Underdogs Well must disrupt Celtic rhythm

Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson admits the key to Betfred Cup success will be whether his side can successfully disrupt Celtic’s normal game.

The Steelmen rattled Aberdeen in a 3-0 quarterfinal win before unnerving Rangers in a 2-0 Hampden triumph in the last four.

Holders Celtic are a different proposition tomorrow, after going 64 games unbeaten against Scottish opposition, but Robinson insists that Motherwell can cause them problems.

With Louis Moult on 14 goals for the season, Well have a real threat up front but Robinson knows they will also have to give Brendan Rodgers’ creative players an uncomfortable day.

“We know what Celtic have done, we know what type of players they have got, we know their threats, everybody in the world knows their threats,” he said.

“What we are concentrating on is our strengths and we believe our strengths can cause them a lot of problems.

“If we try and play Celtic at their own game and try and out-pass them and outplay them, we’ll get beat. It’s as simple as that. We have to find a way that suits our personnel and our budget.

“That’ s what we have done and we have been pretty successful at it so far, and we are not going to change that.

“There is no doubt Celtic have an unbelievable record, a fantastic record, but every team has weaknesses and we genuinely believe we will cause them problems.

“We are going to play our way and try and impose our way of playing on it.

“Celtic have proved over numerous games now that when they impose their game, they win football matches. So we have to try and disrupt that and interrupt their pattern of play.”

Motherwell’s side includeskeeper Trevor Carson and defender Peter Hartley, who have both had spells with Sunderland and Hartlepool United.

Robinson’ s side have yet to face Celtic this term and he added: “They haven’t beaten us. They have beaten everybody else. So we have a real positivity about ourselves and we have very much focused on what we can do.”