Fans’ fury but under-fire boss vows he’ll battle on
direction, but I’ll protect the players and we’ll try to win on Tuesday. I’m fully aware of the pressures at the club. I came into the club as a full-timer at 16, there was pressure to get in a team that was fighting relegation, but we managed to stave that off.
‘We won a cup and, since I left, there’s been one trophy come back. Nobody needs to tell me how big the club is. This club has seen what happens when you chop and change managers every couple of years like they did when I was playing. You end up where you shouldn’t be.
‘I think I have the backing of the board. I’ve certainly got the backing of the players, but the thing that has to change is results, pure and simple. I believe in the players. I think they believe in themselves but we’ve not won enough games and you know what happens when you don’t win enough games.
‘I believe in myself. I’ve done it since the day I was born. I’ve never given up on a football pitch and I’m not about to start now.’
Glass, however, does concede there is work to be done on the mentality of his team after seeing a Christian Ramirez opener count for nothing as they conceded to goals from Kevin van Veen and Connor Shields.
‘We spoke beforehand about getting a good start and looking after particular periods of the game — at the start, after a goal, before and after half-time and at the end,’ added Glass. ‘We didn’t
look after it before half-time. We lose two cheap goals but that’s been the consistent theme I’ve had to speak about — and that’s why we’re out of the cup. As a group, the mentality must be tougher.’
Glass refused to criticise the fans who lashed out at the team at the end, with midfielder Lewis Ferguson appearing to gesture back to some of them.
‘Any time we give them something to be behind us with, they’re behind us,’ he said. ‘We’re out of the cup and we’re massively disappointed.’
Meanwhile, Motherwell manager Graham Alexander praised his players’ character after seeing them recover from Ramirez’s early strike moments after Joe Efford had been denied a first-minute goal by the linesman’s flag.
‘We had a ball in the net from Joe that was onside and should have stood,’ he said. ‘We didn’t cope with the conditions in the first 10 to 15 minutes, but, as soon as my players understood what it would take to win the game, they put it into action and were brilliant.’
Keeper Liam Kelly denied Ramirez an equaliser with a great save in time added-on and Alexander said: ‘It would have been harsh on us if they scored because we should have been 3-1 up, but it was a brilliant save.’
However, he made it clear he wants even more from sponsors’ man of the match Van Veen.
‘Kevin scores great goals but he still needs to bring some stuff to our team,’ said Alexander. ‘His link-up play can be good, but he is a bit loose with that at times.’