Back to basics as Well bid to stop the rot

Stephen Robinson has stressed the simple things in football life to his Motherwell players, who seek their first Premiership win of the season today.

The Steelmen are bottom of the table with two points from six games following draws against Livingston and Hibs. Ahead of the visit of St Johnstone today, the Northern Irishman revealed he has returned to the basics.

“We haven’t had the start (we wanted) and we can’t hide away from that,” said boss Robinson, who confirmed midfielder Liam Donnelly is set to miss the rest of the year following a knee operation.

“There’s been positives without end product.

“So what we’ve worked on for the last two weeks is trying to get that end product, a little bit of simplicity really, more numbers into the box, more crosses into the box and that steely determination not to concede goals.

“Both six-yard boxes win you football matches and what you do inside those dictates whether you win or lose. Everything else around it is just pretty patterns.

“So we’ve concentrated very much on that and just a little bit more steeliness and know-how into winning football matches.”

Meanwhile, Gary Holt has urged Livi to build on their first victory of the season when they host fellow strugglers Hamilton.

Holt was thrilled to see his players finally get a win in their last outing against Ross County a fortnight ago after a stuttering start to the new campaign.

The Lions manager said: “I believe if you keep doing the same things, in terms of work-rate, you’ll get the results.”