SMELLS LIKE TEAM SPIRIT
Tait and Frear enjoy a unique bond
HE wrecked his hopes of taking a winner’s medal home from Wembley. Now he’s stolen his place in the side. It says a lot for the spirit of unity at Motherwell that Elliott Frear is even speaking to Richard Tait, far less serving as a go-to man for advice and information as his team-mate copes with the move from right flank to left under manager Stephen Robinson.
Tait and Frear have shared quite some 18 months of history together.
They went head-to-head in the National League Play-off final at Wembley Stadium in May of last year when Tait’s Grimsby Town beat Frear’s Forest Green Rovers 3-1 to get back into the Football League for the first time in six years.
They then teamed up together at Fir Park back in January when Frear moved north. In recent times, though, Tait has been operating at left wing-back with Chris Cadden on the right, and that has resulted in Frear cooling his heels on the bench.
Tait insists, though, that Motherwell is not the kind of club where grudges are permitted to fester and believes the support he has enjoyed from Frear is indicative of the wider collective spirit they hope will carry them through a Betfred Cup semi-final with Rangers today.
‘Elliott has been great with me,’ said the 27-year-old. ‘I am playing pretty much in his position at the minute and he has been fantastic in terms of wishing me luck and giving me little pointers. If the roles were reversed, I would definitely be the same with him.
‘I think it is a collective way of thinking that exists within the squad.
‘The belief is massive in the team and, after a game, the first people to congratulate you are the ones who have been on the bench.’
Having said all that, Tait still enjoys reflecting on that day out at Wembley last year.
‘I like to remind Elliott that we did them in the final,’ smiles Tait. ‘It was a strange, strange atmosphere at Wembley, though.
‘The Grimsby fans were excellent that day and made it seem like it was almost full, but I think Forest Green only brought around two or three thousand and that was a bit rubbish, really.’
Tait is certainly becoming something of an expert at playing at Britain’s national football grounds — even though it was Murrayfield he dreamed of gracing as a child.
He grew up in the Borders town of Kelso and played at scrum-half for the rugby club as a youngster, travelling to Murrayfield to cheer on the senior team long before he had set foot inside Hampden.
Today will not even be his first trip there this season, though, having turned out in front of 1,590 supporters when Motherwell trounced Queen’s Park 5-1 in the group stage of the Betfred Cup.
‘Big crowd,’ he reflected, dryly. ‘I think it will be a little bit different this time.
‘Joking aside, playing there already has probably done us a favour because it let us get the feel of it.
‘I played rugby for a little while when I was young, but I think every kid wants to play at the national stadium for the national team.
‘The 1998 World Cup made me flip to football. I just think my dad got sick of buying me and my brother the different gear that we needed (for rugby and football) and he was like: “Look, you’ve got to pick one or the other”.’
Football it was. And today is the kind of day to prove he made the right decision.
‘If you are going to make a mark, this game is the best place to do it,’ he said.