Motherwell boss Graham Alexander says he and his players can give themselves a pat on the back for Euro qualification this season - because not many others will.
Alexander rounded on his critics and reckons he and his team haven't been given the credit they deserve for achieving a fourth or fifth-placed Premiership finish.
The Fir Park gaffer is well aware that they've only won three league games in 2022, but says that shouldn't overshadow their efforts in the first part of the season.
As Motherwell prepare for a trip to Celtic Park tomorrow, Alexander says several people have forgotten that a campaign is played over a season and not for four or five months, and reckons the Steelmen should be praised for their achievements.
Motherwell beat Hearts 2-1 on Wednesday night to guarantee a European place with a game to spare, and when asked if it was a good feeling, having been struggling throughout February and March, Alexander said: "It does make it sweeter, I'm not going to lie.
"It was almost like our first 20 games of the season didn't exist, for some people. Like somehow we won a golden ticket to get in the top six.
"I thought it was over the course of a season, which is over 2021/22, not just 22. I think we won enough games and scored enough goals and got the points that we needed, to earn our place in the top six.
"It did seem as if the first 20 games did not ever happen, and didn't exist, for some reason. I think it was wrong.
"We understood that the run of form we were on wasn't great, but at the split you are where you are because you deserve to be.
"When I was not talking about the league table when we were fourth, and flying [earlier this season], it was for the reason of 'let's see where we are at the end of the season' because that's when it counts, and we were still there when it counted.
"For me, we've overcome a lot of challenges this season. Some of them were documented, some of them not.
"So for us to achieve what we have done, I think we can pat ourselves on the back, a little bit - because not many other people will be patting us on the back."
Alexander added: "It was a brilliant night for everyone on Wednesday. To have guaranteed European football with one game to go is a brilliant achievement for us.
"My staff and players deserve great credit for what they've done this season, and I think we will get credit for it. I would hope we get credit for it, because I think it is an achievement, in the league that we play in.
"We have to understand what we've done this season is a really good body of work.
"It was a good place inside Fir Park on Wednesday night. I thought it was a brilliant atmosphere during the game, and at the end it was great, so it was a good night."
Alexander says nobody waved a magic wand in recent weeks for Motherwell to finish the season strongly, and it was just the result of hard work over the entire campaign.
He said: "It was down to character, personality, hard work, belief. All the things that we talk about when we start pre-season, and we talk about at times during the season when it doesn't go our way.
"That's when you see what our real character is, and personality. People can slide away, or people can stand up and be counted, and we had enough people in the club to stand up and be counted, so that's why we achieved what we did.
"We'll go into next season with the same story again, with challenges. I don't see why it's a surprise sometimes when we have them. but I do understand the run was too long, without winning a game.
"We understand that, we take that, but for it to overshadow everything else we've done, I thought was a bit unjustified, to be honest."
Alexander says his squad is touch-and-go at the moment for the trip to Celtic Park, and that he may need to assemble the team based on who can play.
He said: "We've had a few calls in between Wednesday and today, with a couple more players dropping out with illness, which has been going round for a couple of weeks now.
"Unfortunately it has been contagious and people have been breaking down with it, so we'll have to wait until tomorrow morning to see who is OK and sort of pick a team from that, really.
"But as you've seen from the last two games, players have stood up, come to the fore and contributed to the performance and results of the team.
"There have been some unexpected players coming into the team and the squad, but they've all been ready to play their part.
"That will have to be the same case tomorrow."
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