Jens Berthel Askou insists he was “happy with the effort” after Motherwell’s late defeat against Dundee on Saturday, as the Steelmen failed to close their gap on the top three with their game in hand.

Finlay Robertson’s slotted finish in the 84th minute sealed three crucial points for Steven Pressley’s side, after Callum Slattery handed the visitors a lifeline with a stunning free kick. Speaking at full-time, Askou was upbeat with his team’s efforts.

“We played against a team that has caused us trouble this season, it’s no coincidence they are a well-coached team who work hard, defend the box with their lives and have an attacking threat.

“I think we really tried to up the tempo, had some really good moments in the first half, we didn’t take.

“Eventually, we got the goal and chased the win; it became a very open game. There were moments at both ends, but Dundee were the better team at being able to take those moments. But the effort was there, although the quality was not quite there.

“We switched off in a single moment, which they took advantage of because we’d spent a lot of energy really chasing. That can happen at times; unfortunately, it happened today and gave us a mountain to climb in the last 10 minutes. We tried but didn’t quite reach the top.

“We need to make sure when we get the opportunities next week, we need to take them.

“We’re here to try and win football games and get as high in the table as possible. We have not, and never will be, no matter how good a season we have, be favourites to win the title, so it’s not something we address. We will try to climb as high as possible in the table.

“Even though we have been almost invincible over a large period of time, we knew that there would come a day when the opposition just outplayed us and we didn’t get the result – that was today.

“I know the players and staff will do their best to make sure that never happens again and we get back to our best on Saturday, and then time will tell where that’s going to take us.”

Motherwell return to league action at Celtic Park. Saturday was a blow for their top three aspirations, but they will remain confident of delivering a result against the Scottish Champions.