Steelmen need late blitz to down the Bully Wee
clyde 1 motherwell 3
Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson admitted his men will have to find an extra edge to their game for the Premiership kick-off next weekend.
The Steelmen made it into the next round of the Betfred Cup, but had to come from behind to beat League Two Clyde.
It would have been a massive blow to morale if they’d crashed out, especially after getting to both domestic cup finals last season.
Motherwell were behind to a David Goodwillie solo effort at half-time and hadn’t posed a big threat to the home goal.
Robinson, however, was confident his team would eventually break down the Bully Wee and claim top spot in the group.
He said: “We looked rusty at times and it looked like we’re in the middle of pre-season, which we are.
“We had 19 efforts on goal, but there weren’t many on target.
“Our finishing wasn’t good enough and we were getting into decent areas without penetrating.
“At half-time, we told the players to remain patient and they showed their quality in the last 20 minutes.
“We got the result we deserved in the end, but there’s lots of things we can improve on.”
Getting through to the last 16 will be a relief for Robinson, but he has been left with injury worries ahead of his team’s opening league game against Hibs on Sunday.
He went on: “Carl Mchugh got a dead leg. It was a bad one, right on the knee, and we had to take him off.
“Chris Cadden is more of a concern for me. We’d made out three substitutions and he had to hobble through the last 10 minutes with a hip injury.
“Ryan Bowman is currently wearing a protective boot, but that will come off at the start of the week and we’ll assess him.
“However, Conor Sammon has come in and scored three in three, while Danny Johnson scored today.
“It’s good news that we have strikers getting goals. That’s a positive for us.”
Main got Motherwell’s first goal with the slightest touch after a Rose header came back off the Clyde crossbar.
Substitute Johnson then hooked a Frear cross into net to put his side ahead and Sammon nodded home in injury time.
Clyde started the game knowing they had no chance of progressing, but that didn’t stop them scrapping for everything.
They might have got a point – and made things awkward for Motherwell – if Ally Love had taken a shot instead of trying to square the ball with the score at 2-1.
Clyde boss Danny Lennon said: “We’re disappointed that we didn’t get one or two wee breaks, but I’m very proud of the way the players acquitted themselves.
“We matched Motherwell for a large part of the game. We had a lot of very good performances.
“The thing that has probably cost us is fitness. Their fitness levels came through in the end.
“This competition helps the full-time clubs get a lot of game time, but it’s hard for part-time players.”