Good evening ‘Well fans,
Football’s a funny old game isn’t it?
I hope you are enjoying your night and I hope the team and the club have made you proud. You certainly deserve it!
There are two main things I want to get across and they are both very important to me.
1 – That win today was for Motherwell FC and absolutely no-one else. I was asked at the Press Conference, after the game, about whether Walter Smith or Ally McCoist would give me a text of thanks. Whilst obviously joking about getting a little more – a beer or two perhaps (?), I made the very serious point about the value of this win to our club. I am a former Rangers player and will, inevitably, be asked questions relating to Rangers by the press. I do my best to avoid them but I suppose it’s what happens. It’s what the media in this country do. But I really want to get across to everyone now that I am the manager of Motherwell Football Club and my only focus is to this club. It wouldn’t have mattered if we were playing Rangers, Hamilton, St Mirren or Stranraer today; I wanted to see a reaction from my players after the disappointment of Wednesday night and I got it. That’s what is most pleasing! That and giving the fans at Fir Park something to shout about.
2 – The other thing that has come out of today is the need for consistency. What happened this afternoon was brilliant and we, along with you the fans, will all enjoy the win but I am already planning for our match with Inverness. We’ll be in first thing tomorrow morning and our total focus will be next Saturday’s game in the Highlands. We need to show a better level consistency! We’ve only lost two goals at home since I arrived at the club (to Kilmarnock and St Mirren), unfortunately, both cost us at least a point. These are the games that we need to work doubly hard to win as these are the games that will win us a place in the top six. We have Inverness and Kilmarnock away in March as well as Aberdeen and Dundee Utd at home before the split. In many ways, it’s in our hands. Take positive points from those games and we’re in with a real shout. Easier said than done, of course, but we’ll be working as hard as we possibly can all week with that game in mind.
I won’t go over today too much other than to say I though, to a man, we were absolutely terrific and displayed a real gutsy and determined display. I said during the week that St Mirren out-fought us and I was incredibly disappointed about that; and I let the players know it. Today, I thought we out-battled Celtic and it proved crucial.
Just finally, a big congratulations to Darren Randolph who I know believe has surpassed John Ruddy’s record of fifteen clean sheets by notching his sixteenth today. He was outstanding and deserves all the credit for beating an already incredible tally.
Forever Claret and Amber!
Stuart McCall
Manager
Motherwell Football Club