TOUGH LUCK IF MOTHERWELL ARE WINNING UGLY

IT’S been a bad season for Scottish football hipsters. Ian Cathro and Pedro Caixinha have been shown the door. Now Motherwell stand accused of dragging the game back to the dark ages. Count me out of the clamour to brand Stephen Robinson’s team a bunch of uncouth cloggers. The Fir Park boss is trying to mould a working engine from spare parts. The average wage of £1,200-a-week wouldn’t buy you a pair of Lionel Messi’s boots. They are what they are. Robinson’s team are physical, no question. A little agricultural at times. Against Rangers last weekend, Ryan Bowman should have gone for mashing up Fabio Cardoso’s nose. A Peter Hartley tackle on Alfredo Morelos was eyewatering. The footballing purists watch all this through the cracks of their fingers. Bruno Alves says they play anti-football. In a pre-emptive strike ahead of next month’s Betfred Cup Final, Brendan Rodgers claimed some of the tackling last weekend was career threatening. Listen, in an ideal world every Scottish team would play like Barcelona. Or Manchester City. But Scottish football hasn’t lived in the same postcode as ideal for 30 years or more. Rodgers says an inability to move forward and move with the times is holding the game back. He might have a point. But fellow SPFL managers can’t preoccupy themselves with playing silky football when the name of the game is survival. It’s not pretty football which keeps them in work; it’s winning games. And, like it or not, Motherwell have now won eight of their last ten. Why would they change? Robinson could bow to the critics and try playing Rangers and Celtic at their own game. He could keep the ball on the deck and adopt ‘a philosophy.’ He could swallow a coaching manual and tell his players they’ll learn valuable lessons from sticking to their principles and being spanked every week en route to the Championship. But if he did, he’d out of a job in six months. Just as he was at Oldham. It’s easy to see why big clubs hate playing Motherwell. They’re hard, industrious and uncompromising. They make life horrible for their opponents. But correct me if I’m wrong. Isn’t that the point?