MOTHERWELL manager Steven Hammell admits that Celtic are on a level his team ‘can’t compete with’ after their League Cup quarter-final defeat at Fir Park, but lamented the part his own side played in some of the goals they lost in the 4-0 loss.
Hammell was pleased with certain aspects of Motherwell’s performance, particularly in the first half when a late goal from Liel Abada was all that separated the sides on the scoreboard.
He conceded though that there was quite a gulf in quality between the two teams overall as the Steelmen’s efforts ultimately counted for very little.
"We came here to do well and the way it played out, it's still a little bit fresh, but we are massively disappointed,” Hammell said.
"For large parts of the first half we did okay, we were strong, we were in the game, we wanted to get after them.
"We have come up against a very good team, there is no getting away from that. It's a team that's on a certain level that we can't compete with, but we wanted to make this game as competitive as we could and I think we did for a large part of first half.
"And as everybody knows that's associated with football, the time we lose the goal and the goal was avoidable and probably consistent with the other goals we ended up losing as well.
"We felt there was still enough in the game for us. The second goal takes the life out of us, takes the life out of the stadium. It deflates us a little bit, it lifts them and lets them make some changes and be a little bit more free in their play. Good goals from their point of view but from our point of view absolutely avoidable.”
The concession of the key opening goal in particular annoyed the Motherwell manager.
"It's absolutely avoidable,” he said.
“We understand their threats and we know where they are in terms of how quick and sharp they are in and around the box, but we can stop that at the source. Especially at the time of the game.
“It doesn't really matter what kind of style you are playing, what your approach is or what formation you are playing, the scenarios we found ourselves in, we should deal with it better.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here