Alexander elated to keep star players
MOTHERWELL took their transfer-window arrivals to seven with the loan signing of Blackburn defender Tyler Magloire but manager Graham Alexander feels their best business is keeping hold of their star men.
Motherwell rejected bids for Allan Campbell last month and survived interest in skipper Declan Gallagher, while Scotland full-back Stephen O’Donnell signed a new short-term contract on deadline day.
Magloire, a pacey 22-yearold who was recently on loan at Hartlepool, arrived yesterday after experienced Crewe defender Eddie Nolan and Hearts winger Jordan Roberts signed temporary deals on deadline day.
They followed Liam Kelly, Steven Lawless, Harry Smith and Sam Foley in joining Well over the past month but Alexander said: “For me the biggest bonus is we have kept our best players in the building.
“We knew there was a possibility of them leaving. We turned down substantial bids for Allan Campbell in January.
“That was probably 10 days ago and you see in Allan’s performances, nothing has changed. He is an absolute top professional and he has just wanted to win. The same with Dec and the same with Stephen O’Donnell.
“If I thought they were not focused on us and they were looking elsewhere and it was affecting their performance, then we would probably help that happen, because we only want committed players. But all we have seen is every player committed to what we are doing.
“We don’t want to stand in people’s progression and if they can achieve their ambitions of playing at the highest level then that’s great, but our first focus has to be Motherwell.
Meanwhile, Dundee United manager Micky Mellon will take a step back to more familiar tactics after conceding seven goals in two home matches.
United followed a 5-1 humbling at the hands of St Mirren with a 2-0 reverse against Hibernian.
Mellon lined up with Marc McNulty and Luke Bolton out wide but the move to be more expansive backfired and they slipped out of the Scottish Premiership top six.
Mellon said: “I am disappointed with the results in the last two games. I tried to change things up, get a wee bit of width into the team and try and attack that way.
“I tried to get McNulty to do a job out there because I have only got one winger and that’s Luke Bolton. It worked a wee bit and it didn’t work. It’s not a path I want to continue to go down because we were losing too many goals. We changed from what we were doing before to try and create more chances and score goals.”