Robinson hails iron will shown by his Steelmen
STEPHEN Robinson can recall how the disappointment of their last trip to Hampden threatened to suck Motherwell into a downward spiral.
A return to the national stadium seemed a pretty distant prospect when autumn turned to winter in the Scottish Premiership. Robinson’s side followed November’s 2-0 Betfred Cup final defeat to Celtic — which included a controversial red card for Cedric Kipre — by failing to win any of their subsequent nine matches.
Although injuries were a major factor in that sequence, recording seven defeats and two draws still resembled something akin to relegation form. Anxiety was beginning to rise among the club’s supporters.
Lesser teams might have been unable to arrest the decline and folded altogether. The example of Dundee United, for whom losing to Celtic in the 2015 League Cup final began a descent into the Championship 14 months later, stood as a cautionary tale.
Robinson (below), though, always felt his squad was fashioned from sterner stuff. Augmented by three January additions, they emphatically broke free of the gloom to push Hearts hard for the last place in the top six.
While Motherwell fell just short in that quest, victory over the Tynecastle club booked another Hampden day out in tomorrow’s Scottish Cup last-four showdown against Aberdeen. A chance to make two finals in one season now beckons. The turnaround is an obvious testament to Robinson’s skills as a manager, recruiter and motivator. To the 43-year-old, however, it even better reflects the character of those under his command.
‘Our results after the League Cup final, coupled with the injuries we had, brought about that lull,’ reflected the Motherwell manager. ‘It’s hard psychologically to get the boys going again because they have given everything to get to a final. But our motivation after the loss was to go again and try to reach another final.
‘We won one in 11 during that November/December period and that’s the reason we are not in the top six. But, yes, the season could have unravelled. We were determined to ensure, however, that it didn’t.
‘The character of the boys is such that even when they are losing games, they won’t lie down. The drive and determination from these boys is incredible at times. ‘Craig Hinchcliffe, who is on our staff, was at Dundee United and he made us well aware of what happened there — and it could happen to anyone. ‘We had a run of disappointing results after we lost to Celtic at Hampden but the injuries were always the biggest factor for us, although we didn’t make a big thing about it. ‘It’s credit to everyone here that we’ve been galvanised again. Our ambition this season was always to remain in this division — people find that hard to believe but that’s the priority for everyone outside the top four.
‘However, I also believe we have a group of players who, on their day, are more than capable of beating anyone in the league — and they’ve proved that.
‘We have to aim high and we won’t be happy with just staying up every year. We’ll try to win things.’
They will surely seek to do so against Aberdeen in typically robust fashion. No assessment of Motherwell ever seems complete without a reference to their physical power, but they are far more than just a team of bruisers. Indeed, Robinson believes their other qualities can too often be ignored.
‘Do the boys get enough credit? No they don’t,’ said the Northern Irishman. ‘But we’re not too bothered about that.
‘When I was a player, I used the phrase: “They’re a horrible team to play against” about certain clubs.
‘You would go to Millwall away and the whole environment was horrible. Their supporters made it a really tough afternoon and the players replicated that attitude. That’s what we’ve tried to recreate here.
‘We’ve put a lot of pace into the team as well as young players with passion, who will make mistakes and take the wrong option at times but they’re honest mistakes; there is a real drive and determination here.
‘For anyone watching us, that makes for quite an exciting game because we don’t sit back — we go head-to-head with opponents and try to outrun them, outfight them and then outplay them. In that order.
‘The players are driven to succeed and that shows in their training. In fact, I’ve spent half my time this week pulling them back because the intensity has been unbelievable. I’ve actually had to stop the sessions at times because I’ve been worried about players getting injured. These boys approach training as if it’s a game because that’s the only way they know.’
That approach proved too much for Pedro Caixinha’s Rangers as a Louis Moult double secured a 2-0 win in the Betfred Cup semi-final back in October. While Moult is now with Preston North End, Curtis Main has proven a very able replacement ahead of the return to Mount Florida.
‘There was a nervousness about us in the League Cup final against Celtic and you just hope they have learned from that experience,’ admitted Robinson.
‘You have the high of beating Rangers in the semi and then the low of losing to Celtic in the final itself.
‘I know what feeling I want to go away with. We have to make sure we have that feeling this weekend and it’s something I have been reminding the players about.
‘They know what they have to do to win the football match. We’ve had four close games against Aberdeen and we have pointed out the key areas where we feel we lost the two games.
‘We aim to put that right at the weekend. If we do the simple things well, then we will have the opportunity of having the same feeling we did against Rangers.’