Motherwell boss Steven Hammell has held talks with senior players after Wednesday night’s 2-0 defeat against St Johnstone, but says they’re ready to go into battle against Aberdeen tomorrow.
Hammell says the performance in the Fir Park defeat was the worst he’s seen this season, and those who didn’t know they’re in a relegation battle certainly do now.
But Hammell says he still has the backing of the players and those above him that he can turn round a run of 10 games without a win in the Premiership.
Hammell said: “A few of the senior players have come to me. We’ve spoken as a group, and to a lot of them individually as well, understanding where we’re at and the importance of the next game.
“It’s important and that we remain as positive as we can, that we turn up and show personality and we’re ready for this game as best we can be.
“Players have come up to me to talk about how we get through this.
“We spoke harshly after the game, and again yesterday. We didn’t go into too much about the game because of how much we can do better. It would have been a very long meeting if we had gone through what we could have done better in that game.
“We spoke, a few of the experienced ones came and spoke to us individually, about how they’re still onside and want us to do well.
“It’s fine them saying that, and me saying that, but now we have to go and show it.
“I believe we have the support of the players and the people above me at the club, but I also understand that the results recently have not been good enough.”
Hammell added: “I think for the most part even though results haven’t been great, there have still been encouraging parts of performances. You come away and you could reflect that there were positives you could take from it.
“Wednesday wasn’t that. Wednesday absolutely wasn’t that. It was the exact opposite of that.
“It was our poorest performance of the season, it was one that even after the game we apologised to the fans about.
“It’s not the style and the kind of performance that I’m looking for from a team that I’m associated with.
“It’s something we looked at. We spoke briefly and harshly after the game, again yesterday we went over it. There’s a lot that we can do better, I think.
“A big element of that was the amount of new players we introduced, and it just didn’t have the kind of effect that we wanted it to.
“But that performance at this stage of the game, and what we emphasises before the game and how important it was, to come away with that kind of performance it wasn’t acceptable.
“The performance on Wednesday was the thing we’ve been disappointed with the most, because as a whole that’s not something we’ve seen much of this season.
“The players should know they’re in a battle and if they don’t know that then that’s the problem.
“It’s going to be a battle between now and the end of the season and they should know that.”
Hammell says he will work on improving the performance at Pittodrie, but they’ve gone there and won already this season , triumphing 3-2 in August.
He said: “I have to change things to make sure that doesn’t happen again. This game becomes even bigger again, for myself, the club, the squad and the players for everyone. It’s important that we stand up, that we show good character, and that we’re ready for it.
“Away performances this season have generally been very good, it’s a place we’ve won at already this season and was one of our better performances since we’ve been here.
“It’s a team as well where they’ve changed the manager, they’ve not had the results they’ve wanted as well, so we need to understand we will be in a battle, against a team that will be really up for it as well. We need to be ready for that.”
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