Skipper O’Donnell eyes up Hampden date

Stephen O’Donnell is desperate to give the Motherwell fans a trip to Hampden and hopes a win over Hibs in Sunday’s Scottish Cup quarter-final can be the catalyst to get them out of a tough spell.

The Steelmen are still searching for a first league win of 2022 after a weekend draw with Dundee stretched their run to 10 games.

Last month’s cup win over Aberdeen that earned this week’s last eight tie with Shaun Maloney’s Hibs is the only highlight of a tough start to the year that is threatening to derail what looked like a promising season.

Club captain O’Donnell hopes that will all change this weekend though with a win over Hibs - who knocked the Steelmen out of the competition at the same stage last season on penalties - whichheknowswouldputasmileback on the faces of the Fir Park faithful.

He said:“As professionals the motivation is getting the team to Hampden and I think we need to really show the manager and the fans that we want to be involved in that game.

“Hopefully we can help carry

Motherwell to a semi-final and a nice day out for the fans and, beyond that, get another opportunity to get to Hampden again [for the final].

“It’s a massive game against Hibs and one which has elements of frustration from last season because we started poorly in that game and ended up deserving to win the game I felt. So let’s hope we don’t do that on Sunday and we get off to a good start. “It would be a nice lift for the fans. On their recent run, Motherwell have also failed to score the first goal in their last 12 games in all competitions.

O’Donnell added:“In football you do fall behind in games but against Dundee we reacted well to get back in it. Hopefully we can start well against Hibs and that can maybe change our season.

“Hibs are a side we’ve competed really well with this season.

“There’s been a change of manager since the last time we played them but they play a brand of football to try and keep the ball, and hopefully we can capitalise on it.”