s going to be a tough afternoon,” he said.
“They were clinical. They took their chances well, but we shouldn’t have given them the chances in the first place.
“It’s something we do pride ourselves on. The manager is meticulous in his preparation in that regard. It’s something we’ve been good at up until this point but it wasn’t there.
“We were probably on top for most of it but if you don’t deal with set plays you are going to lose football matches. It’s as simple as that.
“We will get back to the training ground and work on it and l ook forward to the Aberdeen match.”
Lasley was the man in the dugout for the trip to Dingwall as Stephen Robinson served his one-match touchline ban imposed for a spat with former Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha in the Betfred Cup semi-final.
Tickets for this month’s final with Celtic go on sale to Motherwell fans tomorrow as excitement builds, but Lasley dismissed claims that his team had been distracted by the day out at Hampden.
He said: “We’ve not got one eye on the cup final. We’ve hardly even spoken about it. The league is too important.
“It was disappointing and I thought we could have nicked a point at the end and probably should have in terms of the chances we had.
“We just gave ourselves too much to do and set-plays played a massive part in that.”
MEANWHILE, Ross County manager and former Motherwell striker Owen Coyle insists he is relishing the prospect of trying to stop unbeaten Premiership champions Celtic.
The leaders made it 63 successive domestic games without a loss when they crushed St Johnstone 4-0 on Saturday, breaking their own record of more than 100 years.
Coyle will aim to make his players somehow stop the Hoops’ juggernaut on November 18, but he is up for the challenge after losing only 2-1 at Aberdeen recently.
“Celtic are by far the best team in the league, but we stood toe-to-toe with Aberdeen, who are the second best team in the country,” he said. “We knew they would have been fired up by their midweek defeat to Celtic.
“We go into the international break now, but what a cracker of a game to look forward to against the champions.
“Brendan Rodgers is someone I know well and I have a lot of time for him, but it’s a great game for us. Everyone knows how big the gap is, but we need to try and bridge that gap.”
Coyle has now won three of his six matches in charge.
“We are progressing and there are still a lot more to come from us,” he said.