An exciting few weeks await Motherwell, but for manager Jens Berthel Askou, “It’s about Falkirk, first and foremost”.
The Steelmen suffered a heartbreaking defeat to champions Celtic before the international break. But despite recording their first league defeat of the campaign, Askou saw the positives from their spirited performance.
“Gutted that we went home from Parkhead with no points, but I think the performance and our approach to the game gives us some really good confidence as to how to beat them when we play them next time”
“But also it shows that we are capable of being for most of the part successful with our approach against the best team in the league, and then it’s small decisive moments that tips it to their favour and we know exactly it’s easy to see where we need to just improve a little bit, not hugely, but a little bit.”
Apostolos Stamatelopoulos’ brace put the visitors ahead after Kelechi Iheanacho’s first-half penalty, but goals from Benjamin Nygren, and a last-minute Daizen Maeda header ensured Motherwell would leave with nothing.
Askou referenced the impact of Stamatelopoulos, who now has three goals in two league matches,
“It was a great first goal he scored, for me it’s important that if you have a confident line and you want him to score many goals, he needs to be a good penalty taker as well, he scored two out of two, it grows confidence …… and hopefully he will score more goals in time”.
Motherwell face St Mirren at Hampden in 16 days for a place in the League Cup Final. The Fir Park side finished top of Group G, before away victories against St Johnstone and Aberdeen, to secure the tie.
For Askou, the semi-final is ”not the focus right now”,
“We have almost sold 7,000 tickets, which is fantastic, and we will probably sell quite a few more, which is amazing, so a lot of people are looking forward to that.”
“We are focusing on the next job that’s on Saturday, obviously, we know it is in the calendar, we are not spending much energy on that now.”
Motherwell host Falkirk at Fir Park on Saturday, October 18th, before matches against Livingston and Dundee United, respectively.
