Motherwell boss Graham Alexander: We told players not to panic against Morton

Published date22 January 2022
Publication titleDaily Record, The / Sunday Mail: Web Edition Articles (Scotland)
The Fir Park gaffer insists that even as Robbie Muirhead put Dougie Imrie's side ahead on the stroke of half-time of extra-time, he told his players not to panic

A push on Ross Tierney gave Kevin Van Veen a chance to level from the spot, and when the Irish forward's shot was cleared off the line, Liam Donnelly rifled it into the top left corner for a last-gasp winner.

Alexander said: "It was a typical cup tie. I thought we played well and created a lot of chances.

"We dominated, but we knew Morton were a well-coached, organised and motivated team who were going to be hard to break down and they were exactly that.

"But I felt we just couldn’t find that final touch, and their keeper made some excellent saves.

"It was about perseverance. When Morton got that goal it put us in a difficult spot, but credit to the players for battling back. It was a fantastic penalty from Kevin and a great finish from Liam.

Motherwell 2, Morton 1: Well leave it late to book Scottish Cup slot

“It was about how long we had left to come back and we didn’t have that long.

"We had 15 minutes and we hadn’t managed to get that goal in the previous 105 minutes so we knew time was against us.

"We asked the players not to panic in extra time half time because we felt that we would have that extra bit of quality to at least get an equaliser and maybe a winner and we’ve done both.

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"I am always confident in my players.

"I thought we showed Morton the right respect, we competed hard and worked hard, but we were just done by a counter-attack and a sucker punch.

"But we found the courage and character to dig ourselves out of it.”

For the second successive season Motherwell needed extra-time to see off Morton in the Scottish Cup fourth...

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