Hammell’s pep-talk helps Solholm find scoring touch

MOTHERWELL manager Stevie Hammell has revealed that Sondre Solholm’s matchwinner — his first goal since arriving at the Fir Park club in August 2021 — came after a personal pep-talk telling him to start getting himself on the scoresheet.

Centre-back Solholm was no stranger to putting the ball in the net during his career in his native Norway and Hammell told him to start working on winding back the clock during in a recent sit-down.

‘It’s something I spoke to him about,’ explained Hammell, whose side moved up to sixth after victory over Dundee United at Tannadice.

‘We do individual meetings, progression meetings, and how we think players can do better.

‘He was telling me he scored 25 goals before he came to Motherwell, so that was something we really needed to highlight and be better at. He’s a great guy, a good character in the dressing room, he takes information on board and carries information to the dressing room.

‘He’s a good player to have in your squad. With his ability and the amount of set-pieces we get, and the delivery we have got, he should be scoring more.

‘It’s a challenge we put on. It’s not just up to Kevin (van Veen) and the forward players to score.

‘Centre-backs, midfielders, full-backs, the players around the edge of the box, we need to be a bigger threat at set-piece and I thought we carried that today.’

Solholm’s goal came on 22 minutes and the sending-off of United striker Tony Watt for a high tackle on Sean Goss before half-time should have made this a relatively straightforward afternoon.

Yet, Motherwell struggled in the second period. They sat too deep, too often.

They needed keeper Liam Kelly to make a save from sub Ian Harkes to secure the points.

Hammell has made clear his desire to see his version of the Steelmen really go for it in games, but, having come into this clash with one win in eight, he was just pleased to get the victory by whatever means necessary.

‘I told them before the game it was important to get back to winning ways,’ he said. ‘We can’t be a team who plays well but doesn’t pick up points.

‘People talked about four straight defeats. If we were losing heavily, I would be concerned but we aren’t. We are sixth and that’s in and around where we want to be. We understand today wasn’t perfect but we are trying to be positive.

‘United had more of the ball than I would have like with 10 men. We were a bit nervous near the end due to recent results. The second half wasn’t enjoyable but we did enough to win.

‘It was more pragmatic and about digging in, but scrappy 1-0s are massive and I’m glad we got that.’