Blair Spittal says Motherwell need to 'mix it up' and put everything they have into two massive games this week to go into the World Cup break on a positive note.
And the midfielder says they don’t want to be known as a team that plays well and doesn’t take points.
Spittal bagged his second goal of the season with an equaliser at 2-2 in Sunday’s Premiership clash at Hearts, only for them to score a penalty winner through Lawrence Shankland late in the game, despite being down to 10 men for over 50 minutes.
With Celtic visiting on Wednesday before a trip to Perth to take on St Johnstone next weekend, Spittal knows they’re important games.
“It’s two massive games,” he said. “We want to go into the break on good form.
“The manager has stressed that we’ve been playing well recently and probably not got the points that we deserve – but we don’t want to be that team that’s playing well and not getting anything.
“Sometimes you need to mix it up, and make sure you come away with something from the game.
“We need to recover well. It’s going to be a tough game on Wednesday, but we’ll get ourselves ready for that.
“We’ll need to make sure we put everything into two massive games and come away with points.”
Despite Jorge Grant being shown a straight red card for a lunge on Callum Slattery in 38 minutes, Hearts took the lead through an Andy Halliday header on the stroke of half-time, and the former Rangers star helped himself to a side-footed finish three minutes into the second half.,
Substitute Louis Moult pulled a goal back from the spot after being pulled down by keeper Craig Gordon, before Spittal smashed in a Stuart McKinstry cross to level with 11 minutes left.
However, a handball decision in the box resulted in Shankland keeping the points at Tynecastle.
Spittal said: “I thought we had got a point, probably based on the way we reacted to going two down.
“I don’t think we should have been in that position in the first place, but I’m just bitterly disappointed with the way the game has turned out.
“I think in that position we should be coming away with at least a point when we get it back to 2-2, so it’s frustrating.
“I think we gave them the first goal. When you give the opposition free headers in the box I think you’re asking for it.
“It’s a good header, to be fair, and then we don’t start the second half right.
“But our reaction to going two down was positive, it was a positive change to bring on Moulty, and he gave us a wee impetus, having two up there, and caused them a lot of problems.”
Spittal added: “We got ourselves back in the game, but we’ve probably got to manage the game a wee bit better ourselves.
“We should hold out for a point. Even talking about pushing for the win, but pick your moments to go for it.
“You need to be patient in those circumstances. We’ve got a man extra, players that can manage the ball, and we probably didn’t do that as well as we would have liked.
“They get away, get the penalty, and it’s one of those things. Shankland sticks it away well.
“We should deal with it better and not get into that situation, but we can’t dwell on it too much, we need to dust ourselves down and move on.”
Follow Lanarkshire Live Sport on Twitter via @LanLiveSport, like us on Facebook or find us on Instagram for the latest sports news, pictures and video.
