All eyes on Cadden and with good reason

OBSERVERS over the last days could be forgiven for thinking that Chris Cadden would be a man, or should that be a teenager, on a mission against Dundee yesterday.

To those unfamiliar with the Motherwell midfielder, newspaper headlines, sound-bites from his manager and hundreds of tweets will have brought it to their attention that he is a player who surely has a bright future in the game.

The outcry was, sparked by Cadden’s omission from the Scotland Under-21 squad for the forthcoming European Championship qualifying double-header.

Such was the outpouring of astonishment, you’d never have known that the Motherwell academy graduate has never in fact been recognised by his country at any level, or that this is his first proper season as a senior player.

Regardless of that, there will have been few within Fir Park yesterday left with any doubts about his ability. Rightly voted the sponsors’ man of the match, Cadden was a driving force for the home side throughout, particularly in a first half they dominated.

A tireless performance both on the right and through the middle was no flash in the pan. Indeed, it has been typical of the local lad’s attitude ever seen he was first blooded into the team properly last year. As he descended into the media room afterwards to speak about the most unsettling and perhaps disappointing weeks of his life, the glint was evident in his eye as talk of a late call-up began to circulate.

“I have not heard anything about it,” said the kid of the hour. “If I do get called up, that would be brilliant for me and my family.

“It was a surprise when the whole thing blew up last week, Twitter went mental and I don’t think I’ve had so many notifications. All I can do is keep playing well for Motherwell, that’s the most important thing, and hopefully Scotland call-ups will come.

“It was good to hear the gaffer show confidence in me. I just have to keep my head down, keep playing well for this club and see what happens.”

Cadden is a player who has not just established himself as part of this Motherwell team, but also enhanced it.

Yesterday, his bursting runs down the right caused chaos in the Dundee defence, so much so that even his rival for the day, Kevin Holt, questioned why he wasn’t in that Scotland squad.

As for the rest of the Motherwell team, it was all puff and no blow, as swathes of possession and some intricate one-twos rarely caused Dundee goalkeeper Scott Bain any concern. Only a parried Scott McDonald shot from the edge of the area and solid stop from a similar area to deny Lionel Ainsworth required his intervention.

As for Paul Hartley’s side, a woeful showing in the first half was rectified by a lot more urgency after the break, including an early flurry that had their hosts camped in defence for the first 10 minutes.

The real damage incurred by the loss of Greg Stewart and Kane Hemmings has still to be measured, but replacement Faissal El Bakhtaoui showed brief glimpses that suggest he is up to succeeding them.

“Overall the team were great because it’s not an easy place to come,” said the Dundee manager. “A point and a clean sheet away from home, we have to build on that. I thought we did enough to win it, especially the second half. We were on the front foot and had some really good situations where we should have done better in the final third.”

It was a surprise when the whole thing blew up last week, Twitter went mental