McManus calls on Steelmen to emulate 1991

Stephen McManus only had to look at the Motherwell kit man’s face after their William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final victory to appreciate how much bringing the trophy back to Fir Park would mean.

The Motherwell coach won two Scottish Cup winners’ medals during a trophy-laden spell at Celtic but he knows a similar triumph would be celebrated differently at the Lanarkshire club.

His former club are going for a historic consecutive treble in Saturday’s final but Motherwell have only won the competition twice and McManus believes Stephen Robinson’s men can create their own legacy.

“I saw Alan MacDonald’s reaction after the semi-final,” the 35-year-old said.

“Aldo is a massive, massive Motherwell fan, wears his heart on his sleeve with it. These are the guys that you would love to see Motherwell winning the Scottish Cup for, because it could be a once-in-a-generation thing for our football club.

“We are not there because of luck, we deserve to be there, and if we could win it, you see what everyone thinks of the ‘91 team at our football club.

“They are held in such high esteem and it would be great if your players could be the next generation.

“We certainly believe we can cause an upset.

“We know the players won’t be overawed because they have played at Hampden on several occasions.”