Watt senses return of a steely resolve at Fir Park
TONY WATT long ago resigned himself to the fact that his entire playing career will be forever defined by the four seconds it took him to latch on to goalkeeper Fraser Forster’s kick-out, outpace Javier Mascherano and drill the ball behind the advancing Victor Valdes for the decisive goal in Celtic’s famous 2-1 Champions League group-stage victory over Barcelona at Parkhead on November 7, 2012.
His goals for Motherwell at the Showgrounds in Coleraine on Thursday evening — one from open play, one during the penalty shoot-out — did not have a similar impact on the consciousness of the global game but the 25-year-old believes that they were, in context, almost as significant for his current club.
Prior to last weekend’s hard-fought 1-0 win against St Johnstone at Fir Park, Stephen Robinson’s side had won only one of their previous 16 domestic games and they are second bottom of the Premiership table.
After playing the additional 30 minutes of their 2-2 draw against Coleraine with 10 men following the dismissal of Bevis Mugabi and still progressing to meet Israel’s Hapoel Be’er Sheva in the third qualifying round of the Europa League, Watt is convinced that the Steelmen have finally rediscovered the qualities which saw only Celtic and Rangers finish above them last term Which, with a visit to in-form Aberdeen pending this afternoon, is just as well.
‘For the most part, our performances were better than our results earlier in the season and we were unlucky in quite a few of those games,’ said Watt.
‘However, I think that’s behind us now after the results in the last week. It feels like a corner has been turned for us and we’re focused and ready to take on Aberdeen.
‘They also had an awkward start to the new season but they’ve now won six on the bounce and they’ll be confident going into this one — but so will we.
‘We’re not scared of any opponent and we showed that when we gave a good account of ourselves at Celtic Park last month. We’re going to Pittodrie to try and win: why shouldn’t we expect to beat the likes of them and Hibs?
‘They’re the teams we want to be in and around in that battle for third and fourth place and, to do that, we know we need to get results against them.’
The power of positive thinking is something of a mantra for the 26-year-old, who claimed he didn’t feel Thursday’s tie was slipping away from the visitors when Coleraine equalised late on.
‘You can’t allow negativity to seep in,’ he stressed. ‘I stayed confident after the ordering-off and not just because I’m a positive person.
‘The fact is that, after all the work we did during pre-season training with the gaffer, we’re one of the fittest teams in the country and you’d never have known we were playing with 10 men during extra time because we were by far the better team. We just went from strength to strength.
‘I was certain that I was going to score when it went to penalties. It’s all about mentality and how focused you are at the time.’