Well urged to finish season with a flourish

Motherwell manager Graham Alexander feels the energy is returning to his team as he told his players to draw a line under their poor start to 2022 and save their season.

Alexander's side have not wonaleaguegamesinceboxingdaybutareonlyapointoff the Premiership top six and areinaseven-wayfightforthe remaining three places.

Before that they host Hibernian in the Scottish Cup quarter-finals and Motherwell will need to improve on last week's home games against Ross County and a depleted Dundee, which yielded one point.

"This week we have drawn a line under it and said, 'Right, in the league we have a three-game period to achieve something and obviously cups are always one-off games'," Alexander, inset, said.

"We are not going to win or lose points from what we have done previously. It's about what is in front of us.

"We learn from what we have done in the past, because that's what we have to do, when we have either made a mistake or not taken advantage of our good play, that's only right. But when we win a game we don't watch a highlights reel and say, 'Look how good we are', and ignore the negative stuff.

"We try to keep a balanced view all the way through the season so we can keep our composure in periods like this, come through it and achieve what we want to achieve at the end of the season.

"The potential to have a very good season is right there in front of us and we have the players, the ambition and drive. It's down to us to take advantage of that."

Alexander has chopped and changed his starting line-up, sometimes through injuries, but feels he now has more scope to select who he wants.

"We have 10 players in our squadwhodidn'tdoapre-season with us," he said. "I think there was only one defender who did a pre-season.

"These things come to a head during the season and I think they did in January, but we have overcome that very hectic fixture schedule and I see the energy levels in the players getting back to what they were. That's what gives me confidence.

"We showed leading up to Christmas how energetic and positive we were. It took a hit but I think we are over that now."