Steven Hammell was delighted with Motherwell's 2-0 Scottish Cup fourth round win at Arbroath and that his side avoided a "banana skin".
Mikael Mandron scored in each half to secure Motherwell's place in the last-16 draw tomorrow, and Hammell says him starting was no reflection on top scorer Kevin van Veen's contribution.
But he warned the Dutchman he will need to be on top form to stay ahead of the French striker.
On his first start for the club, former Gillingham striker Mandron opened the scoring in 27 minutes following good set-up play by Blair Spittal and Stuart McKinstry, and doubled his and Motherwell's tally in the last minute to put some gloss on the win against the Championship strugglers.
And Hammell told the club’s website: “You need the competitive edge; ‘the better I am, the better you need to be to keep up with me’ and competition is healthy.
“It’s not a reflection on how Kev’s done this season, in terms of how Mika played, and started the game.
“We’ve been heavily reliant on Kevin, he has been excellent for us this season, so it was a chance for him to come in.
“I thought he was excellent today, scored a couple, maybe could have got one more if we’re being hyper-critical, because we had a good move that he ended up putting over the bar.
“But all in all we’re delighted with him.
“We did what we came here to do. It was a tough game in tough conditions, the weather and the pitch was tough, but we knew that before we got here.
“It was a test of our character and attitude, and I felt like we came through that.
“It’s a game probably a lot of people saw as a bit of a banana skin and a potential upset.
“There probably will be some elsewhere today, or over the course of this round, and we just needed to make sure it wasn’t us.”
Hammell says it’s now important for his side to take that result into Saturday’s trip to St Mirren in the Premiership.
He said: “The message was that we were confident, if we keep a clean sheet, that we’re always going to hurt teams, we’re always going to create and score goals.
“It’s important to take this into the league games.
“We need to use that and build confidence and competition within the group.
“We need to take momentum and start building in the league.
“It’s still very tight in the league, but a performance and result like that can only do that.”
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