Alexander tells Well to dig deep

Motherwell manager Graham Alexander admits they will need to draw on the spirit that saw them over the line in Dingwall after being hit by more illness blows ahead of the visit of Hearts.

Kevin Van Veen shrugged off a bug to come off the bench and hit the winner against Ross County, while Callum Slattery also was restricted to a substitute’s appearance and others missed out completely.

The win took Motherwell into fifth place in the cinch Premiership and they can clinch a Europa Conference League spot if they beat Hearts, and Ross County fail to win at Ibrox.

However, Alexander has fresh selection issues.

“There’s a couple of lads have come back and trained but a couple more have caught the bug unfortunately since the weekend,” he said.

“We will see how we are and try and pick the fittest team that we can because we are going to need all the energy we can get on the pitch.

“Four of the lads had to travel on a separate minibus. We tried to keep them separated from the coach because we didn’t want it spreading around.

“The main bus broke down on Friday so we had to wait for a replacement bus.

“So the prep wasn’t

ideal but the players responded great to it, we had a real camaraderie on the way up.

“The four lads trained on Friday and it was the first time we had seen them all week and they didn’t look in great shape at the end of the session.

“But we knew we needed them in the group and they wanted to be there – and that’s the great thing. They want to be part of a group that achieves something.

“We showed great spirit on Saturday. Kev and Slatts came on and Kev got the winning goal but you could see at the end of the game he was back on empty.

“It has really taken it out the boys.

“We have a couple more in that situation but I’m sure the adrenalin and motivation will overpower any feelings they have got in their stomach.

“If we can have the crowd behind us like they were on Saturday – even though we were away from home, the atmosphere was brilliant.”

Graham Alexander.